Czech Toponyms of Foreign Origin as Witnesses of Multicultural Contacts in Central Europe
Abstract
The fact that on the territory of the present Czech Republic different nations and ethnic groups came into
close contact is also reflected in Czech toponymy where several layers of names of foreign origin can be
distinguished. Besides the oldest toponyms (mostly hydronyms and oronyms) from the pre-Slavonic
substrata ('Morava', 'Odra', 'Labe', 'Jizera'; 'Říp', 'Oškobrh') younger German names (adapted in various degree
into Czech – e.g., 'Varnsdorf', 'Frýdlant', 'Liberec') occur often on the whole Czech territory. In the toponymy
of the Eastern part of the Czech Republic (especially in Eastern Moravia in the Carpathians) names of
Romanian (or more precisely Balkan) origin can be found ('Grúň'), which have been introduced there with
the so-called Wallachian colonization. Czech toponymy has been considerably enriched with the
geographical names borrowed from the Bible ('Tábor', 'Oreb', 'Sion', 'Jordán') and with toponyms from remote
regions ('Temešvár', 'Amerika', 'Habeš', 'Port Artur', 'Korea') as well.
close contact is also reflected in Czech toponymy where several layers of names of foreign origin can be
distinguished. Besides the oldest toponyms (mostly hydronyms and oronyms) from the pre-Slavonic
substrata ('Morava', 'Odra', 'Labe', 'Jizera'; 'Říp', 'Oškobrh') younger German names (adapted in various degree
into Czech – e.g., 'Varnsdorf', 'Frýdlant', 'Liberec') occur often on the whole Czech territory. In the toponymy
of the Eastern part of the Czech Republic (especially in Eastern Moravia in the Carpathians) names of
Romanian (or more precisely Balkan) origin can be found ('Grúň'), which have been introduced there with
the so-called Wallachian colonization. Czech toponymy has been considerably enriched with the
geographical names borrowed from the Bible ('Tábor', 'Oreb', 'Sion', 'Jordán') and with toponyms from remote
regions ('Temešvár', 'Amerika', 'Habeš', 'Port Artur', 'Korea') as well.