Inoffizielle Ortsnamen

Abstract

In onomastic and linguistic research literature, there are only a few works dealing explicitly with modern unofficial place names. The terminological delimitation of this name class alone presents some difficulties. For what an unofficial place name is is first of all explained by what it is not, namely officially fixed. Unofficial toponyms are essentially distinguished by the fact that they do not have an officially standardized status. They have mostly been developed in oral communication and are used by various groups of speakers at different times, above all to mark social affiliations. But it is precisely in their lack of official fixation that they allow an illuminating look at mechanisms of name genesis, name establishment and the social role of place names.