Changes of Czech oikonyms in the years 1996 to 2017 Cover Image

Ke změnám českých oikonym v letech 1996–2017
Changes of Czech oikonyms in the years 1996 to 2017

Author(s): Pavel Štěpán
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro jazyk český
Keywords: toponyms; oikonyms; changes of oikonyms; renaming; Táborská; Vlastislav

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses the official changes of the names of municipalities and their partsin the years 1996–2017. 59 changes were recorded; an absolute majority of thesechanges involve minor formal alterations of the existing names, consisting of minorphonological changes (mostly changes in the vowel quantity), adding a distinctiveattribute (or its deletion), etc. Most of the changes, which are made without any opinionof onomasticians or other linguists, are unproblematic from the onomastic pointof view. However, some of them (mostly those based on a folk etymology of the name)are disputable, or even entirely unsuitable. Special attention is paid to an exceptionalcase of changing the place name Táborská to Vlastislav. This is the only caseof a change of an oikonym to a form that has no relationship to the original name.Before 2016, the toponym Táborská belonged to a part of the municipality of Hazlovin the westernmost part of Bohemia. This locality (originally Seichenreuth) obtainedits Czech name after the World War II, when a majority of the original German nameswere changed after the displacement of German inhabitants from Sudetenland. In thelate 1940s, the local representatives tried to enforce the name Vlastislav for the givenvillage; the motivation of this name was political: it was to express relations to thehomeland – “vlast”. This name was not approved by the toponymical committee, andthe village finally got a new name Táborská in 1961. However, the name Vlastislav wasnot forgotten in the locality: in 2016, the local authority decided to rename Táborskáto Vlastislav and this change came into effect immediately.

  • Issue Year: LIX/2018
  • Issue No: 59
  • Page Range: 215-226
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Czech