…and natives and visitors have always wondered how Gottschee got its name. Since the language, Gottscheer, was a medieval form of German presently spoken by only about 26,000, linguists returned to the Middle Ages to find its source but found no certain conclusion.
Some thought it came from “hoja,” a type of fir tree. Others thought it was from “koca” which is a hut or cottage. Some thought it come from “klunka” which is the vertical valley betwixt the nose and the upper lip, but most thought it came from “God’s Sea” the problem being that there was no actual sea, Godly or otherwise, in all of Gottschee.
Photo from Wendell’s Spiral Bound courtesy of the Gottscheer Relief Association.
WENDELL 