Re: I'm back, and an 'ow' question ...

 --- Pavel Iosad wrote:

> > > I was told it was from some local Slavic language, which I couldn't get
> > > specified stricter than "not Sorbian". Can anyone here give more
> > > information?
> >
> > Maybe West Baltic (aka Old Prussian)?  "Berlin" itself IIRC
> > is a Baltic name, likewise other place names ending in "-in".
>
> Hmm, no I guess it _is_ Slavic. As much of present-day Germany was
> inhabited by Slavs at some point, they have naturally left this
> onomasticon legacy. Being no historian, I simply can't say which of the
> tribes lived around present-day Berlin, but what they spoke was
> definitely some West Slavic language, now extinct.
The language referred to is probably Polabian. It was spoken in the "far west"
of Slavic territory.

> Many geographical names in Germany proper are Slavic, such as Leipzig
> (cf. Lipetsk in modern-day Russia), as well as the surnames of much the
> Prussian aristocracy (von Bülow, for instance).
"Lipsk" in Polish.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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