Strukturen von Humanistennamen mit den Suffixen ‑us und ‑ius in Deutschland

Abstract

Many family names in Germany were Latinised under the influence
of Renaissance Humanism by adding the suffixes ‑us or ‑ius (so-called Humanist
names). These suffixes differ regarding their number of syllables and their
impact on the prosody of the family name. The suffix ‑ius, when added to a
family name consisting of at least two syllables, always leads to a shift of the
accent (Cremér-ius), whereas this is not necessarily the case with ‑us (Móllerus
/ Mollérus). It appears that structures consisting of a disyllabic German
family name and the suffix ‑ius are particularly frequent and that this suffix is
often preceded by a nasal or a liquid. Clearly this pattern could also be applied
if the underlying family name was monosyllabic. In this case a supplementary
syllable was added such as ‑en or ‑el (Franck – Franck-én-ius). The suffix ‑us
– apart from its use in patronymics (Arnold‑us) – was of little significance in
the forming of Humanist names, however.