CZECHS AND SLOVAKS IN TRANSYLVANIA AND THE BANAT BETWEEN THE 18TH AND 21ST CENTURIES: A SOCIO-ONOMASTIC PERSPECTIVE
CZECHS AND SLOVAKS IN TRANSYLVANIA AND THE BANAT BETWEEN THE 18TH AND 21ST CENTURIES: A SOCIO-ONOMASTIC PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: Czechs and Slovaks in Transylvania and the Banat between the 18th and 21st Centuries: A Socio-Onomastic Perspective. The paper proposes an analysis of the presence of the Czech and Slovak minorities in Transylvania and the Banat from the modern period until the present day, from the viewpoint of socio-onomastics. The authors specifically look at how micro-toponyms (names of streets and institutions) and macro-toponyms (settlement names) related to the Czechs and Slovaks play a twofold sociocultural role: 1) they confirm the importance of these communities in Romanian public space across the centuries; 2) they guarantee that the minorities are well-represented in Romania even after the emigration of certain members of the respective ethnic groups to their home countries (after WW2) or to Western Europe (beginning with 1990). The examples were collected from books/online sources documenting the history of Czechs and Slovaks in Romania and from Google Maps. Although the history of the contacts between the Czechs and Slovaks, on the one hand, and the Romanians, on the other, is centuries-long, the paper focuses on the period spanning the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. At the 2021 census, less than 12,000 Czechs and Slovaks declared their belonging to these ethnic groups. Nevertheless, the legacy of the two ethnic minorities endures in names of settlements (Bigăr, Gernik, Svatá Helena), street names (Bratislava Street, Jan Hus Street) and names of institutions (“Jozef Gregor Tajovsky” Theoretical High School). These occur throughout Romania, even in parts of the country where Czechs and Slovaks did not establish significant communities. The presence of multi-ethnic names reveals the openness of the majority population and local authorities towards diversity, and their respect for cultural and scientific values, regardless of ethnic belonging.

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