Dictionary of Minor Place Names in Moravia and Silesia

The Electronic Dictionary of Minor Place Names in Moravia and Silesia (DMPNMS) compiles place names (anoikonyms, microtoponyms) from the historical region of Moravia and the Czech part of Silesia that were collected through a nationwide inventory in 1965-1986.

The dictionary primarily analyses the names of uninhabited landscape features. It also collects names of properties (property names), watercourses (hydronyms), formations of the vertical features of the earth's surface (oronyms), roads (hodonyms) and important landmarks and objects (rocks, solitary stones, trees, wayside shrines and crosses, chapels, etc.). The dictionary also includes the names of local districts (which were the subject of a dedicated section in the inventory survey) and some streets; many are a continuation of the original place name, while many bear the names of the original, now defunct municipalities and (remote) settlements.

The DMPNMS records minor place names that are very rare or unused today and presents them as modern records. Users can display the relevant name on a map. Moreover, users can change the map type (physical map, watershed map, district map, etc.). A future extension of the mapping module is planned. The DMPNMS is designed as an interactive dictionary, with links to e.g. the electronic version of the Český jazykový atlas (Czech Linguistic Atlas) and Slovník nářečí českého jazyka (Dictionary of Czech Dialects) to enable studying of proper nouns from a wider linguistic (and geographical) perspective.

The DMPNMS is compiled by the Dialectology Department of the Czech Language Institute, which has been gradually making it available online since 2014.