Living Cultural Heritage
Field names
Names of uninhabited places in the vicinity of human settlements are referred to as field names. The spectrum is wide – it includes names in sparsely populated regions visited only sporadically by humans (“wilderness”) as well as in post-industrial landscapes, such as post-mining areas.
The classic case, however, is rural settlements inhabited by a farming community. This community cultivates the agricultural land belonging to this settlement (in most cases, the village), which forms the settlement’s municipal area. For centuries, agricultural conditions required close coordination, resulting in a linguistic community that created and used field names. These names reflect (to a certain extent) the natural, economic, cultural, and social conditions of the municipal area and its inhabitants, not least the linguistic ones.
Sorbian field names can persist long after the Sorbian language has faded out, and large parts of Lusatia are characterized by a large number of field names of Sorbian origin. However, field names are also transient and changeable, and not always centuries old. Especially in the last 150 years, with their major social changes, many field names have been forgotten.
Even though these names were initially and predominantly used orally and passed down from generation to generation. Their written record is essential for documenting their variability and their characteristics in earlier times. On the one hand, this recording took place in connection with legal documents, particularly regarding ownership.
On the other hand, field names began to be documented and collected in 19th century out of historical and linguistic interest. These collections are of crucial importance for the Lusatian linguistic landscape. There are also numerous local initiatives and individuals dedicated to the collection, preservation, and presentation of field names.
See also “Sorbische Eigennamen in der Niederlausitz”.
