Effort, not only to show the radius of a place name’s etymological explana- tions in theory, but also to work out the real primary meaning – examplified by "Hundshaupten".

When analysing the etymological layers of Hungarian river names, it becomes soon clear that loan names make up a much larger group than in the group of settlement names, for instance. This fact can be due to the phenomenon that in the case of hydronyms, name-giving and name-usage is driven mainly by communicative needs, while other (e. g. socio-cultural or political) factors only rarely influence name-giving. In my paper, it was my aim to provide an etymological typology of Hungarian hydronyms from the Árpád-era (896 –1350). It seems to be justified to choose the Hungarian hydronyms of the Árpád-era as the corpus of my investigation, for the country was strongly multilingual and multiethnic in this period of time (Hungarian, Slavic, German, Turkish), which also has an effect on the system of water names. The survey of the linguistic layers of river names shows that largely the same semantic content appears in river names originating from different languages. The semantic types appearing in river names belong to the so-called panchronistic feature of the hydronym system, in other words, they show signs of universal human thinking.

Overview of the possibilities of data collection of current family names in Roman language-speaking countries in Europe (Italy, France, Spain and Portugal). Includes concrete examples and suggestions on their interpretation.

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.

My "note" is closely related to David Landau's paper on the names of the months linguistically corresponding to "December" (this volume). It considers the onomastic status of time phrases by investigating the concepts of time and space in their interrelation. The contribution supplies reasoning that proves the existence of time as a fourth spatial dimension. Therefore the general statement that reality exists in space and time must be qualified. If time is a fourth spatial dimension, then the month‘s name “December” can be compared with a place name like "Leipzig". I suggest that there is no dichotomy between describing "Leipzig" as an onym, but "December" as an appellative only. "Leipzig" and "December" enjoy a familiar onomastic partnership. / Meine "Anmerkung" bezieht sich auf David Landaus Artikel zu Monatsnamen, die sprachhistorisch mit "December" korrespondieren (in diesem Band). Sie erörtert den onomastischen Status von Zeitausdrücken, indem sie das Verhältnis von Zeit und Raum in ihrer Wechselbeziehung untersucht. Der Beitrag legt eine Beweisführung dar, die die Existenz von Zeit als vierte Dimension des Raumes versteht. Daher muss die allgemeine Feststellung, dass die Realität in Zeit und Raum existiert, präzisiert werden. Wenn Zeit eine vierte räumliche Dimension darstellt, dann ist der Monatsname "December" mit einem Ortsnamen wie "Leipzig" vergleichbar. Ich schlage daher vor, die Dichotomie zwischen der Beschreibung von „Leipzig“ als Onym, aber "December" nur als Appellativum, aufzuheben. So können sich "Leipzig" und "December" einer vertrauten onomastischen Partnerschaft erfreuen.

When entering the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century, the Hungarians found a decisively Slavic population on the territory, so toponyms were formed based on the already existing toponymic system. Hungarian toponymic research has been able to reconstruct toponyms from the period prior to the Hungarian conquest only very scarcely and ambiguously – as opposed to the names of larger rivers, which show strong continuity, going back to very early times. The toponyms of the Carpathian Basin, in connection with the formation of the settlement structures of Hungarians, can almost exclusively be documented from the period after the Hungarian conquest. However, the Carpathian Basin became a “meeting point of the peoples” in the centuries after the conquest in 896 and as such, numerous ethnics and languages could be found here: Slavic peoples and Germans settled in larger blocks, while smaller groups of Turkish people, such as Cumans and Pechenegs, and some Neo-Latin peoples (Walloons and later Rumanians) also contributed to the ethnic and linguistic diversity in the area. The layering of different peoples and languages influenced toponyms too, which also allows us to investigate language contacts of the time. This is the main concern of my paper, with special focus on the question of how these phenomena can be connected to issues of language prestige in the Middle Ages.

In cognitive linguistics, a paragon is described as an individual member of a category who represents either an ideal or its opposite. Paragons make it easier for us to identify a complex content, and we therefore have a great deal of interest in experiencing paragons. Lady Gaga is, for example, a paragon name in the field of pop music; Lehman (Brothers) is a paragon of the biggest bank failures in history and is used by many people to comprehend the unfolding of the late-2000s global financial crisis. Shared knowledge and socio-cultural backgrounds of language users are especially important when paragons from different fields or disciplines enter today’s business discourse. Examples include the Lady Gaga of the Contract Manufacturing Business, the Lehman of Livestock, the Donald Trump of sweeping up or the Apple of Hollywood. The comprehension process involves metonymic and metaphoric relationships which highlight or hide particular aspects of the paragon. The present paper attempts to show that the information conveyed by the paragon serves primarily to indicate the speaker’s or writer’s attitude towards the referent rather than being intended to help the hearer identify complex economic issues. It is argued that the use of a paragon leads to a somewhat bleached or reduced conceptualisation of the referent. The paper will also address theoretical and methodological challenges presented by studying paragon names in their respective discourse environments. The focus will be on qualitative rather than quantitative results. The data are all attested examNamen als Erklärungsmodelle im Kontext der Wirtschaft 383 ples collected from the Internet, unless otherwise stated. In addition, results from a survey carried out with students at Magdeburg University will be used for comparison.

This paper is a response to an article in the journal Acta Linguistica Lithuanica 62–63 (2011), whose author argues partially quite unscientifically. This paper will show the deficiencies of knowledge the other article’s author betrays as far as historical-comparative linguistics in general and Indo-European linguistics especially are concerned. As a conclusion it must be stated that all the results the other author has achieved in the field of ‘Old European Hydronymy’ by using research methods outdated for decades will have to be reevaluated applying to them modern Indo-European linguistics. Only after this task will have been accomplished, one will be able to tell which of that author‘s works and results will be safe for further use.

The oldest forms of the place-name Leipzig, i.e. Libzi, Libiz vel sim., are now generally assumed to be Slavic, i.e. Old Sorabian derivatives of an older river-name, probably of Germanic origin. At the basis of this river-name is thought to be an enlarged root PIE *lei̯‑bh‑ ‘to flow, drip’. As the concept of root enlargement is somewhat problematic and should thus better be abandoned, it is claimed here – based on a recently published idea for the etymologization of the name of the river Elbe – that this assumed Germanic river-name is a derivative of an unenlarged root with the suffix PIE *‑bho‑. This suffix was used to form colour adjectives on the one hand and action nouns vel sim. on the other. Theoretical proto-forms of the river-name are PIE *h2lei̯H‑bho‑ or *h2liH‑bho‑ ‘making/being dirty/filthy’, PIE *lei̯H‑bho‑ or *liH‑bho‑ ‘nestling up against, winding itself’, PIE *lei̯H‑bho‑ or *liH‑bho‑ ‘pouring out’ (→ ‘flowing’?), PIE *lei̯h2‑bho‑ or *lih2‑bho‑ ‘dwindling, disappearing’, PIE *(s)lei̯H‑bho‑ or *(s)liH‑bho‑ ‘blue(ish)’, and PIE *(s)lei̯‑bho‑ ‘slippery, slimy’. A further theoretical possibility is the reconstruction as PIE *lei̯p-o‑ ‘sticky’ vel sim. (> ‘muddy’?). And finally, a reconstruction seems possible regarding the whole name not as a derivative, but as a compound with PIE *‑h2p-o‑ (the zero-grade of PIE *h2ep- ‘water’) as the second member. In this case, the same roots which form the bases of the derivatives are used as the first members of these compounds. All proposals show semantics acceptable for the formation of river-names. Thus no final decision between these proposals is possible.