Die altgermanischen Ethnonyme

The project "Old germanic Ethnonyms" was planned to treat the etymologies of Old Germanic Ethnonyms, i.e. to critically summarise the results of the research done up to now in a short article for every name. The aim was to allow a clear view on the results of research, to comment the critically and to add new interpretations respectively. This allows the future user to form an impression of the different interpretations given for every name and of their prohability or unambiguity. This is especially important for the colleagues from neighbouring scientific fields, who are not specialised on historical and comparative linguistics or Old Germanic onomastics, i.e. for all scholars or scientific branches, dealing with the same period of time, especially for the historical branch. This is an important step towards of the Old Germanic ethnonyms, which probably will be used as a standard reference work for Old Germanic ethnonyms for many years. In consideration of the diversity of results, which are to be dealt with separately for every single name, it is impossible to summarise them in a short report. On the one hand side unchallenged interpretations can be refuted or corrected and complemented with new interpretations respectively, on the other hand side older interpretations (partially many decades old) can be confirmed. The future user will be able to draw his conclusions based on these interpretations.