Place Names
Originally, the plots of land given to the settlers carried only numbers, e.g. "Steppe 9". In the early years of the settlement, the Fürsorgekomitee began renaming the villages. These designations were reminders of the places of victorious battles against Napoleon such as Tarutino, Borodino, Beresina, Dennewitz or places of origin of the settlers Arzis, Brienne, Paris, Leipzig, Teplitz and Katzbach. Later, after 1842, the settlers began naming their own villages after their own aspirations - Hoffnungstal (hope valley), Friedenstal (peace valley) - or religious motives - Gnadental (grace valley), Lichtental (light valley). Numerous German establishments of village took on Romanian or Turkish-Tatar origins, such as Albota (white horse), Basyrjamka (salt hole) Kurudschika (drying), and Sarata (salty).
Read more about this topic: Bessarabia Germans
Famous quotes containing the words place and/or names:
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host...But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 14:8,10.
“It was a poetic recreation to watch those distant sails steering for half-fabulous ports, whose very names are a mysterious music to our ears.... It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)