German-Slavic toponymic contacts in East Germany

Abstract

We consider the issues of the relationship between the German language and the Sorbian language. The material of the study is the toponyms that are common in the territory that extends in the east to the course of the rivers Bober, Quays and Oder, in the north – to the vicinity of Berlin, and in the west goes beyond the Saale River. The relevance of the study is due to the desire for a more in-depth study of German-Slavic language contacts issues. The novelty of the work lies in the consideration of the issue in various aspects: language levels, sociolinguistic, areal. We study the mechanisms and properties of adaptation of Slavic toponyms at all linguistic levels, clarify the methodology for describing the integration process of borrowed toponyms, describe the phase’s characteristic of the integration process. We show that among the Slavs and Germans, semantic parallelism in the acts of nomination is often noted, due to the geographical environment. We establish that the linguo-geographic relations that developed during the German-Lusatian toponymic interaction are heterogeneous in nature. We conclude that interlanguage contacts in the field of toponymy were complex and did not have a monolithic character, as was previously believed. As a prospect for further research, it is planned to study the Slavic Germanic place names in the Slavic languages.