Laubach und Lautitz. Mit Verbeugung vor dem Altmeister der sächsisch-sorbischen Oikonomastik Laubach and Lautitz

Abstract

Laubach and Lautitz/Łuwoćicy are the names of two places in Saxonywhich, at first glance, suggest no relevant common features apart from being of Slavic origin. Taking a fresh look at them, however, it becomes clear that the oldest evidence for each of them conceals earlier development and that, moreover, one disruptive element in the evidential series (<Glaugkß> and <Lubossicz> respectively) contains a certain relationship to the oikonym Glaubitz that requires further specification in each case. It turns out, however, that – contrary to assumptions in recent research – a name form corresponding to this one is not the basic form of the oikonyms mentioned in the title of this paper. Indeed, the basic name form of Glaubitz has itself been subject to reconsideration. It has been necessary to clear up the fatal misunderstanding in an earlier attempt to interpret the origin of Laubach, which had prevented scholars from recognizing that the Old Sorbian Laubach is almost identical etymologically to the interesting Czech geonym Libouchec. The Upper Lusatian pair of names Lautitz (in German)/Łuwoćicy (in Upper Sorbian) is an example of the fact that the living New Sorbian name form may have preserved the fundamental features of the oldest form better than the German tradition does – provided the linguistic situation in the Sorbian village community had remained stable over the centuries. Reinterpreting the two names mentioned in the title, the author draws, rather than on more recent research, on the more convincing approaches of Gustav Hey (1893).