The
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
name of Austria, , derives from the
Old High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
word . A variant is recorded in the Ostarrîchi Document of 996. This word is thought to be a translation of Latin
Marchia Orientalis (eastern borderland) into a local dialect. This was a march, or borderland, of the Duchy of
BavariaBavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
created in 976.
Reich also means "realm" or "empire", but this is a
false cognateFalse cognates are pairs of words in the same or different languages that are similar in form and meaning but have different roots. That is, they appear to be, or are sometimes considered, cognates, when in fact they are not....
.
OstmarkOstmark is a German term meaning either Eastern march when applied to territories or Eastern Mark when applied to currencies.Ostmark may refer to:...
, a translation of
Marchia Orientalis into standard German, was used officially when the country was
annexedThe Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
by Nazi Germany.
The name "Austria" is a latinization of
Österreich, which was first recorded in the 12th century. This has led to much confusion as German
Ost is "east", but Latin
auster is "south".
Etymology
Österreich is derived from
Old High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
Ostarrîchi. The term probably originates as a vernacular translation of the
LatinMedieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
name (eastern borderland). The
ostar- is related to
Old High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
ōstan "eastern", but its exact derivation is unclear. Old High German
rihhi had the meaning of "realm, domain".
The
Marchia orientalis, also called the Bavarian Eastern
MarchMarch is in present time held to be the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is one of the seven months which are 31 days long....
(
OstmarkOstmark is a German term meaning either Eastern march when applied to territories or Eastern Mark when applied to currencies.Ostmark may refer to:...
) and the
March of AustriaThe March of Austria was created in 976 out of the territory that probably formed the earlier March of Pannonia. It is also called the Margraviate of Austria or the Bavarian Eastern March. In contemporary Latin, it was the marchia Austriae, Austrie marchionibus, or the marcha Orientalis...
(
Marchiam Austriae), was a prefecture of the
Duchy of BavariaThe history of Bavaria stretches from its earliest settlement and its formation as a stem duchy in the 6th century through its inclusion in the Holy Roman Empires to its status as an independent kingdom and, finally, as a large and significant Bundesland of the modern Federal Republic of...
. It was assigned to the Babenberg family in 976. The variant
Ostarrîchi is known from a single usage dated 996. Later Medieval documents record the word as either
Osterrîche (official) or as
Osterlant (folk and poetic usage). The variation
Osterrîche is first recorded in 998.
Marcha Osterriche appears on a deed granted by Emperor
Henry IVHenry IV was King of the Romans from 1056 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 until his forced abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century...
and dated 1058.
Austrian historian
Friedrich HeerFriedrich Heer was a historian born in Vienna. He received a PhD at the University in Vienna in 1938. Even as a student he came into conflict with pan-German thinking historians as a staunch opponent of National Socialism....
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
CelticThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
name of
NoricumNoricum, in ancient geography, was a Celtic kingdom stretching over the area of today's Austria and a part of Slovenia. It became a province of the Roman Empire...
which Heer takes as
No- or
Nor- meaning "east" or "eastern", and
-rig "realm, dominion", so that both the Latin 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. This theory was rejected as untenable
by Austrian linguist Heinz-Dieter Pohl.
Ostarrîchi document
The document was issued by Emperor
Otto IIIOtto III , a King of Germany, was the fourth ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. He was elected King in 983 on the death of his father Otto II and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 996.-Early reign:...
on November 1, 996 in
BruchsalBruchsal is a city at the western edge of the Kraichgau, approximately 20 km northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany...
to Gottschalk von Hagenau, Bishop of Freising. It is today kept in the
Bayrisches Hauptstaatsarchiv in
MunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
.
The historical significance of the document lies in the fact that it is the first time that the name
Ostarrîchi, the linguistic ancestor of
Österreich, the
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
name for
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, is mentioned, even though it applied only to a relatively small territory.
The document concerns a donation of the "territory which is known in the vernacular as
Ostarrichi"(
regione vulgari vocabulo Ostarrichi), specified as the region of
Neuhofen an der YbbsNeuhofen an der Ybbs is a community in the district of Amstetten in Lower Austria in Austria....
(
in loco Niuuanhova dicto).
The emperor donated this land to the abbey of
FreisingFreising is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district Freising. Total population 48,500.The city is located north of Munich at the Isar river, near the Munich International Airport...
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.
Latin and English
The name "" is a latinization of German
Österreich. This has led to much confusion as German
Ost is "east", but Latin
auster is "south". It is first recorded as
Austrie marchionibus (Margrave of Austria) on a deed issued by
Conrad IIIConrad III may refer to:*Conrad III of Provence *Conrad III, Duke of Bavaria *Conrad III of Germany *Conrad III of Dachau *Conrad III of Jerusalem...
to the Klosterneuburg Monastery in 1147. On the
Privilegium MinusThe Privilegium Minus is a document issued by Emperor Frederick I on September 17, 1156. It included the elevation of the Margraviate of Austria to a Duchy, which was given as an inheritable fief to the House of Babenberg. Its recipient was Frederick's paternal uncle Margrave Henry II Jasomirgott...
of 1156, the name of the country is given as
marchiam Austriae (
March of AustriaThe March of Austria was created in 976 out of the territory that probably formed the earlier March of Pannonia. It is also called the Margraviate of Austria or the Bavarian Eastern March. In contemporary Latin, it was the marchia Austriae, Austrie marchionibus, or the marcha Orientalis...
) and as
Austriae ducatum (Duchy of Austria). In English usage, "Austria" is attested since the early 17th century.
Other languages
All Germanic languages other than English have a name for Austria corresponding to
Österreich: Danish
Østrig, Dutch
Oostenrijk, Frisian
Eastenryk, and Icelandic
Austurríki. Finnish
Itävalta is also derived from the German name:
itä means "east" and
valta "state". "Austria" was adopted in most other languages, including Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Maltese, Russian, Polish, Slovene, Greek, Estonian, Turkish, and Albanian. French is an exception within the Romance group in adopting the German name,
Autriche.
The
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
and
SlovakSlovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
languages have a peculiar name for Austria. Czech
Rakousko and Slovak
Rakúsko neither derived from German
Österreich nor from Latin
Austria. The Czech name of
Rakousko, previously also
Rakúsy and later
Rakousy, which is still used for the states of
UpperUpper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...
and
Lower AustriaLower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
(
Horní a
Dolní Rakousy), originates in the name of the Austrian castle and town of
Raabs an der ThayaRaabs an der Thaya is a municipality with 3,114 inhabitants in Waidhofen an der Thaya in the Waldviertel of Lower Austria, near the Austrian border with the Czech Republic. The area of the municipality is 134.65 square kilometers, 27.6% of which is forested.The German Thaya and the Moravian Thaya...
near the Czech-Austrian border, formerly also known as Ratgoz or Ratgos.
The Arabic name for Austria is
an-Nimsā (النمسا). This is a borrowing (via Ottoman Turkish or Persian "نمچه" – "Nemçe") from the Slavic name for "Germans",
němьci, whence Croatian
Njemačka, Serbian
Nemačka (Немачка), Slovene
Nemčija, Czech has
Německo, Slovak
Nemecko, etc., all meaning "Germany".
External links