-au
-au is a place name ending in various German-speaking regions.
Meanings
Place on the water
The underlying Germanic * a [g] wjõ meaning 'island, Au' is derived from Germanic * ahwõ , the term for 'waters, river', which is now only preserved in river names, compare the river names Ach, Aach, Engelberger Aa , Bregenz Ach , Ache , Brigach , Fulda or Salzach . The name components Au (e), Äu and Aa (ch) in names of Germanic origin can have three different meanings:
- Floodplain in the sense of today's general meaning 'damp lowland'.
- Running waters and place names derived from them, in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, such as Schwartau , also -a , synonymous with the Danish -å or Å . The Westphalian equivalent is Aa as in Bocholter Aa , the Upper German equivalent is -ach or Ache (n) .
- River islands , for example on the Rhine , and lake islands in the Upper German-speaking area where river islands are mostly called Werd (with the rounding -wörth ), such as Mainau , Reichenau and the island town of Lindau in Lake Constance, Ufenau and Lützelau in Lake Zurich ;
The word is originally related to the Latin aqua 'water'. It is also found in other Indo-European languages, so that a common Indo-European tribe əkṷã meaning water can be assumed.
Slavic places
Other names on -au are derived from Slavic genitive and adjective endings such as -ow , -owa , -awa . Such names occur mainly in the East Central German language area and have nothing to do with Aue etymologically.
Part of Gau
Not to be confused with -au are names of Germanic origin on -gau in the meaning of landscape , administrative unit , actually judicial district . The designation goes back either to a Germanic collective formation * ga-auja- 'settlement area' or to a Germanic collective formation * ga-awja- 'environment of a water body'.
- Compare also the list of the districts of Alemannia, Swabia, Alsace and Hochburgund .
Examples
Places in floodplains
Aarau , Amönau , Aschau , Bachenau , Blumenau (Munich) , Brückenau , Buchenau , Freiwaldau , Fürstenau , Gaggenau , Hallau , Hallertau , Hanau , Holledau , Kiel-Holtenau , Ilmenau , Klotzau , Kreuzau , Künzelsau , Langenau , Muldenau , Nassau , Niederau , Neuendettelsau , Passau , Rheinau , Rhinau , Sachsenwaldau , Schönau (several), Soltau , Steinau (several), Wenau , Werdau , Wernau
Islands
- in Lake Constance: Lindau , Mainau , Mettnau (today peninsula), Reichenau
- in Lake Zurich: Ufenau , Lützelau
- in the Lahn: Silberau
- Depending on the region, the ending -aue is more common in island names , cf. the names of the Rhine islands Königsklinger Aue , Mariannenaue , Maulbeeraue , Petersaue , Rettbergsaue , Rüdesheimer Aue and Winkeler Aue
Rivers
River names ending in -au occur sporadically in many areas of the German-speaking area, somewhat more frequently in Lower Saxony and more frequently in Schleswig-Holstein . In the Schleswig region, a German variant of the name ending in -au usually corresponds to a Danish variant ending in -å .
With some names the syllable is attached to the other component like a suffix , with others it forms its own noun :
Slavic origin
Breslau , Bunzlau , Crimmitschau , Glauchau , Cracow , Löbau , Mockau , Moscow , Bad Muskau , Ostrau , Spandau , Torgau , Warsaw , Wustrau , Zittau , Züllichau , Zwickau
Questionable
Partly without the river floodplain
Ramsau (not all with Flussau)
Flussau in the old Slavic area
See also
- Wiktionary: -au - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
- Wiktionary: collective formation - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Individual evidence
- ↑ Duden. The dictionary of origin, Mannheim 1989 (Duden Volume 7); Wolfgang Pfeifer: Etymological Dictionary of German, Berlin 1993 (and later editions); Friedrich Kluge, Elmar Seebold: Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, Berlin 2011.
- ↑ Basic words. onomastik.com
- ↑ Wolfgang Pfeifer: Etymological Dictionary of German, Berlin 1993 and later editions.