On the Slavicity of Several Place Names in North-Eastern Bavaria
Harald Bichlmeierhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0001-1677 Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu LeipzigRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergMartin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberghttps://doi.org/10.4467/K7501.45/22.23.18052
In his 2015 PhD thesis (published 2016) J. Andraschke investigated the oldest Germanic layers of names in North-Eastern Bavaria. In the course of the book the author deprived more than three dozen toponyms of their (traditional) Slavic etymologies and claimed them to be of West Germanic origin. This was mostly done without really discussing the Slavic etymologies. This author’s research done into the etymologies of those names, however, betrays a certain lack of knowledge of historical phonology. A re-evaluation of the data showed that hardly any of those West-Germanic etymologies are better than any of the ‘traditional’ Slavic ones. As examples will serve Feustritz/Pewstritz/Beußdrytz < Comm. Slav. *bystrica ‘quickly flowing river’ (not < WGerm. *fû-str-itja- ‘foul ground’?), Gleußen < Comm. Slav. *glušina ‘thicket, bushes’ (not < WGerm. *glūsina ‘glow’), Feuln < Comm. Slav. *bylina ‘kind of plant’ (not < WGerm. *fūlina ‘foul ground, swamp’?). Finally, a new etymology can be proposed for the microtoponym Keltz (which the above-mentioned author in his PhD thesis unconvincingly connected with some other toponyms in North-Western Germany). It seems much easier to derive it from Comm. Slav. *kalьcь, the diminutive to *kalъ ‘swamp, mud’, a word which elsewhere in Slavic speaking communities also serves as (micro-)toponym.
Moreover, more precise criteria for giving the exact dates of when Slavic names were taken over into Old/Middle High German in North-Eastern Bavaria shall be given, where possible.
Keywords Bavaria Slavica, Slavic toponyms, Slavic microtoponyms, Slavic phonology, German phonology