Slavic Substrate in the Onomastics of Saxony. Review of the book: Wenzel, W. (2017). Die slawische Frühgeschichte Sachsens im Licht der Namen. Hamburg: Baar. 205 р.

Abstract

The reviewed book is largely a collection of articles presented in alphabetical order, dealing with oikonyms in historical and etymological perspective — as a source of history and as a means of building a holistic picture of the Slavs in early medieval Saxony. It also relies on extra-linguistic data, such as geology and the trends of demographic development. The study begins from the period from 631 or 632, when Fredegar’s Chronicles (Dervanus dux gente Surbiorum, que rex ex genere Sclavinorum) were written, and extends up to the time between the conquest of the Slavic territories in the Saale-Neiße interfluve by the Germans in the 11th century and the onset of the German expansion to the east in the 12th century. The Short Stories of Names collected at the end of the book are popular essays, most of which were first published in non-scholarly editions. The latter have now been reprinted and complemented with by a large number of references, and thus fully comply with the requirements for scholarly publications.

Keywords

• Slavic languages
• German language
• geographical names
• history
• etymology
• demography