| šodrovc26. 09. 2011 12:36:28 |
Urbancek, Turbo. Austrians (Germans) can make a mess for all I care, but I'm afraid the Augean stable is more on our side than theirs. For the mistake on the Karavanke map we probably won't point the finger anywhere else but primarily at ourselves, at our conscience in preserving our authentic Slovenian names.
So that there aren't too many unresolved questions about German Peak, we need to look a bit into history and etymology. German Peak has nothing to do with Zelenjak, but directly with its neighbor Vrtača, which should actually be the neighbor. Yes, neighbor - Meniški vrh.  (???) Well, we probably won't change the name Vrtača anymore, it's too entrenched, but interesting is the explanation of what Vrtača actually was and how Meniški vrh evolved to Vrtača. We find an explanation about this in the Linguistic Notes of the excellent linguist and toponymist prof. dr. Dušan Čop:
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To properly understand today's wrong name forms, let me mention two more names here. The first is the mountain name Vrtača (second highest peak in Karavanke, between Stol and Begunjščica). People on the Gorenjska side (land owners on Zelenica and on the slopes of these mountains were always Slovenians, but also on the northern side only Slovenians always lived. In villages on the southern side of Karavanke people call the mountain German Peak (in PV there was a long debate about this name for years – even the writer F. S. Finžgar claimed in PV that his older relatives always mentioned the mountain only by this name). On the Carinthian side they call the mountain Vrtača, so our geographers chose this name. But that's not the right name: Vrtača is a karst depression between Stol and the mountain with the disputed name. This ancient pass from Kranjska to the Carinthian side, which is entirely on the Kranjska side up to the border crossing Belščica, the locals call Čez Vrtačo, as also recorded on the 1:25000 map of the Surveying and Mapping Administration of RS, no. 141 – and obviously they took this name on the Carinthian side for the mountain peak. No one could explain this name correctly. True, the name German Peak is wrong, but again because of peculiarities in the upper Savian dialect. Precisely with this name one sees how extremely important it is that those who deal with toponymy really know the dialect well and are (from documents) well acquainted with the history of places and local (also mountain) names. In such cases, descriptions of borders of old manor estates are also very useful. Precisely through the mentioned part of Karavanke ran the border of the Bled manor estate. "Stou...Menischke Werch" (In descriptions of manor borders, names were written very consistently in dialect forms!). This name "Menischke Werch" is an interesting witness to peculiarities in today's northwestern Slovenian settlement area – metatheses are quite common here. The name Meniški vrh turned into Nemški vrh (also the stress in this part of Slovenia often shifted to the first syllable), Čomoradnek (hollow under Stol) < Močeradnik, because also močerad > čomorad, Zapret < Zatrep. Gobatec < Bogatec (Tolmin name for Bohinj Bogatin, Kupljenik (above Bohinjska Bela) is recorded in 1511 as Pukl(j)enik, but also otherwise: gomazin < magazin, potariše < toporišče etc. The name Meniški vrh also exists in Slovenia in Styria, NE of Sevnica.
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So, we'll forget German Peak then, (we have Vrtača  , for Meniški vrh it's too late anyway  ), Zelenjak will remain Zelenjak, only our surveyors and publishers (PZS) need to wake up  .
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