-a
-a is a German place name ending that can have come about in different ways.
aha "ache"
In many cases, an ending in -a , weakened from the Old High German aha , a variant of -au , "flowing waters", nhd. " Ache ".
Examples: Altena (in Westphalia, on the Lenne), 1137 Altana , which in turn originated from Altenaha , Fulda ( Fuld-aha ), Nidda ( Nid-aha )
Conscious archaization
In the 16th century, clerks deliberately made place names look more ancient than they were back then. So they replaced the older ending -e in the place names Jena , Salza and Fulda with an old-fashioned ending -a .
Slavic origin
In the Sorbian- speaking world, the ending -a can be derived from a Slavic ending -ov or -ovo . Examples: Cotta, Ostra, Plodda, Seyda, Torna
swell
- ↑ Elfriede Ulbricht: The river basin of the Thuringian Saale . 1st edition. Max Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1957.
- ^ Franz Witt: Contributions to the knowledge of the river names of Northwest Germany . Printed by Schmidt & Klaunig, Kiel 1912.
- ^ Wilhelm Sturmfels and Heinz Bischof, Our place names in the ABC explained , third edition, Bonn 1961; Keyword Altena
- ^ Adolf Bach , History of the German Language , ninth edition, Wiesbaden undated; § 145 = pp. 294-295
- ^ Walter Kaestner, Low German-Slavic Interferences ; in: Handbook for Low German Linguistics and Literature Studies , ed. by Gerhard Cordes and Dieter Möhn, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-503-01645-7 , pp. 678-729; P. 708 = Section 3.1.2.3.3