Wenzel, Walter: New Interpretations of Upper Sorbian Place Names
Lětopis Abstract 2008 1: Wenzel, Walter: New Interpretations of Upper Sorbian Place Names
While working on the Oberlausitzer Ortsnamenbuch (Upper Sorbian Book of Place Names), a work of popular scholarship, the author was able to
present new explanations for a series of place names compared to earlier interpretations. But in view of the limited space in this work and the nature
of the book, which is aimed at a wide readership, it was not possible to give detailed evidence for the reinterpretation of these names and to support
this with comparative names from other Slav languages. As a result of progress made in German, international, and in particular Polish, onomastics, as
well as in Sorbian anthroponomastics, 50 place names can be explained from a different point of view or their previous interpretations can be
explained more precisely. Amongst them are Cannewitz, Cortnitz, Dehsa, Demitz, Denkwitz, Döschko, Gaußig, Kodersdorf, Mulkwitz, Oppach, Putzkau and
Ratzen.
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