This is the fifth in a series of interviews with Italian writers on literary names. The purpose of this series is to complement the indirect approach of investigating strategies of literary naming in literary texts by directly questioning those who give names to literary characters or places. The interviews are to provide evidence of tendencies in literary naming in contemporary Italian writers. General conclusions will in due course be drawn from the material to be presented in the series. The present interview with Alberto Bevilacqua was conducted in Rome on 17 January 2003.

This article draws attention to technological advances in cartography and reminds us that cartographic software makes work in modern geography of names (areal onomastics) much easier than it used to be. Especially geographic information systems (GIS) allow name students not only to present but also to interpret data.

The article deals with names of restaurants in Leipzig. First it becomes obvious that there are many more terms for such establishments: not only restaurant, also bar, café, bistro, and others. One part of the article explains the etymology of these terms. The second part contains a list with the kinds of naming. Mostly the restaurants are named in connection with their local situation (near a building, in a special street or part of the city, near or in a landscape ... ). Another big part of restaurants takes the name of persons. That can be the owner of the restaurant or a famous person (for example Johann Sebastian Bach). Another possibility to name the restaurant is the kind of food you can eat there (national or international food or special drinks). In Leipzig you also find names in Saxon dialect. To confirm the meaning of the names it was necessary to ask the owners and to visit the restaurants.

The project 'Archiv für die Gewässernamen Deutschlands und Europas' established on the 'Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz' since 1960, has ended definitivly in 2005. On this occasion the author discusses first, what the research on hydronyms in the middle of Europe has achieved in the last forty years, and secondly, what is to do in the future. Finally he recommends the foundation of a Centre for Onomastics in Germany as a partner of the other Centres of Onomastics in Europe, resident in the Academies or the Universities.

The author presents dictionaries of toponyms from the Slavic-German borderland. The conceptions of German, Czech and Polish dictionaries are presented. He considers the method of toponym-settlement identification better and more transparent than the method of establishing one entry and common linguistic explanation for names of varied origin. The author emphasizes the necessity for research of related names from the various Slavic languages.

The name of a small town in Eastern Thuringia is discussed here. It is a very difficult name and it is surely not of German origin. Historical documents have shown the name to be almost without any varieties since the Middle Ages. Discussing several Old Sorbian etymological interpretations it gets evident that only one explanation can be accepted with regard to the structure of the name, with regard to similar names in Slavonic languages, and due to the results of Slavonic-German language-contacts.

This Article deals with geonames in the Czech Republic, i.e. the former Bohemian crown lands of Bohemia, Moravia, and parts of Silesia. The main focus of investigation are place names related to trees and other plants, forests and clearings. In particular, names derived from the beech tree (tagus silvaticus) are analyzed with regard to postglacial vegetational history, hypsometrlc biogeocenosis, history of settlement, and linguistic patterns. 84 place names derived from the beech tree have been verified at an average altitude of 425 m.

The article deals with the explanation of toponyms in the territory of Brandenburg, which was populated by Slavs approximately from the 6th to the 14th century. The place-names of Polabian origin in this territory could be derived also from appellatives denoting plants as there are trees (Buckow/beech-tree; Damme/oak- tree; Jabel/apple), bushs and shrubs (Leest/hazel; Kallinchen/elder; Friesack/heath), some kind of grasses (Ziethen/rush; Weisen/reed), berries (Preußnitz/cranberry), flowers (Wust/thistle; Löcknitz/water-lily) and last but not least mushrooms (Feldgrieben/mushroom; Schmarsow/morel). Approximatly 50 toponyms are derived in this way. This article can also give a contribution to the description of the flora of the territory of Brandenburg in earlier times.

Mein Untersuchungsgebiet umfasst das östlich der Lausitzer Neuße gelegene Territorium Schlesiens, das bis zum Jahr 1937 zu Deutschland gehörte, dazu noch das frühere Krossener Land und der Kreis Schwiebus/Swiebodzin, die einst ein Bestandteil Schlesiens waren. Ich berücksichtige auch die östlichen Teile der ehemaligen Kreise Guben/Gubin, Sorau/Zary und Zittau, die früher zu den Provinzen Mark Brandenburg bzw. Sachsen gehörten und heute dem polnischen Schlesien angegliedert sind.

People who leave their home, take their names with them. That is the reason why place names in new settlements can contain remembrances of the language spoken in the former home area. This essay will among others deal with the German emigration overseas; the German settlement in the East; the spreading of the East-Slavic settlement area; the occupation and settlement of England through Western Germanic tribes, and the home and dispersal of Germanic tribes. For this purpose, place names are important, maybe even the most important witnesses of migration.