Zur Frage der Slawizität einiger oberfränkischer Ortsnamen (Würgau, Gleußen, Feuln, Marktzeuln, Wirbenz) und Flurnamen (Külmnitz, Külmitz, Leubnitz)

Abstract

The article is concerned with the etymologies of northeast Bavarian, i.e. Upper Franconian, settlement names Würgau, Gleußen, Feuln, Marktzeuln and Wirbenz and the microtoponyms Külmnitz, Külmitz and Leubnitz. While tradition had it that the settlement names are of Slavic origin, a PhD thesis published in 2016 claimed them to be of West Germanic origin. In the case of the microtoponyms Külmnitz and Külmitz only a West Germanic etymology had hitherto been presented, while in the case of the microtoponym Leubnitz both a Germanic and a Slavic one had been proposed, with no final conclusion reached. The article compares the Slavic etymologies with the West Germanic ones and reaches the conclusion that neither of the West Germanic etymologies proposed is more convincing than any of the Slavic ones. In the case of the settlement names Feuln and Marktzeuln, however, each proposed etymology is roughly as convincing as the other (though the author ultimately still sides with the Slavic etymologies). In the case of the other names, the Slavic etymologies are (clearly) more convincing than the West Germanic ones.