Morphology

If a place name is formed using a personal name, we must assume that there has been a change in reference, or, more precisely, an enlargement of context, of the personal name. The personal name no longer refers only to a person, but in certain circumstances, also to a place (GREULE 2000: 21).

A ‘place’ is defined in this essay as a settlement; also, names of church build-ings standing alone and monastery complexes are to be regarded as places here according to SONDERGGER’s definition (cf. GREULE 1997: 244–245).

(The role that churches and monasteries played in the origin of Sankt names has already been dealt with in point 2.) The exact differentiation between church and monastery names and settlement names is problematic. The transition between the two categories is often fluid and an exact point in time for the change in reference cannot usually be ascertained. Often the monastery or church complex is also the only building of a settlement and is therefore

Map showing the geographical distribution of Sankt names in Southern Germany (adapted from HELBOK 1938: 67).

equated with the settlement name. In this case it becomes almost impossible to distinguish between the two.

It is easier to define more clearly the ‘person’ entity for the present essay as the name of an individual worshipped as a saint according to the Canonical Law of the Catholic Church (cf. Wörterbuch des Christentums 464).

Often the Sankt names adapt themselves to their syntactic function. Personal names appear in settlement names in secondary usage, namely as a—locatable place names—specifying dimension. They have left their original area of usage, the naming of individuals, and take on auxiliary functions in another name category (GREULE 1997b: 252).

What changes can be ascertained now in terms of morphology in view of the reference change described above? Theoretically, the ‘embedding’ of a personal name in a place name syntagma occurs as a sequence of different stages (or types), which pass through a multiple phase shortening process; namely from the paraphrase stage, which formulates explicitly the relation of a person to a place, right down to the ellipsis phase. The different stages can practically never be proved for one name (GREULE 2000: 22 and 27). GREULE knows three different types of generation for the German toponyms.

a) The relation of the person to the place is formulated in full, for instance, in the form ‘place X is named after person Y’. This explicit explanation can be verified only in very few cases (cf. GREULE 2000: 22). This applies to the Germanic-German settlement names in general as well as to the Sankt names in particular.

For the place known as Sankt Peter (Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Freiburg), the historical record dating from 1093 for the foundation of the monastery is still extant: in Alemannia dux Berthaldus monasterium novum in honorem sancti Petri in praedio suo in Nigra Silva a fundamentis exstruxit (MGH SS 5: 456, KRIEGER II, 770). It expressly states that it concerns a monastery built in honour of Saint Peter, to whom the monastery therefore owes its name.

Nothing, however, is mentioned about the transference of the name of the monastery to the settlement nearby.

The situation is different in the case of the records for Sankt Johannis (Bayreuth, Upper Franconia). The place is first called Altentrebgast: 1149: Uetus Trebegast, 1392: z Trebgast, 1473: zu Sannt Johanns bey Trebgast gelegen, 1616: St: Johanes sonsten Altentrebgast genant, 1692: S. Johannis … so vor alten Zeiten Alten Trebgast geheißen, hat von der Kirche S. Johannis Bapt. den Namen mit angenommen (EICHLER–GREULE–JANKA–SCHUH 2006: 218–219).

Here it becomes clear that it concerns the transference of a name from the church patron to the settlement. Why the church was consecrated to John the Baptist is not mentioned.

b) The naming of a place after a person is no longer expressed in words, rather it is a simple attributive sequence ‘place X of person Y’. X is a locative generic term and Y is a personal name in the genitive (GREULE 2000: 22).

The place name Petersaurach (Ansbach, Central Franconia) is an example of this type. The settlement name is documented as 1311: sante Peters Aurach, 1387: Petersaurach, 1497: Peters Aurach (REITZENSTEIN 2009: 175–176).

The formation type b) is typical of Germanic-German place names which include personal names, but with the characteristic that the order in which the generic term and the personal name appear is not XY, but YX; the focus is on the personal name, since it comes first (GREULE 2000: 23). If Sankt names only are taken into consideration, this type is relatively rare.

The preceding particle Sankt is not necessarily abbreviated, as, for example, it is in the settlement name Sankt-Georgen-Hof (Reutlingen, Tübingen), which is recorded in 1917 as St. Georgenhof. In the local dialect, however, the addition Saint is missing (cf. REICHARDT 1983: 116).

c) It seems the ellipsis of the place appellative is favoured if type b) begins with a preposition of place (GREULE 2000: 23). This type is found relatively seldom in German place names: these are known as ‘genitive place names’

(cf. GREULE 2000: 23, KAUFMANN 1961).

Settlement names like Sankt Peter (Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Freiburg) belong to this type: 1217: sancto Petro, 1316: ze sant Peter, 1393: gelgen bi sant Peter (KRIEGER II, Sp. 770).

This type is formed in a way similar to other genitive place names, but the grammatical case is often adapted to suit the preceding preposition, so that also other cases can appear in early records, especially in a Latin context.

In their official present day form, the vast majority of Sankt names demonstrate this ellipsis. The paraphrase form for the settlement name Sankt Peter should be

‘settlement at the monastery consecrated to Saint Peter’ or briefly ‘(settlement by) Saint Peter(‘s) monastery’ (cf. LAUR 1996: 1375). What remains is only the name of the saint—in this case, in the German shortened form of Peter (cf. SEIBICKE III, 510). The original subject of reference no longer forms a part of the settlement name. This development can be traced by looking at the records of the settlement named Sankt Paul (Erding, Upper Bavaria):

1231/1237: ze sante Paulis kirche, c. 1300: sant Pauls hof, 1482: Zehntner zu sand Pauls, 1571: Sannt Pauls, 1602: St. Paullus (HONB Erding 165).

Finally, a total ellipsis occurs when the particle Sankt is dropped altogether, as is the case with the toponym Helena (Neumarkt, Upper Palatinate). The name of the place is first documented as Holtzheim: 1364: ze Holczheim auf dem perg, 1469: zu Sant Helena, 1482: zu Sant Helena, 1493: der kirchen

Sant Helena zu Holczhaim auff dem perg, [c. 1490]: Helena, 1516: Helena, 1593: S. Helena, 1650: St. Helena, 1769: gegen Helena (HONB Neumarkt).

The paraphrase for this settlement name would also be ‘settlement near the church consecrated to Saint Helena’. The contemporary speaker, however, only recognises a Christian name; the function of this person in relation to the place is no longer obvious in the settlement name. It is important that the personal name, which was transferred to the settlement, can no longer clearly be identified as a saint’s name, since it could also be the name of a former owner of the place.

The formation types described above can be seen together as a syntactic-morphological contraction process (GREULE 2000: 27). Each of the Sankt place names must have passed through stage a), even though this is only documented in the rarest cases (cf. LAUR 1996: 1375). But the place name cannot stop at this stage. In a next step, step b), it is associated with a settle-ment. This step, too, is not documented for most Sankt settlement names.

Some examples, however, are to be found in historical sources and even in today’s official names, as the above-mentioned examples show. The last stage of the contraction process is step c), which not all names reach. The majority of Sankt names can be counted as belonging to this stage, because most of them show ellipsis. There is complete ellipsis only in a small number of the original Sankt names.