The naming and translational characteristics of Hungarian-Slovak street name pairs in Dunajská Streda/Dunaszerdahely in Slovakia

Abstract

This study examines the naming and translation characteristics of contemporary bilingual Hungarian-Slovak street name pairs (183 pairs in total) in the town of Dunajská Streda. The analysis identifies several translation strategies: transfer, transcription, name substitution, semantic calque or partial translation, and partial modification. These translation procedures may also appear in combination. A key factor influencing the translation method is whether the street name (or name element) derives from a proper noun or a common noun. Proper-noun-derived street names are based on personal names and place names. The corpus includes many streets named after historical Hungarian figures or persons associated with the region. Personal name elements are most commonly transferred directly into the target language without modification. In contrast, place-name-derived street names tend to be translated using name substitution, i.e., by replacing the source name with its conventional proper-noun equivalent in the target language. Common-noun-derived street names refer to the spatial relation to external objects or circumstances, intrinsic features of the location, or relative spatial relations to other places. These names are typically translated into the target language using semantic calques.