New book release – Tereza Klemensová: Zeměpisné názvy v pohraničí po roce 1945: na příkladu okresu Jeseník [Geograpical names in a Border Region after 1945: as a case study of the district Jeseník]

Klemensová’s new book focuses on toponyms (place names, minor place names and street names) in Czech border region – the former Jeseník district (Silesia). Like many other border areas in the Czech Republic, this district was settled primarily by German-speaking communities from the Middle Ages onwards, therefore many local names had German origins. However, after the Second World War a process of de-Germanization began, including the forced expulsion of most German-speakers as well as the replacement of old toponyms with new Czech names – a process which represented a fundamental break in the history of the local toponymy and place memory. The monography focuses primarily on the process of the renaming and bohemization. Additionally, it gives an account of the current forms of names – not only standardized forms, but also non-standardized, „living“ names. The monography also traces the occurrence of toponyms in literary fiction connected with the local landscape and in the linguistic landscape – i.e. written texts in public spaces (e.g. on various signs). In the latter case it is possible to observe a certain trend towards the revitalization of German names, which are used for marketing purposes to allude to the pre-war era, which is widely associated with prosperity; this practice helps to create (at least for tourists) a sense of a specifically Sudeten- German genius loci. The book was published in Czech, with abstracts in Polish, English, and German.

Key words: bohemization, Czech borderlands, degermanization, Jeseníky region, nomenclature, onomastics, renaming, toponomastics, model analysis

Available at: http://www.pavelmervart.cz/kniha/zemepisne-nazvy-v-pohranici-po-roce-1945-na-prikladu-okresu-jeseni-719/ or https://oushop.osu.cz/zemepisne-nazvy-v-pohranici-po-roce-1945-na-prikladu-okresu-jesenik-id2629-sk9002.html

Mgr. Tereza Klemensová, PhD., is an assistant professor at the Department of Czech Language, Faculty of Arts, University of Ostrava (Czech Republic). She specializes in onomastics, historical grammar, language policy, and language culture. Her main focus is research of toponyms in connection with the language policy, marketing and the issue of renaming.