Name of Austria


Document in which "ostarrichi" was first mentioned 996 (red circle)

The German name of Austria Österreich derives from the Old High German word Ostarrîchi "eastern realm", first attested in the famous "Ostarrîchi document" of AD 996, where the term refers to the Margraviate ruled by the Babenberg Count Henry I located mostly in what is today Lower Austria and part of Upper Austria.

The name Austria is a latinization of the same Germanic word for "east", *austrō also found in Austrasia, the eastern part of Merovingian Francia.

Contents

Österreich

German Österreich is readily analysable as connected to östlich "eastern" and Reich "realm, dominion, empire", and all Germanic languages other than English have corresponding names, Danish Østrig, Dutch Oostenrijk, Frisian Eastenryk, Icelandic Austurríki etc. Finnish with Itävalta has a loan-translation, from itä "east" and valta "power".

Etymology

The name probably originates in a vernacular translation of the Medieval Latin name for the region, Marchia orientalis, which translates as "eastern marches" or "eastern borderland", as it was situated at the eastern edge of the Holy Roman Empire (and of the Duchy of Bavaria, respectively).[1]

However, Austrian historian Friedrich Heer stated in his book Der Kampf um die österreichische Identität (The Struggle Over Austrian Identity), that the name has an older history, originating with the Celtic name of Noricum which Heer takes as No- or Nor- meaning "east" or "eastern", and -rig "realm, dominion", so that both the Latin Marchia orientalis and the German Ostarrîchi would ultimately be renditions of the Celtic name.

An alternative theory, proposed by the Austrian slavistics professor Otto Kronsteiner, suggests that the term Ostarrîchi is taken from a Slavic toponym 'Ostravica' meaning 'pointed hill', taking its popular meaning of 'Eastern realm' at a much later time.[dubious – discuss][2] This theory was rejected as untenable by Austrian linguist Heinz-Dieter Pohl.[3]

Ostarrîchi document

Search Wikisource Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The document was issued by Emperor Otto III on November 1, 996 in Bruchsal to Gottschalk von Hagenau, Bishop of Freising. It is today kept in the Bayrisches Hauptstaatsarchiv in Munich (Kaiserselekt 859). In the document, the emperor grants some land around Neuhofen an der Ybbs to the abbey of Freising as a fief. The lands and some other communities in the vicinity, which the abbey acquired later, were held until 1803, when they were incorporated into Austria.

The historical significance of the document lies in the fact that it is the first time that the name Ostarrîchi, apparently the linguistic ancestor of Österreich, the German name for Austria, is mentioned, even though it applied only to a relatively small territory. The document states that the term is used in the vernacular (see the Latin in the text of the document below), which is taken to mean that the term must have been used before the document was issued.

Austria

Further information: Ostara

The name "Austria" is a Medieval Latin (12th century) coinage, ultimately derived from the same Germanic *austrō "east" also found in the name of Austrasia, the part of Merovingian Francia east of the Rhine.[4] The expression Felix Austria ("happy Austria") referred to the meteoric rise of Habsburg Austria during the late 15th to early 17th centuries. The term is thus not genuinely Latin, and indeed prone to confusion with Latin auster "south", e.g. in the name of Australia.

In English usage, the name is attested since the early 17th century (OED). Austria was also adopted in most Romance and Slavic, and many other non-Germanic languages, including Italian, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Greek, Estonian, Turkish, Albanian, etc.; French is an exception within the Romance group in adopting the German name, as Autriche.

Rakousko

The Czech and Slovak languages have a peculiar name for Austria. Czech Rakousko and Slovak Rakúsko neither derived from German Österrreich nor from Latin Austria.

The Czech name of Rakousko, previously also Rakúsy and later Rakousy, which is still used for the states of Upper and Lower Austria (Horní a Dolní Rakousy), originates in the name of the Austrian castle and town of Raabs an der Thaya near the Czech-Austrian border, formerly also known as Ratgoz or Ratgos. [5]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ This name was temporarily revived, being translated into German as Ostmark, the name by which Austria was referred to officially by the Nazi regime after the Anschluss of 1938. Cf. Kastner (2007:239).
  2. ^ [1], Der Standard, 30 Nov. 1996[unreliable source?]
  3. ^ [2], Die Presse
  4. ^ The first known use of the name Austria appears in a 12th century deed issued by Conrad III to the Klosterneuburg Monastery. Cf. Kastner (2007:239).
  5. ^ What do crayfish, reeds and Austria have in common?

References

  • Kastner, Hugo (2007). Von Aachen bis Zypern: Geographische Namen und ihre Herkunft. Baden-Baden: Humboldt Verlags GmbH. ISBN 978-3-89994-124-1. 

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