That certain parts of Austria, even relatively western parts have been settled by Suavs is not controversial. We can only point to the names of villages and mountains to establish that. Thus, for example, on the borders of Carinthia we have the Gross Venediger mountain near the town of Pregratten, the nearby Mullwitz as well as Pasterzen glaciers or Windisch Matray or Matrey. Just northwest of those Krimml.

Curioously,the name of the Venediger range apparently has nothing to do with the Windische but rather either with the city of Venice (Venedig) or with the name of a mysterious group of foreign people who lurked in the mountains (described in Teutonic lore almost like leprechauns or dwarves – check out this Wikipedia entry for more on these Walen or Venedigermandln who wrote their secrets regarding treasures in Krkonoše aka Riesengebirge, Jizerské hory aka Isergebirge and, apparently also in the Eastern Alps, in the so-called Walenbücher).

This basically runs through northern East Tirol.

Here is a map showing Suavic placenames in Austria. I don’t know how accurate it is (or its source) but it seems to accurately portray the common understanding of the extent of Suavic colonization of the area.

Note that this map comes to an end right where Austria becomes “thinner” getting into Tirol (except that East Tirol is covered). In fact it stops along the north-south Kufstein-Krimml line (though the map does not show Krimml as Suavic).

Is that right? Well, certainly, once you move further west there are fewer Suavic names. Nevertheless, fewer does not mean none. And so, further northwest, you could maybe make a case for Birgitz and Pafnitz which appear in the neighborhood of Innsbruck (the capital of Tirol) as well as for Scharnitz in the north close to the German border as well as Gschnitz in the south (and just to the West of Vinaders and Venn). And a bit further west is Dormitz.Maybe you could also ask questions about Venetberg and Wenns.

But what about much further West?

Well, at some point we asked the question of the origin of the name Bregenz. The city sits on the shores of the Bodensee and, were it found is East Germany, its name would no doubt be explained with a Slavic etymology (breg meaning shore). However, when the same etymology was applied years ago to Bregenz, the immediate and enduring objection was that Slavs never made it that far West. We had questioned the definitiveness of that conclusion pointing out the number of –ow ending names around Bodensee such as Lindow, Langnow, Argow, Hagnow (today Hagnau am Bodensee), Rychow (aka Rinchow, today Reichenau), Metnow (see here or here) or Elekow, Burgow, Tergenow, Tettnow, Rhynow, Hegnow, Reitnow, Liggnow, Betznow, Laymnow, Goslow, Herisow, Lustnow, Hennow, Unpinow, Elgow, Elsow, Kromnow (see below for location), another (?) Unpinow, Yllnow, another Gossow, Klingnow, Lengnow, Kinnow, Willisgow, Brittnow, Metznow, Berow, Raittnow, Winow, Signow, Langnow, Tergernow, Witnow, Tottnow, Warnow (same as below?), another Witnow, Siglow, Rainhartsow, Hoppfow, Hannow, Sirnow, Dietizow, Durnow, Turndow, Buchow (see here and  here). Or in an early article Varnow/Warnow (today’s Fahrnau).

While some of the stems here are clearly Teutonic, the suffixes are suggestive of Suavic. The -ow suffix does not seem to appear much in center-west or northwest Germany ory for that matter, in the Teutonic heartland of Scandinavia (outside of the -skovs in Denmark that refer to a forest).

Of course, there were also other Suavic sounding names not ending in -ow such as Prasbin or Kislec (today Kisslegg), Engelitz or Mogletz/Möglitz slightly to the north. And here is another Kremlen in the Bodensee area. We also pointed out other names such as Belgrad (see here) that are clearly Suavic. We even had a little blurb on Slavs in Switzerland (see here). And some of these areas made it into the Spruner Swabia map which, however, we did not yet discuss here.

I am certainly not the first person to ask theses questions – the most recent attempt to bring some light to this came from Jožef Šavli, Matej Bor and Ivan Tomažič in their “Veneti” book. For the “establishment” views see Robert von Planta’s and Andrea Schorta’s Rätisches Namenbuch.

We thought now that it might be interesting to look at some of the actual maps from the time periods when these names were still used in more or less a Suavic-looking/sounding form.

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So let’s get deeper into this !

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Below with some overlap you see Elgow (today Elgg; same as above?), Eglisow (today Eglisau), Altnow (today Altnau), Hennow (today Henau by Uzwil; same as above?), Herisow (today Herisau; same as above), Rhynow aka Rynow (today Rheinau; same as above?), Vlnow (today Illnau; same as above?), Langenow (Unter- and Oberlangnau in Germany), Gossaw (Gossow? see below for another Gossow; today Gosau).

North of Rhynow there was Halow just northwest of Dorflingen.

And further west, as we leave the Kleckgow (that is Gau) we had Bernow by Koblenz, now seemingly subsumed by Leibstadt.

Now remember the -gow suffix is spposed to indicate a Gau. For example, many of the above names appear in the Turgow (aka Turgau) (what the etymology of that is is also interesting, considering that tur, for example, is the Suavic word for an “auroch”). Further, the -aw endings are supposed to refer to water though such a name for water has not been attested in a Germanic language as far as I know. But then what do you do with names that do have an -ow suffix but not -gow? At the very least we are dealing with a peculiar overlap among Germanic and Suavic naming conventions.

It turns out that such -ow suffixed names do appear – though very infrequently and usually in clusters – even further out south. Thus, around we have Furstenow (today Furstenau) and Alvenüw (today Alvaneu).

Once again, you might say that since these stems are obviously Germanic this is just a reflection of the confluence of conventions as mentioned above or, at best, this fact just proves that the Suavic tradition of -ow suffixes somehow made it into Switzerland. And yet, as already mentioned above,  you do not see that in Westphalia (well, except for Crakow) or Scandinavia. And yet next to the Germanic Alvenuw are today’s Surava (near Perendellaberg) and Stierva. These may be Celtic (the -ava suffix is IE) and Surovas is a name attested elsewhere in Switzerland but the “elsewhere” is in parts we are about to discuss.

Im any event, if we move towards Zurich we get more of the same though in fewer numbers.

We run into Gudisow (today’s Gundisau next to Russikon), Hitnow (today’s Hitnau) and Oberhitnow and Ylnow (though this seems to be the same as Vlnow, today’s Illnau, already mentioned above).  Again, these are written with the -ow suffix, not the German -au suffix.

Again, some of these could be Suavic but others are clearly Germanic.

Once you get deeper into Zurichgow we have Gossow (today’s Gossau), Wolrow (today’s Wollerau; elsewhere Wolraw, Woffrauw?) and Uffnow (today’s Ufenau; later Uffenauw – same as Ussnow from here?; nearby also Lutzelauw).

Next to Wolrow (below already updated to Wolrau), curiously we also have Altwinden (whose today’s location I’ve been unable to pinpoint). To the east, less convincingly, Ober- and Unter- Schwendi.

Oh, and do not forget Grinow (Grynau) at the southeastern tip of the Ober See (next to Uznach).

Another Langenow (and this is quite clearly not a Suavic name though has a Suavic prefix) is  the northwest side of the lake complex.

What the Babenwag next to Hirzel referred to, we will not presume to guess but that too is at least slightly interesting.

A bit to the west we have Knonow (today’s Knonau). 

Just east of Knonow – here shown as Kronow (surely not Kronów!?) – we have Rossow.

If you head northwest from Knonau, you will come to the area that was the subject matter of this post. Here we find the towns described as having some/all of its population be Wendish: Muri, Birchi (today’s Birri) and Wolen (today’s Wohlen). Birri is the villa primitus silva fuit, sed exculta ad hominibus, qui vocantur Winda.

The others mentioned in that other post as Suavic were Butwil, Hermenswil and Althuesern. Althuesern was also referred to in the property listings of the are in 1027-1210 (?): cum [villa] plus esset silvosa, exstirpata est silva ab hominibus, ui vocantur Winda. Didn’t immediately locate them but did find that Aristau next door to Birri was once called Arestovw (though also Arnestouw and Arenstovw). Further, if you go along the River Reuss where it meets the Aare, you will find Windisch.

Just south of Knonow and west of the Zugersee, you have Hanow (today’s Hanau, north of Gyslicken, today’s Gisikon).

If you want to go past the Sempachersee (aka Sur See) you have Willisow (Willisau) with a clear Teutonic prefix (indicating the owner?).

Nearby we also have Ober- and Nieder Vrnow (today’s Ober- and Niederurnen). Further east Nesselaw (aka Nesslauw aka Nesslau, compare Niesiołów near Włocławek) and Kromenaw (today’s Nesslau-Krummenau; compare with, for example, Kromonov, later Crumenaw, earlier Crumpow now Kromnów in Silesia). I mentioned these here some time back. Of course, these have an -aw suffix but figured they ought to be mentioned here. Further, if you follow today’s route 16 east towards Liechtenstein, you will come close to Mount Slewiz/Ischlawitz (see here).

If you move southwest from the Zurichsee and Obersee you get to Der Vier Waldsteten See where we have Gerisow (today’s Gersau) near Switz (elsewhere Swytz). As for Sarnen (of the White Book fame with its William/Wilhelm Tell story) which here is written as Saruen (Sarven?), Silenen and Swanden, I am inclined to reserve judgment.

Just on the outskirts of Lucerne you had Linow now subsumed by the bigger city.

Ok, let’s now switch directions.

Let’s go back to Bregentz aka Bregenz and move down southwards along the ridge of the mountain range depicted in the Justus Danckerts map of the area (1651-1700) (from the Nova et Accuratißima Galliae Tabula, Vulgo Royaume De France). Close by is Pruc (couldn’t immediately locate) but is that a Suavic name? But then we also have Ruthin (today’s Rüthi).

A bit further to the east we find Nittesaw, Langenaw, Bitzaw and Statpernaw. Some of these may have German stems even if the suffix could be Slavic. Still, this side of the Lech there is nothing,

And then we get to Pludentz (or Pludertz; today’s Bludenz). Is Pludentz a Slavic name? Well, like Bregentz it has the -entz suffix but that certainly could be Germanic. The corresponding Polish suffix would have to be something like the nasal -ęcz or – encz. And if we included Pludentz in the Slavic column, we’d presumably have to consider Tenatz, Castelz, Ragatz, Eschens, Malans, Serneüs aka Serneus and maybe even Vadutz which after all (as Vaduz) is the capital of Liechtenstein. And after all there was a Dschann – now Schaan – nearby which makes you think of the translator of the Chronicle of the Slavs, Francis Joseph Tschan (and note Wartau below!). So let’s not do that (though interestingly, nearby there is a Radin and Vandans and Matschwitz).

And then we get to Küblitz aka Chüblitz (today’s Küblis). Here is another take of the same area (here note Wartau (or Werdaberg? elsewhere, it seems, Wartaw; today’s Wartau) guarding the Rhein).

Still, kubeł/kubło meaning “bucket” is supposedly a Germanic borrowing  in Polish (originally Suavic wiadro which, nachdem Herrn Brückner, was joined by kubeł from Kübel, itself from Latin cupella meaning “barrel”) and the -itz suffix, well, it’s only one such example.

And, after all, much farther west we find the following -itzes:

• Ginitz aka Chunitz aka Chinitz (today’s Köniz) and Pimplitz (today’s Bümplitz) and further west Galmitz (today’s Ulmiz?) or, for that matter, Wola, today’s Wohlen on Wohlensee),

• Bodnitz (locate yourself),

• Not to mention, again, the eponymous Switz which itself lies next to Ruditz/Raditz (today’s Rudenz) and, again, the nearby Sarnen,

Here is the sam Ruditz as Raditz.

• Seritz aka Siritz (today’s Sierentz near Basel and the Wies river),

• A bit closer, near Chur, Damintz (aka Daminitz; today’s Tamins ). Note Scharins (today’s Scharans) as well as Ziran nearby. Ziran or Ziraun-Reschen is in Romansh (or rätoromanisch) (aka Zillis-Reischen). And yet we have towns such as Žirany in Slovakia or Żerań in Poland. We leave the nearby towns of Tschappina and Tartar (near Cazis) alone.

In fact, Wojciech Kętrzyński once argued that Constance/Konstanz may have been Suavic because it had once been shown on some maps as Kostnitz. This is unlikely since the earliest mention was  it seems, Constancia.

And what about Stadonze aka Stadonce aka Stadoentz (today’s Stadönz) between Berken aka Boricken and Graben on the Aare?

But let’s go back to Küblitz/Chüblitz and ask what about the nearby Rany (Pany? As in today’s Panybach?) or the Walgow (Walgau?) river (or Gau?)? Or Slepina (or for that matter the Ascharina) mountain?

Who knows.

But then you keep moving southeast and you come to Smolencz (already in 1585 Mercator; Ortelius Molenz). Now, what do you do with that?

Well, for one thing it’s interesting to observe that nearby you also have Semetz (today’s Zernez?) and further south the Slavic but also Italian sounding Cepino/a (another Cepina/os are in northern Italy). Then there is Stadolina on the Italian side.

But getting back to Smolencz. It seems this is an error (though a very curious one to have come up with the potentially Suavic “Sm” beginning) since an earlier version of the map by Lazius shows Molencz (we were unable to locate either). On the other hand, that same map shows Semetz as Servecz naturally raising the potential for the presence of the Serbs. In fact, nearby we have today’s town of Vinadi.

Going back west you have towns such as Samnün or Samün (today’s Samnaun) and, following the Inn southwest, Schlin (today’s Tschlin), Lavin, Susch (here Sus) and, most interestingly, Zernetz (today’s Zernez, compare with Żernica aka Deutsch Zernitz in Silesia). Note, again too Serneüs/Serneus near Vadutz.

There are also some interesting mountains nearby. We will come back to this area but note Piz Plavna east of Zernez.

Moving briefly further west again we have Mount Gemsengrad (Gemschgrätli) in the Stockhorn chain south of Bern. Note too Strüssligrat – presumably then “grat” means something in some local dialect? Maybe some reader can help explain. You can see this here.

Or here.

Compare this with Gotschnagrat below.

Anyway, of course, just as with -ow or -itz, I am not claiming that every -entz ending is Suavic. It is not but some of these could be and that is why we ought to examine the history of each such name.

What is also interesting that some of these Suavic-like names continue on the Italian side of the Austrian and Swiss borders.

In Austria by the Italian border we have Vent (and, of course, Venter Tal). When we hop across the border to Italy, we are in Alpi Venoste. Here we have Allitz or Alliz next to Lasa or Laas. Further east Partschins as well as Sciaves (Schabs) and Varna (Vahrn). Further west, Curon Venosta or Graun im Vinschgau with Plawenn or Piavenna next to it. Now Plauen is clearly Suavic if it appears in lands understood to have been Suavic. For example, Plauen (Vicus Plawe) in Saxony – as in Heinrich von Plauen and Heinrich Reuß von Plauen – comes from the Suavic plavna. In fact, this is a great place to remind you of the above-mentioned Piz Plavna.

Oddly, there is also Slingia or Schlinig nearby so feel free to loop in the Vandals. Further west Pis Sesvenna and Piz Pisoc. All in all, however, not very impressive.

At the Swiss-Austian-Italian “triborder”, however, we have Piz Lad. On the Swiss side the mountain Curuna Lada (Valsot) between a mountain called Krone and Fil Spadla. The term lada means “wide” (so Curuna Lada would mean a “wide crown” ) in Sursilvan but Sursilvan is not spoken in the part of Graubünden canton where the Curuna Lada sits (nor on the border where Lad sits). The same term appears in Rumantsch Grischun but this is like the esperanto of Romansh languages.

And there are other interesting names: Piz Tasna, Piz Arina, Piz Tschütta, Piz Mundin.

On the Swiss-Austrian border, near the above-mentioned town of Vinadi we have the town of Spiss (compare with Polish Spisz – first written as Spis – but then what is the etymology of Spisz? See Rospond and, more recently, Nalepa). Further west Madrisa, Chlein, Piz Buin. Less convincingly Roggenhorn. No one doubts that -horn is a German suffix but the prefix? Then also Gorihorn, Gorigrat, Gotschna, Gotschnagrat (compare this with Gemsengrad) and Jägglisch Horn. And, of course, there is Mount Strela – strzała (arrow in Polish/Suavic), strahlen (to shine in German) or stella/Estrella (star in Latin-based languages)

Let’s go back to the Italian side. What about Piz Sesvenna? Further southwest, could Trepalle be Slavic? Tiran aka Tirano (but then what about Tirana in Albania?)? Acqua del Vescovo? Piz Trevisina? I doubt it.

But what about just back across the Swiss border, the Lago di Poschiavo or, really, Poschiavo itself? Of course, the Italian Schiavo comes from Sclavi. Further west we have Piz Tschierva (presumably from the Suavic for “red” – itself derived from the, probably Polish, cochineal from which red dye was made), Piz Salatschina, Piz Gross Pulaschin (today’s Polaschin, supposedly from Latin polex !?) and, even more interestingly, Piz Corvatsch (south of Samedan). Is this somehow related to the Croats (as is the French name for a “tie” – cravate)?

Seems preposterous? The official explanation demands it to come from corvus, that is crow!

Well, bear with us!

Piz Corvatsch (the -tsch suffix is similar to -tz or -tz) opposite from the also Suavic-sounding Piz Lagrev and closer but less Suavic-sounding Piz Surlej.

Hopping over a piece of Italy to get back into Switzerland further west we come Piz Corbet. Is that cognate with Corvatsch? What of the nearby Mesocco? And, more interestingly, Fil de Dragiva? Across the Italian border from which we have Zerbi.

Ignore the towns of Prosto or Grono and you still have Bosco Gurin near Pizzo Biela and Pizzo Cramalina. We will leave Pizzo Alzasca out of these speculations. And if you go further north from Biela towards Lucerne you will find Wendenstöcke, Wendenjoch, Wendengletscher and Wendenhorn.

There are other names in the general Alps area that appear on the old maps, some of which are still used and that we will let you find. For a sample you can start here (note not all of them or even most of them are likely Suavic but all of them deserve a more systematic look than has been given them thus far):

• Brienz aka Brientz
• Tschiertschen aka Tschiersen (compare this with the Suavic word for a “hornet” – szerszeń Polish, pronounced “shershen”)
• Lentz
• Cazis
• Tujetsch
• Uznach
• Rutin near Merch, Mons Lintthal, Glaris
• Seerutin
• Servantia (near Verossaz)
• Kukalinberg near Schmitten
• Alpe Naga
• Dubino near Sasocobo (near Lake Como)
• Fornice
• Polese (there is another Polese near Padua) on Tesino river north of Molano;
• Gora and Samolice (?) nearby;
• Misauco (same as Messoco?)
• Puster Thal (empty? in South Tirol)
• Arytow (near aschwandeii)
• Purgew
• Alpeler Seelin
• Knonow & Rossow (this spelling is uncertain)

There is also Zamos (or Zambs?) near Voltepach/Clausen though this is an even less likely candidate.

Now, do you recall that Piz Corvatsch? Well, let’s go even further West. Here we come to the River Sorba (Torrente Sorba) with its own Sorba Valley and, of course, Mount Sorba. Nearby there is a town of Pila.

If you continue west you will come to Bielciuken, Orsia, then Torin, Chissin and another Pila and others. About halfway between Chissin and Gemsengrad in the north lies the Rhone valley where we find Granges aka Gradetsch aka Gradetz about which I wrote here. Just east of it we have Venthone, Inden and Varen.

What about on the Swiss-French border? Well, there is this:

• Doulina (near Verrand – today Dolonne or Dzeulena)

Furthermore, check out this Masurian reference.

Today this goes by the same name – La Masure. Ridiculous? Probably, given that there are other La Masures in France – near Nantes and Rennes but also on the French-Belgian border – same area where Perunnic names are aplenty. Bretagne Veneti? Or are those too far east of them?

Interestingly, aside from Poland, there is also a Masurica in Serbia and then a number of similarly sounding names in India.

Oh, and about halfway between Gemsengrad and

I am certainly not suggesting that these are all necessarily Suavic. In fact, few or none of them may turn out to be Suavic. However, I am certain that, as with the above Swiss names, there has been no proper scientific investigation of these Italian names. Further, it should be uncontroversial that most of the names in all these regions are hardly Suavic and indisputably German, Italian and French names predominate. What’s interesting to us is not to show that these regions are covered by Suavic nomenclature but rather that there may be, contrary to any known suggestion, some of Suavic Wortgut present there. Because of the Ostsiedlung we know what Suvaic prefixes such as -ów, -ice, -in/-ina/-ino look like in German. When their German vesrions appear Switzerland or western Austria, however, they are discounted because, by accepted hypothesis, the Suavs could not have settled there. Of course, similarities do occur, even across continents, and no one would propose to suggest that the Wanda people of Africa are somehow descendants of the Vandals or of the Polish Princess Wanda of Kraków. Nevertheless, eliminating the impossible does not translate into necessarily also eliminating the improbable. The question then is why not have an academic discussion of what the above suffixes would look like if the names they were attached to had been mangled by the French, the Italians or the Dutch – not just the Germans.

We leave you with the Swiss cheese map showing most of the names that were highlighted above in the “Let’s get deeper into this!” section as well as a few of the highlighted names from the introductory section.

Once again, the place names around the Grossvenediger and to the East are clearly Suavic. The few place names around Innsbruck may or may not be Suavic. Finally everything to the West of that is the subject of this post. Note that what this looks like is as if Suavic colonization reached (started from?) the southeastern or maybe even eastern part of Switzerland and may have extended as far West as northwestern Italy but was then “cut through” in the Tirol area. Also, aside from a few place names around Bern/Lucerne, the entire center and West of Switzerland shows no clear signs of any Suavic settlement.

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