Dynamics of coexistence of Slavic, Hungarian and German oikonyms of the Žitný ostrov area Cover Image

Dynamika koexistencie slovanských, maďarských a nemeckých ojkoným na Žitnom ostrove
Dynamics of coexistence of Slavic, Hungarian and German oikonyms of the Žitný ostrov area

Author(s): Juraj Hladký
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Lexis, Historical Linguistics
Published by: Jazykovedný ústav Ľudovíta Štúra Slovenskej akadémie vied
Keywords: oikonym; ethnic group; linguistic reconstruction; adaptation; Žitný ostrov; Slavs; Hungarians; Germans;

Summary/Abstract: Today, Žitný ostrov is a bilingual Slovak-Hungarian territory along the river Danube and the Little Danube, and since the 10th century it has been formed as a multi-ethnic space. The recently completed diachronic research on hydronymy in this area has created the conditions for a more comprehensive study of the dynamics of ethnic relations in the oikonymy of the region. The article presents an analysis of medieval oikonyms, documented from the beginning of the 12th century. It brings a linguistic reconstruction of originally Slavic names, adopted and adapted by the Hungarian and occasionally also by the German ethnic population, and an analysis of original Hungarian and German oikonyms. The presented results specify i) the knowledge of the development of demographics of the area, ii) the extent of foreign ethnic interventions in the onymic system, iii) ethnic and interlingual relations, iv) the mode of interlingual adaptation of older oikonyms (Slovak – Hungarian, Slovak – German, Hungarian – German, German – Slovak, and finally Hungarian – Slovak), and v) the extent and forms of coexistence of Slovak, Hungarian and German oikonyms in the Middle Ages with an overlap to the present.

  • Issue Year: 72/2021
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 229-248
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Slovak