The article deals with three types of Germanic toponyms found in Northern Italy. The type *stôde-gardôn ‘studfarm, horse breeding’, widespread in the Padanian plain between Torino and Verona, seems to have been in the beginning a Langobardic loanword in the regional Italo-Romance idioms. In contrast the place name Gamundio, denoting a royal fisc near Alessandria, has many early parallels in the Frankish regions of the Rhineland, of Lorraine and Belgium, like Sarreguemines/Saargemünd (F, Moselle), 711 Gamundiis < *ga-munthja ‘ground about the mouth of a river’. Also Guastalla north of Reggio- Emilia, 864 Wardi-stalla ‘watchtower, guard’, name of a royal court again, has narrow parallels in the regnum Francorum. So most probably these two toponyms had their origins in the terminology of the Franks.

Remotivation, conceived as a combination of semantic re-interpretation and formal re-segmentation, does not only affect appellative signs, but also proper names. First, remotivation processes are contrasted with demotivation processes (de-semantization and de-segmentation) and it is argued against the claim of uni-directionality. Then, four types of remotivation of proper names are elaborated: the sign-based semantic strategies of (1) reanalysis (of words [folk etymology], of clitics, and of affixes) and (2) pleonastic/tautologic doubling (of morphemes); furthermore the usage-based pragmatic strategies of (3) re-contextualization (of context-independent signs) and (4) re-locution (of illocutively meant signs). These processes turn out to be high-grade contingent in the way which linguistic material the speakers/hearers grasp to do their remotivation.

The aim of this article is to show connections between the course of early and high medieval old streets and the occurrence of place name types with their specific time composition. The names of the towns on the Baierweg long-distance route linking Bavaria and Bohemia are examined here as examples. The determination of the etymology is followed by a typological evaluation, which shows the important role of the Baierweg as an orientation axis for settlement activity in the later early Middle Ages.

The libros de repartimiento are a type of text that has an enormous value to understand the historical moment that gave rise to the process of the formation of the toponymy as we know it today in the areas incorporated to the Spanish speaking territory in different moments of the historical process traditionally known as Reconquista. A text of this type exists also for the Sevillian municipality of Écija, although this one presents some peculiarities that differentiate it from other repartimientos. In this study we analyze in detail the toponymy contained in the medieval text and reconstruct the context in which the territory was recognized by the persons in charge of the distribution of the lands. The conclusions that we extract are of great interest to know the process of creation of names based on Castilian and the context of linguistic contact that allowed the transmission of names from one stratum to another.

The article focusses on names used for the denomination of legendary figures in Bavaria (especially in the Eastern Part of Bavaria and in the Bavarian Forest). In the beginning, short information on the cultural sciences of the issue will be presented, followed by terminological classification. The main part illustrates patterns of denomination concerning the selected legendary figures.

The chronology of the English intervention in Britain has recently become controversial among population historians, but the linguistic evidence for its timing and its nature has remained largely unchanged. In this paper I set out to review once again the small amount of toponymic evidence and the almost non-existent lexical evidence for Brittonic-English contact in the earliest English centuries. This linguistic evidence has led to diverse responses among historians and archaeologists, but since it is primary evidence it is legitimate to explore again the question of what historical scenarios of ethnic contact it is compatible with: extermination, expulsion, enslavement, assimilation, cultural overwhelming or ignoring; and mass English population movement versus élite expatriate settlement from beyond the North Sea.

The place name Merseburg has been debated vigorously in academic research. On the basis of a larger number of comparable names, the authors suggest a derivation of the name which differs from previous explanations. Besides the root - burg one has to assume a basic approach *Mars~ in the determiner which can be interpreted as an -s-extension of -mar “swamp, bog, pond”, to be found in numerous names.

The old-czech text of the „Saxon Weichbildrecht“: Occasional takeover and explanatory additions. Medieval legal terms from two texts of the extensive and branched group of sources of the Saxon-Magdeburg law are at the center of our article: the early-new-high-german and the old-czech text of „Saxon Weichbildrecht”. Transmission of legal terms of the early-new-highgerman text into the old-czech one stands in the focus of interest. In addition to predominantly adequate transmission of the legal terms, there can be found occasional takeover and explanatory additions. Conclusions at the end summarize the results.

Usually, in the linguistic literature on the hydronym Inn two stems are reconstructed: PCelt. *Eno- and *Eni̯o-. These stems are thought to be derived from the root PIE *pen- ‘mud(dy), (standing) water’. It is not possible to decide, whether the name was coined in Proto-Celtic or is a celticized Pre-Proto-Celtic formation. An explanation for the parallel stem-formations was given already by Pokorny 1948/1949 and 1950/1951. His explanation seems widely to have fallen into oblivion. Both articles have hardly been quoted in scientific literature during the last quarter century. Only Greule 2014 makes use again at least of the older of the two articles, modifying their explanation, however. A root PIE *(h1)en- ‘water’, which has been used time and again to explain the river-name Inn, most probably never existed.

Places have long felt a need to differentiate themselves from each other, to assert their individuality in pursuit of various economic, political or socio-psychological objectives. This is especially true of cities, which are increasingly importing the concept and techniques of product branding for use within place marketing. This present paper examines linguistic and socio-economic strategies as they are used in city branding. The City of Magdeburg, capital of Saxony-Anhalt, serves as an example of how different media and different interactive techniques can be coordinated to increase the promotional effect. Since 2010 Magdeburg bears the slogan ‚Ottostadt Magdeburg‘, and therewith refers to its history which is connected to two great men who were both called Otto: Otto the Great, who made the city his capital and from there ruled the Holy Roman Empire, and Otto von Guericke, who revolutionised the sciences in the 17th century by establishing the physics of vacuums. The campaign itself aims to raise the identification of Magdeburg‘s residents with their city as well as to raise national and international awareness in order to attract investors, tourists and students. The aim of the study is twofold: firstly, to find out what makes city branding successful, and secondly, what happens when the residents themselves use the campaign for their own purposes, e.g. by modifying, destructing or reinterpreting slogans.