Sprachforschung – Altwegeforschung – Siedlungsforschung

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this article aims to clarify a number of settlement names that have thus far been fraught with contradictions in the scholarly literature. These are oikonyms of Slavic origin in SW Saxony. Today they are place names of settlements that were established during the period of German rule towards the end of the 12th century. However, the linguistic formsof these oikonyms, which always have the same structure [anthroponym + possessive suffix], point to Slavic formations from the 9th/10th century. A person was named as the individual owner of an estate, a settlement, i. e. probably a farmstead. A comparison with several other onyms of this type in the region shows that they are all located along the early medieval old paths in the former mountain forest. It is now considered for the first time that these could have been early rest and protection stations along the semitae Bohemicae from the Slavic old settlement areas to Bohemia. The distances of 20 to 25 km, which was a day’s journey at that time, are consistent with this view. In the 12th century, German villages were establishedvery close to each other. The Slavic oikonyms were transferred to these as already known onyms. Hence, for the first time, individual Slavic settlements can be identified in the Erzgebirge from the period before German rule began in 929 AD.