The article discusses some place-names. These are the names of fortifications owned by vassals during medieval times (fiefdoms) and situated in the middle of Germany. The reviewed toponyms can be considered as examples for a linguistic explanation with regard to different extralinguistical and regional conditions. The article aims at demonstrating the absolute necessity of cooperation and interaction of various scientific disciplines with specialists in toponymy to avoid misjudgments. Thus it is important for vaious studies to work together in finding the correct reasons in naming of geographical phenomena in the first place.

The analysis of Duchess Augusta of Saxony-Coburg-Saalfeld’s reports concerning her journeys to Italy in 1821/22 and 1823/24 shows three diff erent functions of toponymical comparisons: an explanatory function, an evaluating function and an evocative function. These functions are illustrated by several examples.

In the place names of Slavic or Slovene origin in Upper (and Lower) Carinthia and Eastern Tyrol many sound forms are to be found which are corresponding to those in the Freising Manuscripts, partly in early documents, partly in the contemporary forms also. The language of the Freising Manuscripts was an Old Slovene dialect which was spoken in the Carantanian principality (8th / 9th century) and later in duchy Carinthia.

The article analyses three place names, which have been explained up to now in the following way: one of them was supposed to be of German, one of Old European and one of Slavic origin. As we show in our paper, all of them are Slavic names, two of them are hydronyms.

During the last decade Prof. Udolph has published a series of at least five articles, in which he argued that the until then unanimously accepted etymology of the place-name Magdeburg ‘City of (the) Virgin(s)’ must be wrong. In these articles he also refuted the less widely known etymology that argues for Magdeburg to be the ‘City of camomilla’. Comparing this and other place-names containing the element Magde‑, Magade‑ vel sim. to others containing the first member Mikil‑, Michel‑ etc. ‘big, great’ he reached the conclusion that Magde‑, Magade‑ etc. should be an adjective meaning something like ‘great, mighty ’ as well. His morphological and phonological arguments for doing so are here refuted by showing that neither is the prototype for his proposed adjective Germ. *magaþ‑, Germ. *nakuađ‑ ‘naked’, etymologically sufficiently clear, nor is there any other way to produce the required word-structure either by Germanic or by Indo-European means of word-formation. Though the author of this article is also not very glad about the older explanations, they have the advantage of simply being morphologically and phonologically flawless.

Aus dem gedrängten Überblick geht hervor, dass der Benennung von Siedlungen oft georgische Baumbezeichnungen zugrunde liegen, die unterschiedlicher Herkunft sind. Diejenigen Bezeichnungen, die offenbar kartwelischen Ursprungs sind, bilden drei Gruppen: 1. solche, die sich für die kartwelische Grundsprache rekonstruieren lassen (d. h. wo auch swanische Entsprechungen vorliegen), 2. solche, die bis auf die jüngere georgisch-sanische Grundsprache zurückgehen, und 3. nur in der georgischen Sprache belegbare Bezeichnungen, für die sich kein regelmäßig entsprechendes Material der anderen Kartwelsprachen beibringen lässt. Hinzu kommen jene georgischen Baumbezeichnungen, die aus anderen Sprachen entlehnt worden sind. Der Vergleich der georgischen Baumnamen mit der betreffenden Lexik der anderen Kartwelsprachen und mit den rekonstruierten Grundformen zeigt, dass bei der Entstehung der georgischen Oikonyme die Aufspaltung der kartwelischen Grundsprache in die heutigen Einzelsprachen bereits abgeschlossen war. Zu der gleichen Folgerung führt die Einbeziehung jener Oikonyme, die auf Lehnwörtern fußen, die nur im Georgischen (aber nicht im Mingrelischen, Lasischen und Swanischen) vertreten sind.

Family names derived from names of local origin are not at the top of the frequency lists. Potentially any place name may become a family name. In the following, this investigation addresses the question whether all Saxonian family names have become family names, and shows the large advances which can be achieved especially for this group of names with the aid of modern onomastic distribution maps.

Whereas in Sachsen, Brandenburg or Schleswig-Holstein all place names are worked on, the examination of the meaning of many place names in Sachsen-Anhalt is still a desideratum. This article surveys the meaning of the older place names in the former Landkreis Sangerhausen (southern Sachsen-Anhalt) – current and deserted place names – in the territorial boarders of the period 1990 –2007, as well as their level of research based on the author\''s Master\''s degree thesis of the winter semester 2007/08. The author gathered all documentary evidences that could be found in the written sources of regionally specific source books from the first naming in the sources to the 15th / 16th century. The reseach revealed that the oldest names were to be found near the rivers and on most fertile grounds. These place names were mostly derivatives, but one can find also some very old compounds.