Mi is a Magyar Nemzeti Helynévtár célja és feladata?

Absztrakt

What is the purpose and mission of The Hungarian National Toponym Registry?

This reply article is intended not only to react to the problems indicated in Gábor Mikesy’s review, but also to highlight some important notions not emphasized appropriately so far in connection with The Hungarian National Toponym Registry. The road to the present form of the database is examined, but it is also stressed that the establishment of such an enormous collection of place names can only be the result of a very long process. The professional consensus behind the registry is also outlined. The point of view that the core of the Hungarian place name stock is constituted by the toponyms used by speakers of Hungarian as their mother tongue is formulated. Simultaneously, however, these names are not separable from the other groups of the Hungarian vocabulary. Based on this, the authors justify their chosen approach to building the database, criticised by Mikesy, emphasizing the scientific value of the utilized source documents. The second part of the paper discusses some factual questions raised in the critique, mainly from a theoretical point of view.