Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - Name

Name

The full name in German is pronounced . Sometimes, Mecklenburg is pronounced . This is because the digraph marks a preceding short vowel in High German. Mecklenburg however is within the historical Low German language area, and the "c" appeared in its name during the period of transition to Standard, i.e. High German usage (Low German authors wrote the name Meklenborg or Męklenborg, depicting proper Low German pronunciation, which itself was a syncope of Middle Low German Mekelenborg). The introduction of the "c" is explained as follows: Either, the "c" signals the stretched pronunciation of the preceding "e" (Dehnungs-c), or it signals the pronunciation of the subsequent "k" as an occlusive to prevent it from falsely being rendered to a fricative following a Low German trend. Another explanation is that the "c" comes from a mannerism in High German officialese to write unnecessary letters, a so-called letternhäufelung (lit.: letter accumulation).

Due to its lengthy name, the state is often abbreviated as MV or (colloquially) shortened to MeckPomm. In English, it is sometimes translated as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or literally Mecklenburg-Cispomerania.