Comment by conformist
5 years ago
As a German speaker, their choice seems quite natural, because it won't alter the modern pronunciation a lot. I'd even guess that the new spelling might represent a typical Austrian pronunciation with a soft "k" sound more accurately.
Is Austrian like Swiss German where "gg" is "k"? If so the pronunciation might have not/barely changed for locals, but is no longer funny for English speakers.
Locals don't speak a phonetically hard 'k' in the middle when refering to that village. If you heard them say the name, you'd not be sure whether to write it with gg or ck in the middle. (NB: I live in a village essentially next to Fucking)
This. I live in southern Germany (swabia) and many village names kind of have a 'standard german' spelling and a local pronunciation. I feel like Fugging might just be a change that reflects a more austrian pronunciation in the spelling.