Die Erforschung sorbischer Flurnamen in der Niederlausitz. Forschungsstand und Perspektiven

Abstract

Over the last several years, a large and highly varied database containing elements of the Lower Sorbian language has been compiled at the Sorbian Institute as a documentation of the Sorbian cultural heritage. It includes several dictionaries, corpora and similar textual specimens. Work on incorporating the many proper names of Sorbian origin has already begun, and it appears possible to add minor place names in the near future. The state of research is characterized by a high number of different regional and local collections. Many of these have been published: some cover large parts of Lusatia while others are confined to individual settlements; some of them are onomastic studies containing extensive analysis, others are merely uncommented lists of names. Additionally, there are several handwritten collections in the archives comprising thousands of names. Substantial parts of the study areas overlap. Although one might expect the same names to be found in these different collections, there is in fact a remarkable degree of divergence, as demonstrated here by two examples. The amalgamation of these collections into a comprehensive database needs to consider their heterogeneous character, as outlined in the article.