-ow

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Place names ending in ow [ -o ] (with mute w ) in German-speaking countries are mostly (but not exclusively) Slavic find origin and especially in northeastern Germany. Names ending in -ow or -ov can also be found in a number of Slavic languages, but there the consonant is pronounced at the end.

Place names ending in -ow in northeast Germany

Distribution area

Distribution area of ​​place names on -ow Slavic origin in Germany

The names on -ow are mainly found in northeast Germany, where place names of Slavic origin are common. Hence in Mecklenburg , Western Pomerania , large parts of Brandenburg ( less often in Lausitz ), the north and east of the Altmark , the Wendland and parts of the Duchy of Lauenburg . Also under the German names of places in the east of Pomerania and in the east of Brandenburg, which are now in Poland, there are those in -ow. In contrast, in areas like Saxony or parts of Austria , where there are a number of place names of Slavic origin, none can be found in -ow.

Origin and pronunciation

Most of the place names on -ow in northeast Germany are of Slavic origin, but by no means all. The Slavic place names in -ow can be a patronymic or possessive, i.e. possessive, suffix made up of personal names . Example:

  • Upper Sorbian bur (der Bauer, Nom. Sg.) → burja (die Bauern, Nom. Pl.) → burow (der Bauern, Gen. Pl.) → German Burow (family name in the meaning of the farmers or place name in the meaning Farmer's place )

But it can also be an appellative , such as Buckow (place where beeches grow).

However, some of the place names ending in -ow in the region in question are of Germanic origin. Here names with the ending -au ( Aue ) have been adapted to the dominant spelling of the names ending in -ow. 444 examined place names on -ow in the state of Brandenburg can be classified as follows:

  1. Slavic place names, derived from a personal name (184 names, including Bagow or Bochow )
  2. Slavic place names as appellative (166 names, including Buckow or Grabow )
  3. German place names originally on -au (34 names, including Lindow )
  4. Slavic and German names with the ending -ow added later (42 names, 30 of which were originally Slavic, e.g. Thyrow )
  5. Slavic names where -ow / -ov is not an ending but part of the stem (19 names, e.g. Sacrow )
  6. a name ( Parlow ) was derived from a family name in the 19th century.

It looks similar with the place names in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . There are Slavic names derived from personal names on -ow ( Malchow , Torgelow ), Appelativa of Slavic origin ( Dassow , Grabow ), with -ow as part of the tribe ( Wustrow ) and a few names originally of German origin on -au ( Hagenow ) .

The silent w in -ow acts as an expansion sign , thereby lengthening the preceding o to the phoneme / o: /.

Transformation to -au or -o

A number of places in -au also come from originally Slavic medieval names in -ow . The Saxon city of Glauchau was called Gluchow when it was first mentioned . The Slavic word wustrow or ostrov (island) became Wustrow , Wustrau or Ostrau , as in the Czech city of Ostrava . The German name Krakau for Polish Kraków was formed in a similar way .

Place names, which were often spelled with -ow in the 19th century , have been changed in the official spelling to the German suffix -au . So today's Berlin districts of Spandau and Stralau were officially spelled Spandow and Stralow until the last quarter of the 19th century .

In areas that belonged to the Electorate of Saxony (formerly Mark Meißen ) until 1815 , the mute -w disappeared from some place names. Instead of -ow is written -o : Grabo (near Wittenberg and Jessen), Dubro, Ostro, and several villages north of Roßlau . There are also a number of places with this spelling in Niederlausitz , for example Meuro , Sauo or Horno .

Germanic place names on -ow , -owe or -ouwe

Outside of the northeastern part of Germany, names ending in -ow are very rare in German-speaking countries. In Westphalia there is the place Spradow . There is no reference to Slavic roots here. In East Friesland there was the Ihlow Monastery , after which the present-day community Ihlow is named. Here the name means "Eibenwald", the ending is common in other spellings ( -loe , -lohe , -loch ) .

Most of the toponyms in -au (from Old High German ouwa : island, Aue) are written -owe or -ouwe in early sources . The same applies to the landscape names on -gau , especially common in the southwest German and Alemannic language areas.

Examples of (historical) spellings on -ow , -owe and -gowe :

Sebastian Münster wrote in his Cosmographia of Allgów , Britzgów , Hegów , Kleckgów , Kreichgów , Lechgów , Lintzgów , Meingów , Nortgów , Rheingów , Sunggów , Turgów and Zabergóv in 1553 .

The von Hagenau family was called Hagenowe for a while . Wilhelm von Nassau in the Dutch anthem was written Wilhelmus van Nassouwe or in the acrostic Willem van Nazzov . The name of Nassau an der Lahn , the former seat of the Nassau family , appears for the first time as Nassova in 915 .

There are also places with -ow in the English-speaking world, such as Marlow west of London, Wicklow (Ireland) or Lucknow in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Web links

Wiktionary: collective formation  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: -ow  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jana Solcina, Edward Wornar: Upper Sorbian self study / Hornjoserbšćina za samostudij. 1st edition. Domowina-Verlag, Bautzen 2000, ISBN 3-7420-1779-9 .
  2. ↑ Reinhard E. Fischer : The place names of the states of Brandenburg and Berlin. Age - origin - meaning. be.bra Wissenschaft Verlag, ISBN 978-3-937233-30-7 , p. 204.
  3. ↑ a b Entries on the respective cities in: Ernst Eichler and Werner Mühlner: The names of the cities in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Ingo Koch Verlag, Rostock, 2002, ISBN 3-935319-23-1 .
  4. ^ Paul Kühnel: The Slavic place names in Meklenburg . In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology . Volume 46 (1881), p. 162.
  5. ↑ De origine gentis Swevorum. 10, MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 60, p. 161.
  6. ^ Gesta episcoporum Halberstadensium 80.
  7. ↑ Documents from Emperor Ludwig, 1331, MGH Leges, Constitutiones et acta publica imperatorum et regum, 6, 2.
  8. ↑ Imperial documents, MGH Diplomata, Heinrich IV. 1, 1073, p. 332.
  9. ^ Sebastian Münster : Cosmographei . Book III, S. CCCIV-CCCV, Basel 1553.