Four Years ofBeitrage

Madison S. Beeler
1954 Names  
IT IS NOT CUSTOMARY for one journal to review another. However, it may be of value to the readers of Names to know something about the current interests, directions, methods and achievements of European scholars who concern themselves with the study of names. The contents of one of the leading journals of the continent devoted to this branch of learning can certainly inform us on this topic, and so there will here be presented a summary survey of the contents of the first four volumes of the
more » ... ntributions to the Study of Names," the foremost German periodical in the field. No one person can be expected to have competence in all parts of the vast area encompassed by this subject, nor to be able to evaluate critically the various approaches here exemplified; I therefore do not feel called upon to take a stand upon all the controversial topics that are here discussed. The Beitriige) of which three issues appear annually, constitute in a sense the continuation of the older Zeitschrift fur Ortsnamenforschung) which commenced publication in 1925 under the editorship of Joseph Schnetz and which-since 1937 under the name Zeitschrift fur N amenforschung-suspended after the appearance of the nineteenth volume in 1943. The first title of this journal described its field as place-name research, and this remained the area of chief interest even after the title was changed, as it does in the post-war continuation. The Beitriige do not contain a programmatic statement of policy; but the character of the articles and the names of the contributors demonstrate that it is-except for the change of title and of editor-essentially an organ with the same standards as its predecessor. Schnetz apparently felt that the field of name research was one particularly attractive to the dilettante, for the first statement
doi:10.1179/nam.1954.2.1.55 fatcat:nligdgmdzfattp4slhzx6go62i