Miscellany

 

LEXICON

 

Place Names

Certain cities and rivers have different spellings in German and English. In most cases names with an umlaut simply lose that symbol in English (i.e., Lüneberg becomes Luneberg, etc.), or add an "e" after the vowel (i.e. "ä" becomes "ae").

More significant changes are listed below. This includes prominent cities in modern Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary that have reverted to their Slavic names.

{*** "Note: The umlaut symbol does not show up on screen. Therefore, anywhere an umlaut would appear, the letter is bolded."}

BRESLAU: Wroclaw
BROMBERG: Bvdgoszcz
BRAUNSCHWEIG: Brunswick
BRÜNN: Brno
DANZIG: Gdansk
DONAU: Danube River
KONSTANZ: Constance
KÖLN: Cologne
KUTTENBERG: Kutna Hora
LUXEMBURG: Luxembourg
MARIENBERG: Malbork
MÜNCHEN: Munich
NÜRNBERG: Nuremberg
NYMWEGEN: Nijmegen
OLMÜTZ: Olomoue
POSEN: Poznan
PRAG: Prague
> PRESSBURG: Bratislava
STETTIN: Sczcecin
THORN: Torun
WEIN: Vienna

 

Other Terms

The German language frequently uses compound words. For example, "alt" means high, and "dorf" means village, so a hamlet named "Altdorf" is literally "the high village." The short glossary below covers common root words, and compounds where they are frequently used terms.

BERG: Mountain, but often a tall hill
BURG: Town, city or other urban place
BURGGRAF: Castle lord, castellean
DIET: Congress
DOM: Cathedral
DORF: Village or hamlet
DORFGRAF: Village count
ELENDESVIERTEL: Slum
ERZ-: Arch-, as in "Erzbischof" (Archbishop) or "Erzherzog" (Archduke)
GELEITSBRIEFE: Letter of safe conduct, used by merchants
GRAF: Count
HAUS: House or building
HAUPTMANN: Captain or leader
HOLZFRAU: Woodwife or Waldmannlein, female creature of the woods, frequently the mate of a schrat
KIRCHE: Church
KLOSTER: Monastery
LEIHHAUS: Pawnshop
LOSUNGER: Treasurer
MEISTER: Master
MUNZENPLATZ: Mint
OBERVOGT: High steward
PLATZ: Plaza, square or place
RAT: Council
RAUBRITTER: "Robber knight," from "raub" (robber) and "ritter) (knight)
REICHSSTADTE: Imperial Free City
RICHTER: Professional judge
RITTER: Armed rider, knight
SCHLOSS: Castle
SCHRAT: Wodewose or "wild man" of the woods
SCHULTEISS: Baliff or judge usually imperial
SCHULZ: Headman or knight-mayor
STADT: City
TURM: Fortified tower or keep
UNIVERSITAT: University
VOGT: Steward, magistrate, governor
VON: Sir, a knightly title (as in "Sir John))
WURM: worm, but frequently a lizard or scaled worm
ZEUGHAUS: Barracks

 

 

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