Meaning of Swiss place names

leophillalo · 16 June 2009 17:24

Adlikon, Hombrechtikon, Dietikon, Pfaffikon, Uetikon, Zollikon, Zumikon etc etc. You get the drift. Anybody any ideas what -ikon means at the end of all these place names? Seems to be an Aarau/Zurich thing. Probably has something to do with the landscape? Must've cropped up in a pub quiz up there sometime. C'mon DB...

azaler · 16 June 2009 18:06

-ikon comes from -ighof, and Hof means yard, court, landed property.

Wiedikon for example got its name from the Alemanic settler Wiedo and his clan, the Wiedings, who set foot on this part of present day Zurich sometime past the year 500.

Pfäffikon SZ on the other hand was first on record as Pfaffinchova which just means "yard of the pater" (father or pastor).

Uetikon was Uotinchova around 1150 or Uotinghofen: courts of the Uotingers.

Zollikon is named after another Alemanic clan leader called Zollo who lived around 600-700.

leophillalo · 16 June 2009 18:07

Just asked a dozen of my "real Swiss" co-workers and nobody had the foggiest idea what "ikon" stands for in all those village names. All of them speculated though that it must have come from the Roman period.

azaler · 16 June 2009 18:11

And -wil is Weiler in High German or hamlet in English. If Wädenswil was British it would be called Wädensham and Rapperswil would be Rappersham

Saffo · 16 June 2009 18:35

Hmmm - are you sure about that? Having lived in a -ham I always thought that the -ham suffix was Old English / Norse in origin which wikipedia seems to agree with:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_toponymy

(Scroll down to the section titled "England")

Cheers

yeuynix · 16 June 2009 18:36

had a conversation about egg the other day - as in wildegg - we established that egg is a corner - ecke - quite interesting! thanks for the ikon and wil - have passed it on to my family...

nic_blodgere · 16 June 2009 19:08

I've asked Swiss friends before and they were a little taken aback and couldn't answer.

What fascinates me is why every town has the same collection of street names. Waldegg, Sonnenberg, Bahnhof, ...

There doesn't seem to be any tradition of naming places after people who were known or were owners or even local historic heroes.

Any ideas why?

Saffo · 16 June 2009 19:12

Good point - In Adliswil, Thalwil and Rüschlikon you'll find a "Sonnenbergstrasse". You'll also find an Altelandstrasse in many many places along with a Bahnhofstrasse, Poststrasse/weg or whatever - stations and post offices make sense but it does somehow seem that naming streets after persons is rather confined to larger towns and cities.

I'm sure it isn't, it's just our preception - it's easy for non-native language speakers to remember Bahnhofstrasse, Poststrasse, Kirchweg etc but not so easy to remember Carl Friedrich Meyer Strasse, Getrudenweg or similar.

azaler · 16 June 2009 19:22

Hmm -ham comes from -home. So my conclusion was wrong.

Broome_Bulolaja · 16 June 2009 19:34

My Swiss accountant was telling me that ikon, wil, berg, etc usually corresponds with the heritage of the founders of the city. Alemannic, Roman, Celtic, Gauls and surely many more, each seemed to have naming conventions for cities.

Zurich, for instance, comes from Turicum. And Turos was supposed to be the leader of the tribe that established the city where Zurich is now. But not sure, which city endings correspond to which tribes...need to do some research.

fduvall

Saffo · 16 June 2009 19:40

I lived in a place called "Wymondham" pronounced "Windem" - I'm not sure where the name comes from and can't find a definitive answer - here's a guess though using just "Wymond" as the root search:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_toponymy

Anyway, enough off-topic posts from me in this thread.

A swiss language question - why do the Swiss use "-li" as a diminuative and not "-chen" - and on that topic is a Swiss Mädli feminine or neuter as in Mädchen? (I've been particularly worried about the gender of these "females" ;-) )

bized · 16 June 2009 19:58

"li" is just an original swiss diminuative. Pretty much like the spanish "ito" or "ita" (fem) or the german "chen".

Swiss example: Es Härz (ein Herz) - Es Härzli (Ein Herzchen)

Spanish example: El corazon (ein Herz) - El coraconcito (ein Herzchen)

As for your second question:

Maitli is neuter: You can use "das or "es"

Es Maitli / das Maitli

You can also use: "Ä Maitli"

In comparison: Boy (masculin)

Ä Bueb - ein Bube/Knabe

dr Bueb - der bube/Knabe

azaler · 16 June 2009 20:15

Diminutives are always neuter. Mädli would be the diminutive for Madä/maggot though.

Mädchen is a diminutive where the original form was lost. It was Maget (which translates to maid). It' is pronounced Mäitli in Zurich or Meytschi in Bern dialect.

The prevalence of diminutives and their endings (-lein, -chen, -erl) or other ways of formation vary regionally. More here in German.

bized · 16 June 2009 20:24

Ok now with all the information a little test.

What means: "Es Mäitli ohni Sörgli lauft mitem Znüni uf es Bärgli?"

Arahu · 16 June 2009 20:39

Diminutive suffix "li" is like the English _let, like in booklet. That suffix is _li in Switzerland or _le in Southern Germany. Example Nestle means a small nest in the Schwäbisch dialect of Baden-Wurttemberg.