Namenkundliche Informationen

Walter Wenzel: 20. Januar 1929 - 17. Juni 2025

2025-07-11T11:13:27+02:00

Eine überfällige onomastische Aktion zu altsorbisch *Pro- oder Altsorben als Schwellenhauer?

2025-07-16T16:03:58+02:00

In conflict with the fact that the Slavic morpheme *pro, while well established as both a preposition and a prefix in the near Czech language, does not exist at all in the two living Sorbian languages, there are seven instances for which the established research tradition without any reservation has assumed this prefixal morpheme to be a part of Old Sorbian oikonyms. These are the place names Prosigk, Preskeln, Proschitz, Prohlis, Profen, Proschim/Prožym and Rolika, which are situated between the rivers Saale and Neiße in eastern Germany, and which are documented in a compendium by Ernst Eichler. In this article, I make a suggestion for other (autosemantic) elements that could be assumed instead of the (synsemantic) morpheme in question, e.g. *prog ›threshold‹, which could explain up to four or five of the cases. There are two more general historical dialect processes (vowel contraction over /g/ and Meissen palatalisation) that support the etymological interpretation proposed. In this context, the article treats several other oikonyms of Old Sorbian origin, including the relationship between the German and Sorbian name Prietitz/Protecy. This paper also takes up the issue of a possible Czech influence on the Old Sorbian oikonymic landscape. As convincing or questionable some of the proposals might be in their details, they nonetheless represent an onomasiological action that has been long overdue. The conditions to raise the issue and/or to search for solutions seem to have existed for a long time already.

Von Alken bis Utbremen: Orts-, Ortsteil- und Straßennamen der Stadt Bremen

2025-10-30T08:14:27+01:00

In the city of Bremen and its incorporated districts, place names today are a mixture of Low German and High German elements. This article focuses on this mélange and deals with the change in the toponymy of Bremen, a defined area in which multilingualism was a part of everyday life for a long time. After a period in which Low German was the predominate language, High German and Low German were both used. Today, however, High German predominates. This – at least – partial multilingualism is also reflected in the development of toponyms. The article investigates the toponymy of Bremen, with a focus on its multilingualism, documenting the city's changing linguistic history.

Die Namen auf dem Silberblech von Vrh gradu

2025-07-16T14:47:27+02:00

In the little group of Venetic inscriptions in Western Slovenia the letter T should be read /d/ as in other Venetic inscriptions. A peculiarity of some of these inscriptions is an inverse <l>. Hence, the inscription of Vrh gradu should be read “Woduros Wollknos”. The first name could be explained with reference to Indo-European *wodr̥ ‘water’. The second name might be formed not with the Celtic suffix -(i)knos, but with -nos, and could then be explained with recourse to Indo-European *wolk- ‘moist’. This would be an fitting pair of names.

Wenn das ‘Löwenmaul’ das ‘Hündchen’ trifft – zum interkulturellen Vergleich umgangssprachlicher Pflanzenbezeichnungen

2025-09-25T14:36:37+02:00

Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich volkstümlichen Pflanzenbezeichnungen. Damit verbunden ist zum einen das Problem, ob diese Trivial- bzw. Vernakularnamen überhaupt als Namen gelten und zum anderen die Frage, welches Potential diese umgangssprachlichen Pflanzenbezeichnungen bieten. Es geht dabei außerdem um das Problem, welche Aspekte und Erkenntnisse für Menschen, die sich in mehrsprachigen Kontexten bewegen (z.B. in schulischen Lerngruppen) von Interesse sein könnten. Die hier dargestellten Ausführungen möchten dafür sorgen, dass ein in der Namenkundeforschung aufgrund terminologischer Streitigkeiten eher unbeachteter, aber sehr lebensweltlicher Gegenstand stärker in den Fokus der wissenschaftlichen Wahrnehmung gerückt wird.