Groß-Zimmern, Groß Grönau, Großopitz

zur Zusammenfügung von Siedlungsnamen mit unterscheidenden Zusätzen

Abstract

To date, toponomastic surveys in the German speech area were mainly etymological. Now, a recently engineered prototype of a cartographic programme provides new possibilities for analyzing settlement names in Germany to follow morphological, phonological, and graphematical questions. This paper aims at illustrating the benefit of this programme by the example of settlement names with differing addendums. They can be written with hyphen (e. g., Groß-Zimmern), with space (Groß Grönau), or in compound spelling (Großopitz). Unexpectedly clear regional preferences for these types of spelling appeared: Settlement names with space are found in Northern Germany, whereas the compound spelling is preferentially used in the South. In Hessen and Rheinhessen, the writing with hyphen is predominant. These conventions of spelling must have developed during the last 200 years.