Das Projekt Aus der Tradition in die Zukunft als Beitrag zur digitalen Namengeographie

Abstract

As part of a cross-border project at the Jihočeská univerzita v Českých
Budějovicích and the University of Passau, similarities and divergences
were examined in place names, surnames, literature and social culture along
an old trade route between Passau (Czech: Pasov) and Budějovice (German:
Budweis). This makes it possible to trace the development of the relationship
between the two peoples of the border area back to the Middle Ages. In this
essay, we focus on place names and family names. Place names such as Czech
Čakov and German Groß Čekau were explained and classified typologically
on the basis of the documents and dialectal pronunciations elicited during the
project. In the area of family names, the development and spatial distribution
of names such as Janko are examined in order to trace linguistic exchanges
and changes in the contact area shared by the two ethnic groups/language
communities. A database and web application involving geographical multimedia
have been used to store, analyse and represent the research results. The
material collected can be displayed cartographically and evaluated according
to a variety of criteria. Concerning family names, the application is intended
to lay the foundation for a spatial representation not only of individual names
but also of etymological or semantical name groups as well as name formation
patterns. The results of this research have been made accessible via a web
browser and a mobile app.