„Dodekanské“ ostrovy, „Dodekany“? O názve skupiny ostrovov Dodekanéz
“Dodekanské” islands, „Dodekany“? About the Name of the Dodecanese Archipelago

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the Slovak equivalents of English Dodecanese, denoting an island group in the Aegean Sea (from Greek Δωδεκάνησα, literally ‘twelve islands’, from Greek δώδεκα ‘twelve’, νῆσος ‘island’). In addition to Slovak Dodekanéz, found in geographical literature, the forms Dodekany pl. and Dodekanské ostrovy (‘Dodecanese Islands’) – not corresponding to the Greek etymon – also occur, as evidenced by the Google search results. The author tries to clarify their origin which, in his opinion, can be found in: (1) German Dodekanes sg., probably misinterpreted as *Dodekan-es (i.e., a supposed plural form) and adapted in Slovak as Dodekany pl., thence also dodekanský adj., Dodekanské ostrovy; (2) English Dodecanese adj., erroneously segmented as *Dodecan-ese (cf. English Chin-ese, Japan-ese, etc.) and rendered as dodekanský, thence Dodekanské ostrovy, shortened into Dodekany pl. According to the author, these forms cannot be accepted for etymological reasons and should not be used in scientific literature.

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