-gem just means “house of” or “place of residence”. A cognate of the German “-heim”. It’s common in the old Brabant (which includes large parts of Oost-Vlaanderen), and some in the old Flanders as well. “-kem” is a similar suffix.
It’s just a remnant of how language used to be distributed in the are.
Zottegem, Berchem, Middelheim, Latem, Bornem these towns all have a suffix related to -heim. Some are written -gem, some -chem, some just -em. Perhaps some slight shift in ‘g’ sound appeared in east-flanders.
The big area around sint niklaas used to be one big forest/marshland as far as I have heared. I guess it’s not a logical place for a town ending in the suffic for “place of residence”
Because this dataset ignores cognates such as -em (as in Beernem), -hem (Houthem) and -chem (Berchem). It’s also plain and simple just missing some places, such as Millegem, near Mol, Limburg.
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-gem just means “house of” or “place of residence”. A cognate of the German “-heim”. It’s common in the old Brabant (which includes large parts of Oost-Vlaanderen), and some in the old Flanders as well. “-kem” is a similar suffix.
It’s just a remnant of how language used to be distributed in the are.
Also: https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_naa002198701_01/_naa002198701_01_0007.php
Zottegem, Berchem, Middelheim, Latem, Bornem these towns all have a suffix related to -heim. Some are written -gem, some -chem, some just -em. Perhaps some slight shift in ‘g’ sound appeared in east-flanders.
The big area around sint niklaas used to be one big forest/marshland as far as I have heared. I guess it’s not a logical place for a town ending in the suffic for “place of residence”
Because this dataset ignores cognates such as -em (as in Beernem), -hem (Houthem) and -chem (Berchem). It’s also plain and simple just missing some places, such as Millegem, near Mol, Limburg.