Geolinguistic examination of lexemes meaning ‘German’, appearing in settlement names of the Old Hungarian language
Abstract
Geolinguistic examination of lexemes meaning ‘German’, appearing in settlement names of the Old Hungarian language
In the Carpathian Basin, names incorporating a lexeme meaning ‘German’ form one of the largest groups of Old Hungarian settlement names that refer to ethnicity. Most of the observed names include the ethnic names német ‘German’ and szász ‘Transylvanian Saxon’. The paper examines the relevant toponyms, adopting several distinct geolinguistic points of view, and analyses the structural composition of the various morphological types (i.e. names of one or two constituents), presenting the role of the different name components in the name forms. Furthermore, the author examines the extent to which the regular linguistic research of settlement names contributes to ethnic reconstruction, a question that has been discussed in historical inquiries for almost a hundred years.
