Knowledge of place names in the Roma community of Kisbábony (Băbeşti, Romania)

Abstract

Knowledge of place names in the Roma community of Kisbábony (Băbeşti, Romania)

The paper focusing on the field of name sociology can be seen as a continuation of the author’s previous works. The previously published studies deal with the knowledge of place names in the Hungarian population in Kisbábony (Băbeşti, Romania) and the cognitive mapping by the communities living there. The present paper primarily focuses on the knowledge of place name in the Roma community of Kisbábony. The findings rely on interview-based research the author conducted in the village. After characterizing the sociological features of the target group, questions regarding what percentage of the Hungarian toponymicon of the settlement is known in the local native Hungarian-speaking Roma community and on which factors the results depend are answered. The second part of the paper compares the knowledge of place names in the Roma and the Hungarian ethnic groups. In light of the collected and analysed data, it can be concluded that the knowledge of place names in the various social groups which live in the same settlement can be entirely different depending on certain extralinguistic factors.