Ethnic Continuity in the Carpatho-Danubian Area

Elemér Illyés

 

IV. GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

 

   Theories About Early Romanian Geographical Names

   The Preservation of the Slavic Nasal Vowels

   The Rise and Disappearance of the Nasal Vowels in Slavic
   Romanian Geographical Names Borrowed Directly from Slavs

   Romanian Geographical Names in Transylvania Borrowed Directly from Slavs

   Romanian Geographical Names Assumed to Be Older Than the Hungarian Toponymy

   A Review of the Geographical Names Existing Before 1400 in Hunedoara (Hunyad) County
   Dubious Etymologies, Place Names Assumed To Be Inherited Directly from Latin

 

1. PLACE NAMES

   The Romanian Place Names

   The Formal Peculiarities of Romanian Place Names
   Differences Between Northern Romanian Place Names Recorded on the Balkan Peninsula and Those from the Territories North of the Danube
   A Comparison of Place Names in Transylvania with Those of the Transcarpathian Areas of Romania

   The Names of Rivers in Romania

   Place Names of Slavic Origin in Transylvania (Hungarian, German, Romanian)

   Romanian Geographical Names of Slavic Origin. The Definition of Geographical Names Borrowed from Slavs

   The Slavic Elements of the Romanian Language

   The Geographical Names of Slavic Origin

   The Discrepancy Between the Geographical Names of Slavic Origin and the Slavic Elements of the Romanian Language

   Hungarian Geographical (Place) Names

   The Appearance of Parallel Hungarian and Romanian Place Names

   German (Transylvanian Saxon) Place Names

   Geographical Names in the Transylvanian Area of the Carpathian Basin in the 12th to 13th Centuries

   The name of Transylvania

 

As was shown above, there is 1) no evidence for the assumption that the Romanian language is the continuation of Latin spoken in the territory which once was Dacia, and 2) there are several circumstances which indicate also the territory from which this language originated, i.e., where the ancestors of the present day Romanians lived before the 12th century.

 

The question is now: is it possible to determine when, in what period of time, they populated the areas north of the lower Danube, where they are living now?

 

 

Theories About Early Romanian Geographical Names

 

The Romanians were first mentioned in historical records in Moldavia in 1164 and in Transylvania in 1210. This does not, however, exclude the possibility that Romanians (Vlachs) lived in these areas somewhat, or even much, earlier, as is claimed by Romanian historians. Because of the lack of historical evidence, arguments have been based first of all on the geographical names of the territory.

 

The most promising means of determining the period in which the Romanians arrived in the territories of contemporary Romania has been through studying the geographical names of Slavic origin, because the Slavs lived in almost all areas north of the Danube from the sixth century and because these names are numerous throughout most of Romania. In the transcarpathian territory of the country, Slavic geographical names were usually borrowed directly from Slavic by the Romanian population; there are numerous such names. Within the arch of the Carpathian Mountains, however, this is not the case. Geographical names of Slavic origin are also numerous there; but their sound patterns show that only a few dozen of them were borrowed directly from Slavs. (Most of these names are found in southern and southwestern Transylvania.) Some of the geographical names of Slavic origin contain the reflex of a Slavic nasal vowel. Since the history of these vowels in Slavic is quite well known, these names can give valuable indications about when they were borrowed from Slavic.

 

Of the numerous theories claiming that the Romanians were in Transylvania first (at least before the Hungarians), the most significant ones are based on the preservation of the Slavic nasal vowel, the fact that Slavic geographical names were borrowed directly by a Romanian population, and the assumption that certain Romanian geographical names were, at an early period, transferred to Hungarian. These theories will be analyzed in the following section at some length.

 

 

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In addition, the assumption of directly inherited Latin place names in Transylvania will be discussed briefly.

 

The search for evidence to support these theories has frequently been politically motivated. Between the two world wars there was a debate between Romanian and Hungarian scholars over the early settlements of Transylvania. In 1938 the Hungarian Slavist István Kniezsa published his work about the peoples living in Hungary in the eleventh century. In 1944 the Romanian Slavist Emil Petrovici published an article [1] in which his hypotheses were summarized and Kniezsa's work criticized. According to Petrovici, the names of the great rivers in Transylvania "seem to have been passed from generation to generation, from the ancient era to modern times, by the ancestors of the Romanians. This would also be true if the river names that we cited were borrowed by the Romanians from the Slavs, because these Slavs of Dacia must also be considered among the ancestors of the Romanians. Even if there was never a Daco-Roman continuity, there was certainly a Slavo-Romanian one from the seventh century to the present." [2]

 

In Petrovici's opinion, the Slavo-Romanian symbiosis occurred in the margins of the plains and depressions and in the valleys. The Slavs lived mainly in the villages at the feet of the mountains, while the Romanian population was dispersed in hamlets and isolated settlements, as they are in our time in the mountainous regions. This description is valid, at least for some areas, although not before the twelfth or thirteenth century.

 

In contrast to the Slavic theory, Romanian scholars also stress the Latin character of Romanian, minimizing or even denying the importance of the Slavic influence. It is in any case essential to differentiate between the Slavs and the Romanians in any study of ancient history. It must be noted here that Petrovici did this in his later publications and that he also changed his opinion about other matters.

 

 

The Preservation of the Slavic Nasal Vowels

 

The nasal vowels that are inherited by Slavic languages from the Proto-Slavic are known. It is also known that the Balkan peoples, as the result of the settlement of the Slavs on the Balkan Peninsula in the seventh century, adopted the earliest Slavic elements including the nasal vowels. The question of nasal vowels, that is, the mutation and disappearance of these vowels from individual Slavic languages, has been and continues to be of concern to linguists. There is, however, as yet no agreement on this subject.

 

 

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Opinions diverge regarding the dual representation that the Old Slavic õ or o̧ (the Old Bulgarian sign ѫ is transcribed here as õ and not o̧ [Reichenkron]), which became -un, -um in Romanian, and -în, -îm through the intermediacy of Serbian or Bulgarian. The dual representation that the Old Slavic õ became in Romanian -un, -um and -în, -îm, respectively, was initially based on chronological considerations. While certain Slavists, such as Hermann Tiktin, believe that their origins rest in Old Church Slavonic, the Romanian linguist Ovid Densusianu believes that -un, and -um represent an earlier stage of the Old Bulgarian õ while -în, and -îm represent a later stage of the same letter. Moreover, the -în, and -îm occurs concurrently with the convergence of Middle Bulgarian ъm and ъn with Old Bulgarian. [3]

 

According to the Romanian scholar Theodor Capidan, the Romanian loan-words with -un, and -um reflect a Serbian development. [4] He believes, however, that the representation -în, and -îm indicated loanwords from the Bulgarian. Sextil Puşcariu, Ernst Gamillscheg, Emil Petrovici, [5] and Günter Reichenkron concur in Capidan's opinion, [6] while Alexandru Rosetti rejects it. [7]

 

In the linguistic development of the Carpatho-Danubian area Bulgarian is the most important language. Old Bulgarian is chronologically closest to the Proto-Slavic; and, therefore, it must be regarded as the isogloss of this extinct language. [8] It is known that alterations of the nasal vowels occurred in remnants of Middle Bulgarian of the twelfth century. Furthermore, it is assumed that the existence of nasal vowels, which constitutes the main criterion for differentiating Old Bulgarian from the remains of Middle Bulgarian, Russian, Old Church Slavonic, and Serbian Church Slavonic is unquestionably important, but not sufficient for definite conclusions. In the case of written Old Bulgarian there are two additional characteristics:

 

1. The representation of the Proto-Slavic ti̯, kt (before e, i, and ъ) and di̯ through št, that is, žd;

 

2. The open character of the Proto-Slavic ĕ. [9]

 

The Hungarian scholar István Kniezsa examined the old geographical names in Transylvania and concluded that most of the province was inhabited by Hungarians and Germans (Transylvanian Saxons) when the Romanians arrived in the thirteenth century. He proposed that the presence of a reflex of the Slavic nasal vowel in Hungarian loans from Slavic would indicate that the borrowing occurred during or before the eleventh century, when, as he believed, the nasal vowels lost their nasality in the Slavic languages. [10] Also Petrovici tried to use

 

 

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this assumption for proving a question of history: "the place names of Slavic origin in the Romanian regions of Transylvania, showing the reflexes of the ancient nasal vowels of Slavic in the Romanian form, prove the existence of a Slavo-Romanian symbiosis in the tenth and eleventh centuries. [11] These place names include the following: In Caraş-Severin (Krassó-Szörény) County: Glîmboca (Glimboka, a village), Luncaviţa (Nagylankás, a village and a brook); in Hunedoara (Hunyad) County: Lingina, or Lindina (Lindzsina, today Izvoarele), Pîncota (Pankota, today Hărău), Glîmboceni (a brook); in Mureş (Maros) County: Gîmbuţ (Gombástelke); in Sibiu (Szeben) County: Glîmboaca (Glimboka); in Arad and Bihor (Bihar) Counties: Pincota (Pankota), and in Cluj (Kolozs) County: Indol (today Indal). [12]

 

The presence of Glîmboaca southeast of Sibiu (Nagyszeben, Hermannstadt) would prove, according to Petrovici's reasoning in 1944, that Romanians lived in the area before the Hungarians; but, in fact, he enlarged this area to a vast territory, claiming that before the arrival of the Hungarians, the "Slavo-Romanians" were living in the Tîrnava (Küküllő), Ţibin, and Olt River valleys and in the region between these rivers. [13] According to this view, the terra Blacorum mentioned in a document from the early thirteenth century was only the remains of this large "Slavo-Romanian" territory.

 

Only in Glîmboaca and Glîmboceni is the Slavic nasal preserved. Two of the names (Gîmbuţ and Lingina) given by Petrovici were borrowed by the Romanians from Hungarian, and the origins of three (Indol, Pîncota, and Luncaviţa) are questionable.

 

 

Gîmbuţ (Mureş County):

The Romanians borrowed place names from the Hungarians, which the Hungarians in their turn had borrowed from Slavic. The Romanian form may present the group -în, -îm, which renders the Slavic o̧ not directly but through the Hungarian language. Hungarian Gambuc (1303 rivulus, silva, possessio Gumbuch) of the Mureş district (< Slavic Go̧bici) was transferred to Romanian in the form Gîmbuţ. [14]

 

Lingina (Lindzsina, Hunedoara County, today Izvoarele):

According to Petrovici [15] the local population in Haţeg pronounces Linžina as Lîžina, which cannot derive from Slavic lȩdina, as was supposed earlier. In Slavic borrowings of the Romanian language, the affricate ǧ does not appear. It is found, on the other hand, regularly in borrowings from Hungarian, in place of Hungarian gy (a sound similar to Romanian gh in ghem, gheaţă). There is, for example, megie "limit, frontier," in northwestern Transylvania, from Hungarian mesgye (which its turn derives from Bulgarian mežda) and megieş, megiaş,

 

 

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"neighbor" from Hungarian megyés. Hungarian gy is rendered in Romanian by ǧ also in place names: Hungarian Gyalu > Romanian Giláu, Egyed > Adjud, Gyógy > Geoagiu, Szentegyed > Sîntejude, Gyergyó > Giurgeu, Gyöngy > Giungi. [16] Consequently, ǧ in Lingina also probably derives from a Hungarian gy. Petrovici gives its derivation from Hungarian lengyen "Polish" (modern Hungarian lengyel), which appears in documents beginning with the year 1095, as a personal name as well as a place name: Lengen, Lenget, Lengyen; in 1339, Johannes filius Lengyen. (This Hungarian word originates from Old Russian *ledžanŭ (< Slavic *ledjanŭ). The name of present-day Lingina appears in documents beginning in 1446, Lensene, Lenczyna, Lyngzyna; later also Lengene. Petrovici concludes that this place name is of Hungarian origin, as are many other place names in the area around Lingina. [17]

 

 

Indol: (Indal, Cluj County):

There is no acceptable etymology for this name. It is first mentioned in documents in 1310 as Indol; as Indala in 1311; Indal in 1360; possessio Hindal in 1364; Indaal in 1408; kenezius de Indal in 1469; Indally from 1760 to 1762; and Indál, Indal in 1854. Its present-day Romanian name is Deleni. [18] It could be borrowed from Slavic; [19] ja̧dol "valley" and the Jândol > Indol change could have taken place in Romanian. As shown by Kniezsa, however, such a change is not specific to Romanian but also occurred in Hungarian: Slavic joreba > Hungarian joromba > iromba; Hungarian juhász > johász > ihász. [20] Kniezsa proposed the explanation from Slavic ino-dol "another valley" (cf., Polish Ino-pole). [21]

 

Pîncota (Pankota, Arad County, and a hamlet of the village Hărău in Hunedoara County):

called villa Pankotha in 1202 and 1203 and Pankota in 1219. It most probably derives from Slavic personal name Po̧kata. Since place names based on a personal name without a suffix were chiefly created by Hungarians, this name was also most probably given by a Hungarian population.

 

Luncaviţa (Nagylankás, Lunkavica, Severin County):

Was known in 1440 as Naghlukavicza, Kyslukavicza; in 1447, Naghlwkawycza, Kislwkawycza; in 1603, Lenkavicza; from 1690 to 1700 as Linkavicza; in 1774, Lukavicza; in 1829, Lungavicza; and in 1840 as Lunkavicza. It is doubtful that this name originally contained a nasal vowel, since up to the seventeenth century it was recorded exclusively in the form "Lukavicza," without an n. The present form may have developed in Romanian popular etymology, after luncă "waterside, swamp, everglade."

 

 

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The Rise and Disappearance of the Nasal Vowels in Slavic

 

The nasal vowels developed in Common Slavic between the sixth and eighth centuries. There are several pieces of evidence for this, of which two are considered unequivocal: the nasal vowels developed after the change of the clusters n + j into ń, and before the third palatalization of the velars. [22] None of the languages with which the Slavs were in contact in that period had nasal vowels, with the exception of Lettish and Lithuanian, which developed probably them from the Slavic influence. [23]

 

The loss of the nasal vowels was a protracted process and quite different in the various Slavic languages. At present, such vowels exist only in Polish and in Polabian. According to the Russian scholar George Y. Shevelov, the nasal vowels were lost in Russian, Byelorussian, Ukrainian, Slovak, Czech, and Serbo-Croatian in all probability in the tenth century, that is, antedating the loss of jers; in Slovenian in the eleventh century; and in various dialects of Macedonian and Bulgarian at sometime between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries. [24] There is evidence of the existence of nasal vowels in Bulgarian (with which Romanian was in contact for many centuries) at least until the early thirteenth century; this is indicated by the presence of -în, -îm in several Romanian borrowings from Bulgarian: un (um) < o̧ (through the eleventh century) as well as în (îm) < ъ < o̧ (twelfth century - beginning of the thirteenth century; subsequently, nasalization disappeared in the Bulgarian dialects). [25] There are, however, still Bulgarian dialects today that have preserved the nasal vowel, mainly in northeastern Bulgaria, along the Romanian frontier, but also around Saloniki and Kostur. The Bulgarian dialect spoken until the nineteenth century in Transylvania also had nasal vowels.

 

As previously mentioned, Petrovici had already stated this in his 1944 article, although only in a footnote and without drawing the logical conclusions: "It is probable that the Slavs who were assimilated into the Hungarians or the Romanians preserved the nasal vowels until their total assimilation. Thus, the Bulgarians in Cergăul Mic, Cergăul Mare, Rusciori, and Bungard (in the districts of Târnava and Sibiu), who settled in Transylvania in the thirteenth century, preserved the Slavic nasal vowels until their complete Romanianization during the nineteenth century." [26]

 

Petrovici changed his opinion later on, concluding in an article in 1958 that "the preservation of the nasality in the toponyms that appear on chart no. 1 does not give us any indication about the

 

 

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period in which they were borrowed by the Romanians from the Slavs." [27] Consequently, in 1958 Petrovici refuted his earlier theory that the preservation of the Slavic nasal vowel indicated an early borrowing, before the Hungarians' arrival in Transylvania. Petrovici's statement should go on to say that the appearance of reflexes of nasal vowels in certain Romanian or Hungarian geographical names of Slavic origin does not indicate an early borrowing from Slavic (Bulgarian). Theoretically, since the nasal vowels have been preserved in some Bulgarian dialects until the present, such names might have been borrowed quite recently. Since, however, -în (-îm) corresponds to Middle Bulgarian ăn, dated to the period between the end of the eleventh and the early thirteenth century, it must be concluded that the names containing this reflex were borrowed in that period. This is of no significance to the question of Romanian or Hungarian primacy in Transylvania. Most of these geographical names are found outside of Transylvania, in the mountainous regions of Oltenia and Muntenia; and their significance will be discussed below in "Romanian Geographical names of Slavic Origin."

 

 

Romanian Geographical Names Borrowed Directly from Slavs

 

In the transcarpathian territories of Romania, the largest part of the ancient toponymy is of Slavic origin. The sound pattern of these names indicates that the borrowings occurred after the eleventh or twelfth century. [28] Within the arch of the Carpathian Mountains, that is, in Transylvania, the majority of the ancient grographical names are of Hungarian origin with fewer names of Slavic origin. Moreover, a significant difference compared with the transcarpathian territories is that many geographical names of Slavic origin in Transylvania were transferred to Romanian via Hungarian and some even through German; there are only a few dozen that were borrowed by Romanians directly from Slavic. These data reflect that in the course of their settlement in Transylvania, the Romanians found Slavs only in certain areas and by no means throughout the entire province, as was the case in Muntenia and Moldavia.

 

As in the transcarpathian territory, the situation in Transylvania is complicated by the fact that groups of Slavs settled there for many centuries until recent times. The Ukrainians (Ruthenians), for example, have left place names such as Oroszi, Oroszfalu, Szerdahely, (Reussmarkt, Rusciori; Hungarian orosz "Russian" does not appear before the eleventh century). Ukrainian sound pattern were left in the Máramaros (Maramureş), Szolnok-Doboka (Dăbîca), Háromszék (Covasna) Counties, for example in Hruşor which shows the g > h

 

 

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change that occurred in the twelfth century (this village is called Körtvélyes in Hungarian, a translation of the Slavic name, borrowed by Romanian in the form of Curtuiuş) or Herec /vára/ "the tower of/Herec" in Covasna County, from Ruthenian horec "hill, little mountain." Bulgarian colonists are known to have settled in Braşov (the district of Şchei, Bolgárszeg) and Ciurgăul Mic (Kiscserged), to which they came from eastern Bulgaria in the thirteenth century. [29] Among the vestiges of Czechs can be mentioned Páncélcseh (> Romanian Panticeu, Cluj County) and Szilágycseh (Cehul Silvaniei, Sălaj County); the village name Horvát (> Romanian Horoat), in 1213 Huruat, preserves the ethnic name of Croatian colonists. Serbians settled in the southwest.

 

In his 1944 article Petrovici mentioned 25 geographical names that he considered proofs of a Slavo-Romanian symbiosis in Transylvania before the arrival of the Hungarians. [30] It evidently appears from the article, however, that his assertion was not based on any linguistic evidence. In his opinion, it is illogical to assume that the Romanians borrowed the geographical names not from the majority population but from the remainders (already insignificant in the eleventh century) of the conquered Slavic population, reduced to servitude. [31] The Romanians did, in fact, borrow a large number of Hungarian geographical names all over Transylvania, not because of the "prestige of the rulers," as claimed by Petrovici, but simply because people arriving at a new area usually borrow or translate the geographical names found there. Along with the Hungarian names, the Romanians borrowed dozens of geographical names from the Slavs. This indicates that there was a Slavo-Romanian symbiosis in the area, but nothing suggests that this occurred before the arrival of the Hungarians. That borrowings by Romanian from Slavic occurred even in cases when Hungarians lived in the area is shown by the Hungarian geographical names transferred to Romanian by Slavic intermediacy (for example, Hungarian Beseneu [1230], Romanian Beşenova, that is, the Hungarian name with a Slavic suffix).

 

 

Romanian Geographical Names in Transylvania Borrowed Directly from Slavs

 

(The list given by Emil Petrovici according to counties) [32]

 

 

Caraş-Severin (Krassó-Szörény) County:

Belareca (Fejérviz), river name, in 1436, Feyerwiz, "white water"; Valea Bistrei (Bisztranagyvölgy), in 1501, Valemare, in 1578, Nagypatak (Slavic bistra "rapid"; nagy + patak "great + brook"). [33]

 

 

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Hunedoara (Hunyad) County:

Cerna (Cserna), in 1446, kenez de Charna, in 1482, poss. Charna (Slavic cerna "black"); Zlaşti (Zalasd), in 1480, poss. Zalosd, alio nomine Dobramer.

 

Alba (Fehér) County:

Bălgrad (Gyulafehérvár), the modern Romanian name is Alba Iulia ("the White Tower of Gyula"; "white tower"). In 1097, as comes Bellegratae (?), in 1199, terra Sancti Michaelis, in 1201, Jula voiwoda et comes Albe Transilvane, in 1206, castrum Albense (Slavic bĕlŭ "white" + gradŭ "town, tower"); Tîrnava (Küküllő), Mare and Mică, river names; Craiova (Királypatak), in 1733, Király-Pataka, in 1750, Krajova (Slavic kral "king"); Gîrbova de Jos (Alsóorbó), in 1282, terra Vrbo; Gîrbova de Sus (Felsöorbó), in 1505, Oláhorbó. (Slavic *Vrĭbovo); Gîrboviţa (Középorbó), in 1505, Girbovicza, Középorbó (közép "middle").

 

Sibiu (Szeben) County:

Gîrbova (Orbó), in 1291, Wrbow, Slavic vьrbovo, "place with willows"; Cernavoda (Feketeviz, Szecsel), in 1319, Feketewyz, "black + water"; Sibiu (Nagyszeben), between 1192 and 1196 as prepositus Cipiniensis, in 1211, prepositus Scibiniensis; from the name of the river Slavic *Svibiń, *Sibín, (Slavic sviba "cornel"), Romanian Ţibin or Cibin, from German Zibin; Sad (Cód), in 1339 Aquam Zcoth. Originally the name of a brook, it could hardly derive from Slavic sad "hamlet"; Hungarian szád "opening, entrance" may be more probable (Kniezsa, 1943, pp. 254-255); Slimnic (Szelindek), in 1282, plebanus de Stolchunbercht, in 1341, Zelenduk, in 1349, Szelindek; Slavic Slynьnikъ, from slynьnъ "famous" (Kniezsa, 1943, p. 255).

 

Bihor (Bihar) County:

Craiova, Craiva (Bélkirálymező, Krajova), in 1344, locus Keralmezei (Slavic kral'ova "the king's" [the property of the king]);

 

Sălaj (Szilágy) County:

Cozla (Kecskés), in 1405, villa olachalis Kozla; Bozna (Szentpéterfalva), in 1619, Szentpéterfalva, in 1733, Bozna; Ciumărna (Csömörlő), in 1460, Chebernye;

 

Satu Mare (Szatmár) County:

Racova (Rákosterebes), in 1393, possessio Valahalis Terebes;

 

Cluj (Kolozs) County:

Vlaha (Oláhfenes), in 1332, sacerdos de Olafenes, in 1733, Blaha (the formation of the Romanian name is not clear: singular form created from plural Vlaši? [Kniezsa, 1943, p. 228]).

 

 

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Mureş (Maros) County:

Jabeniţa (Görgénysóakna), in 1453, Szebencs, in 1644, Sóakna;

 

Tîrnava Mare (Nagyküküllo) County:

Lovnic (Lemnek), in 1206, villa Lewenech (From Slavic lov "fishing, hunting," lovnik "place for fishing," "place for hunting." From Slavic to German [Leblang] and to Romanian, from German to Hungarian);

 

Odorheiu (Udvarhely) County:

Vlăhiţa (Szentegyházasfalu), in 1301, as villa nostra < regis > Olachalis in medio Siculorum nostrorum de Vduordhel commorancium (a document of questionable authenticity); in 1406, Oláhfalu, in 1602, Szentegyházas Oláhfalu, in 1808, Oláhfalu, Wlachendorf, Rumun, in 1854, Szentegyház-Oláhfalu (Nagy Oláhfalu), Olafalăul Mare (Suciu, 1968, II, p. 255);

 

Covasna (Kovászna) County:

Budila (Bodola), in 1294, Buduia, 1332 to 1337, Buduli. From the personal name of Slavic origin Budilo, created without any suffix; Dalnic (Dálnok), in 1332 to 1337, Dalnuk, cf., Slavic dal "far, distant."

 

In most cases, the sound patterns of these names suggest either a parallel Slavic and Hungarian name or a translation of the Slavic name into Hungarian (while the Romanians borrowed it), or a borrowing by the Hungarians directly from Slavic, that is, independently from Romanian.

 

Hungarian names translated from Slavic:

 

Bălgrad

Tîrnava

Cernavoda

Belareca (river)

Cozla

Craiova

Racova

Hung. Fehérvár

Hung. Küküllő

Hung. Feketeviz

 Hung. Feyerwiz

Hung. Kecskés

Hung. Királymező

Hung. Rákosterebes

 

 

Hungarian names borrowed from Slavic independent of Romanian:

 

 

 

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Two settlements have a different name in Hungarian from that in Romanian: Bozna, Hung. Szentpéterfalva and Vlaha, Hung. Oláhfenes. Vlăhiţa in Odorheiu County is not an ancient name, the Romanian name of this village having been Olafalăul Mare until the last century, which is partly a borrowing, partly a translation of the Hungarian name.

 

Only two of these place names have the same form in both Romanian and Hungarian, but they were essentially the same in Slavic as well: Bistra and Cerna (in the southwest and in Maramureş). These two names could have been borrowed by the Hungarians either from the Slavs or from the Romanians; the sound patterns are no help in deciding the question.

 

One must conclude that the above names suggest a Slavo-Romanian symbiosis in the areas in question (mainly in southern Transylvania). None of them, however, indicates a borrowing from Romanian in Hungarian, the Hungarian counterparts having forms independent from the Romanian forms or being translations of the Slavic word. (There are cases in which a Hungarian borrowing cannot, on the basis of the sound pattern, be excluded, although not in more than two of the 25 names given by Petrovici.) The direct borrowing by Romanian of Slavic geographical names in Transylvania does not indicate a Slavo-Romanian symbiosis there before the Hungarians but only in a period when Transylvania already had a Hungarian population. Later, in 1964, Petrovici recognized the importance of parallel name-giving and emphasized that this was natural, on the basis of "symbiosis in the past in an area [where there were] several populations." [34]

 

 

Romanian Geographical Names Assumed To Be Older Than the Hungarian Toponymy

 

Another group of geographical names found in Transylvania were asserted to "reveal a Slavic or Romanian form that is older than the Hungarian toponymy, proving a borrowing by the Hungarians from Romanian." [35] These names are: Abrud, Bistriţa, Bogata, Buda, Budila, Câlnic, Cluj, Coca, Cricău, Dobâca, Cristiş, Gârbova, Gherla, Grind, Lomnic, Poiana, Sălicea, Slâmnic, Stana, Straja, Sâncel, and Vineţia. [36] Of these, Budila, Gîrbova, Lovnic (Lomnic), and Slimnic have been

 

 

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discussed above among the geographical names borrowed by Romanians directly from Slavs; Sîncel will be analyzed below. Essential data about the rest follows:

 

Hunedoara (Hunyad) County:

Câlnic (Kelnek, German Kelling). In 1296, Kelnuk; from Slavic kalnik "muddy place" (kal "mud"). The Hungarian name derives from German; the Romanian name is also probably from German, although it may have been borrowed directly from Slavic; Grind (Gerend), in 1392, Girid, from South Slavic gred (< grȩ).

 

Alba (Fehér) County:

Abrud (Abrudbánya). In 1271, Obruth. The origin of this name is unknown, but it cannot have been inherited by Romanian directly from Latin (Abruttus), because in that case -br- would not have been preserved (cf., Latin februarius > Romanian făurar). The Hungarian name in the thirteenth century was Obruth; Hungarian o changed, during the fourteenth century, to a: in 1211, Hoduth, 1355, Hodnog; from 1397 to 1416, Haduth; from 1323 to 1339, Meelpotok; and in 1327, Burustyanuspatak; and appellatives, such as okol > akol; nogy > nagy; bob > bab; golomb > galamb. [37] In some Romanian place names, borrowed at an early date from Hungarian, this o is preserved: Ocoliş, cf., modern Hungarian Aklos. Abrud was borrowed later, probably during or after the fourteenth century. Straja (Őregyháza, Sztrázsa, German Hohenwarte). In 1274, terra Euryghaz; in 1369, Ewreghaz; about 1630, Straza, Cricău (Krakkó, Boroskrakkó) in 1206, villa Karakó; in 1291, Crakow; in 1850, Krikou, Krakau.

 

Făgăraş (Fogaras) County:

Vineţia, Veneţia (Venicze), Veneţia de jos (Alsóvenicze, German Unterwenitze): in 1235, Veneţia or sacerdos de Venetis; in 1372, villa dicta Venecze; Veneţia de Sus (Felsővenicze, Oberwenitze). This name derives, according to Kniezsa, [38] from the name of the Italian town Venezia (Venice). Such names appear in several places in Hungary: there is Venecia, later Velence in Sáros and Fehér Counties; Italian colonists also left vestiges in Nagyvárad (Oradea), where three suburbs are called Velence, Padova, and Bolonya, [39] and in the name of the village Venter, Romanian Vintiri, in Bihor County from the Italian personal name Ventur (1349: Felwenter);

 

Satu Mare (Szatmár) County:

Coca: according to Suciu, [40] this is the name of a hamlet of the village Călineşti, in Ţara Oaşului.

 

 

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Bistriţa-Năsăud (Beszterce-Naszód) County:

Bistriţa (Beszterce, German Bistritz, Nősen): in 1264, villa Bistiche; from 1286 to 1289, Byzturche; in 1295, Bezterce, and Byzterce; in 1308, Bystricia.

 

Cluj (Kolozs) County:

Buda (Bodonkút, Romanian also Buda-Veche, Vechea): in 1315, Buda. This is a personal name of Slavic origin: Buda, Budivoj, Budimir; many settlements have this name in Hungary: Budapest, Budakeszi, Budapuszta, Budajenő. The place name formed from a personal name without a suffix is probably given by Hungarians. Cluj (Kolozsvár, German Klausenburg). This name derives most probably from Slavic kluž, which in turn was borrowed from Middle High-German (13th to 14th century) Klause "cell, closet": in 1183, Culusiensis comes (a questionable document); in 1213, castrenses de Claus and castrum Clus; in 1275, villa Clwsvar; in 1280, Culuswar; in 1348, Clusenburg. Gherla (ancient Gerlahida, modern Szamosújvár, German Armenierstadt, Armenerstadt, Neuschloss): in 1291, Gerlahida; in 1458, Gerlah; in 1552, Wywar; in 1595, Samosuivar; in 1632, Gerla and Szamosújvár. The name derives from the personal name Gerlach of German origin. The new Hungarian name refers to the tower built in this town in the sixteenth century. Dobîca (Doboka): in 1279, villa castri de Doboka and Dobokawarfolua vocata; in 1290, possessio seu terra Doboka. The name derives from the Hungarian personal name Doboka (in the 13th to 14th century: Dobuca). In Baranya County in southern Hungary, there is a Görcsöny-Doboka. Cristiş (Keresztes): in 1288, villa Cruciferorum de Torda (Today Romanian Oprişani, it belongs to the town Turda). Poiana (Polyána): in 1291, terra Polanteluk; in 1334, Palyan; from Slovakian pol'ana "mountain pasture." Sălicea (Szelicse): in 1297, possessio Zeleche. The name derives from Slavic selišče "hamlet," which is not Bulgarian, because šč changed in Bulgarian before the ninth century to št. (cf., for example, Ukrainian Horodisce > Romanian Horodişte); the form Sălicea must have been borrowed from Hungarian (Szelicse). Stana (Sztána): in 1288, terra Zthana. Iorgu Iordan [41] believed that this name might be related to the name Stînca, which appears in several places in Romania's transcarpathian territories (in Botoşani, Bucureşti, Iaşi, Buzău, Tulcea, and Bacău Counties) and in two cases in Transylvania: Stâncul (Bihor) and Stânceşti (Hunedoara), the last mentioned one deriving from the personal name Stâncă. [42] In Transylvania, there are also Dealul Stănişori and Stanuleţ, with a not exactly Romanian sound pattern. [43] István Kniezsa [44] believed that this name derived from the Slavic personal name Stan (Stanislav). In that

 

 

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case, the name giving was most probably Hungarian, since it is a personal name without a suffix.

 

Mureş (Maros) County:

Bogata (Marosbogát): in 1211, Bogad; 1291, Marosbogat. This name appears also in Hungary: Nyirbogát, in the northeast, and Bogádmindszent, in Baranya County, in the south.

 

These names can be divided into several groups:

 

Hungarian names borrowed by Romanian:

Hung. Abrud/bánya/ > Rom. Abrud

Hung. Krakkó > Rom. Cricău

Hung. Keresztes > Rom. Cristiş

Hung. Szelicse > Rom. Sălicea

 

Borrowing from Slavic in both Hungarian and Romanian (different forms):

Hung. Beszterce Rom. Bistriţa

Hung. Marosbogát Rom. Bogata

Hung. Kolozsvár Rom. Cluj

Hung. Gerend Rom. Grind

Hung. Orbó Rom. GTrbova

Hung. Lemnek Rom. Lovnic

Hung. Szelindek Rom. Slimnic

 

(similar form):

Polyána Poiana

 

Names created from personal names without a suffix:

Bodonkút Rom. Buda Veche

Bodola Rom. Budila

Doboka Rom. Dobica

Gerlahida (ancient name; today Szamosújvár) Gherla

 

The Hungarian name translated from Slavic:

Oregyháza Straja

 

The Hungarian name borrowed from German:

German Kelling > Hung. Kelnek (Rom. Câlnic)

 

Others and poorly known etymologies:

Hung. Venicze Rom. Veneţia

Hung. Sztána Rom. Stana

Hung. Szancsal Rom. Sîncel

Rom. Coca

 

Ion Moga's list [45] contains four place names that the Romanians

 

 

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obviously borrowed from Hungarian (for example, Keresztes > Cristiş). Those created by a personal name without a suffix probably also belong to this group (for example, Doboka). Eight names were borrowed from the Slavs by Hungarian as well as by Romanian. Only one of these, Poiana, shows a similar form in both languages; this name can, in Hungarian, derive from either Slavic or Romanian. The other 7 names all show different forms in the two languages. Consequently, none of these geographical names proves a Hungarian borrowing from Romanian; and all can be explained either by Romanian borrowing from Hungarian or by independent Romanian and Hungarian borrowing from Slavic.

 

 

A Review of the Geographical Names Existing Before 1400 in Hunedoara (Hunyad) County

 

Caraş-Severin, Hunedoara, Sibiu, and Făgaraş Counties in the south; the highest areas of the Apuseni Mountains and some areas north of there; and Maramureş County have long been considered "the Romanian territories" of Transylvania. They were the earliest areas populated by Romanians (beginning as early as in the thirteenth but mostly in the fourteenth century). In these areas are found most of the Romanian geographical names borrowed directly from Slavic; and the first geographical names of Romanian origin appeared there, in the fourteenth century.

 

Even in these territories, however, the ancient toponymy contains many names of Hungarian origin. Those geographical names that were known before 1400 and still exist in the Hunedoara County [46] will be analyzed here from the viewpoint of origin. There are 76 of these names (in fact, 78, but in two cases the same name is used for two villages: "upper" and "lower").

 

Names transferred from Hungarian to Romanian: 43  56.6%

Created parallel in Hungarian and Romanian: 8 10.5%

Names transferred from Romanian to Hungarian: 8 10.5%

From Slavic or Romanian to Hungarian: 4 5.2%

Unknown: 10 13.0%

 

Three of the names transferred from Romanian to Hungarian are based on Romanian appellatives: Nucşoara (1394, Noxara), cf. nucă "nut"; Rîuşor (1377, fluv. Ryusor) "little brook"; and Rîu-Bărbat (1391, Barbadvize), cf., Romanian bărbat "man." The rest are Romanian of Slavic origin. There is one name probably transferred to Romanian from German, one parallel Slavic-Hungarian name, and one (Gurasada)

 

 

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with a Romanian (gură "mouth'') and a Hungarian (szád "mouth") part, which is thus a tautological name.

 

 

Dubious Etymologies, Place Names Assumed To Be Inherited Directly from Latin

 

It is assumed that the following geographical names found along the lower course of the Tîrnava Mică (Kis-Küküllő) River could prove that Romanians lived in the area before the Hungarians: Sîncel, Valea Borşului, Rotunda (a forest), Hula Iu Băşcău, Valea lui Sin, Presaca, and Ohaba. [47]

 

Sîncel (Szancsal)

"Terra Zonchel" is mentioned for the first time in a document from 1252, [48] which also states that three other villages are found in the vicinity of Zonchel and that they have a church. In 1271 the village is mentioned by the name Zanchalteluky (Hungarian telek "ground plot," thus, the ground plot of Zanchal). In 1341 a man named Bazarab de Zanchal is mentioned. This is probably a Pecheneg name; and some years later (1347) the village is called Bezermenzanchal, "Pecheneg Zanchal." In the same year, Magyar Zanchal, "Hungarian Zanchal," appears in a document. Consequently, according to the testimony of the documents, Pechenegs and Hungarians were living there in the fourteenth century. After its first appearance, Zanchal is often mentioned in the documents in varying forms (Zanchal, Zanczal). A twin village inhabited by Vlachs appears in documents for the first time in 1513, when Oláh Zanchal "Vlach Zanchal" is mentioned. The same document also contains the name Magyarzanchal. [49] The Romanian name Sîncel, appears in 1854. The origin of this place name is unknown. Nicoiae Drăganu proposed the etymology from Latin sanctus > *santicellus > Romanian *santicel, sînt(u)cel; or from Latin summicellus. [50] V. Frăţilă accepts the second of these. Both hypotheses are, however, unlikely. Sînt(u)cel is "a far-fetched form" and neither Latin *summicellus nor Romanian *sîmcel is attested to, as was also pointed out by Ioan Pătruţ. Moreover, there are no similar cases anywhere in Romanian territory. Ioan Pătruţ proposes a simpler etymology [51] from the Romanian personal names Simcă, Simca, Simcea, or Sinea, Sincă, Sîncu existing also in Slavic, of which the diminutive would be Simcel or Sincel, respectively.

 

There are, however, no analogies to such a name; and the usual procedure of creating a place name in Romanian has always been with the use of a suffix (-eşti, -eni, or the masc. plural suffix -i), [52] in contrast to Hungarian, in which personal names are often used unchanged as place names: Hung. Szent Simon > Rom. Simoneşti,

 

 

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Hung. Szent Domokos > Rom. Dămăcuşeni. (It is only in modern times that a number of place names in Romania have been created from personal names without a suffix.)

 

Valea Borşului

Magyarzanchal is also called Bursiyacobhaza (1347) in documents. Frăţilă proposes that this name derives from a Romanian personal name Iacob Borş or Iacob Borşa and is identical with present-day Valea Borşului. [53]

 

Borş is a difficult case, since this name exists in Slavic (Boriš) as well as in Hungarian (from Turkish bors "pepper"), it appears in several parts of Transylvania and Hungary as a place-name as well as a name for rivers. In Hungary, there is, for example, Borsod County; in Transylvania, Kolozs-Borsa. [54] These originate from the Hungarian personal name Bors, which is of Turkish origin. The other part of the name in the document from 1347, Iacob, is a Christian personal name found in most European languages. Its sound pattern is not, however, Romanian. The usual Romanian form is Iacov, attested in Wallachian documents beginning in 1389. Other Romanian forms are Iacovachi, Iacuş, Iacoviţă, Iacă. Sometimes Iacobică, Iacobuţ and other forms with -b- appear; but "the appearnace of -b- instead of -v- is a result of Roman Catholic influence." [55]

 

Rotunda

In the area in which this village is situated, there is a forest called Rotunda. A document from 1296 mentions Silva Kerechnuk "round forest" in the same area, and in 1298 Villa Kerechnuk is mentioned. In Frăţilă's opinion, it is possible that the old name of the village derives from the name of the forest area called Rotundu, near which the old village was probably situated. In that case, the name of the village in the writings of the Hungarian Chancellery, Silva Kerechnuk, would be a translation of the Romanian name (Pădurea) Rotunda. [56] It is, however, equally possible that the forest and the village were called "round forest" and "round village" (Kerechnuk) by the Hungarians and that the Romanians translated the name to Rotunda. Since this village has the Romanian name of Chişcrac [57] (obviously from Hungarian Kiskerék), this is the most probable hypothesis.

 

Hula lu Băşcău and Valea lui Sin

These villages are mentioned in a document from 1313 under the names Bozkosar and Zyn Potoka, respectively. Frăţilă assumes that the Hungarians translated these originally Romanian names. While the appellatives that appear in Hungarian in the documents could

 

 

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be translated, the personal names are not Romanian, [58] which makes Frăţilă s hypothesis unlikely.

 

Presaca de Secaş (Székásgyepű, Székáspreszáka)

This village in Hunedoara County was referred to as Praeszaka in documents as late as 1647. Its German name, Kerschdorf, is mentioned in 1854. The name derives from the Slavic verb prĕsĕšti, prĕsẽko "to cut, to cut one's way." [59] There are many place names of this type in Romania. The meaning of this word is "a place in the forest with a clearing" and, in Wallachia and Moldavia, a "place outdoors where beehives are placed." [60] In Transylvania the defense system of the Hungarian kingdom was made up of places in the forest that were difficult to penetrate: Hungarian gyepű, Romanian (from Slavic) prisaca. They thus originate from the period in which the Hungarian Kingdom extended its domination and the Hungarian and Transylvanian German population settled in Transylvania. As the extension of settlement was a gradual process, from the tenth to the twelfth century, place names connected with the frontier defense line (for example, gyepű) were created in several areas. The Romanian equivalent of Hungarian gyepű appears only in southern Transylvania. There is nothing to indicate that these Romanian place names were created before the twelfth or thirteenth century; and Frăţilă concludes "if names such as Presaca and Beşineu had also been created in the period when the Hungarians came to Transylvania, the name of the settlement Ohaba is certainly from the time of the Slavo-Romanian symbiosis. [61]

 

Ohaba

Another village along the Tîrnava Mică River is called Ohaba (Székásszabadja) [lit.: "the free (village) of Székás"]. It is mentioned in Hungarian documents beginning in 1372 under the name Wyfalw (= modern Hungarian Újfalu): villa Wyfalw; Wyfolu (1417), Wyfalu (1418), Wyfaw (1435, 1437), Vijfalu, census quinquagesimalis da Vyfalw nobilium (1461). The German name Newdorf (New Village) appears in 1488 and the Romanian Ohaba in 1733. [62]

 

Frăţilă presumed that Romanian Ohaba originates from the time of Slavo-Romanian symbiosis in Transylvania before the arrival of the Hungarians. This is an old hypothesis, which was advanced by Ioan Bogdan and Silviu Dragomir in 1906. [63]

 

This Romanian place name originates from the Slavic verb oxabiti sȩ "to evade something, to refrain from something," [64] and refers to the fact that the inhabitants of this village were exempted from taxes. The notion "exempted from taxes" is a typically feudal phenomenon, which implies the existence of obligations to a landlord, the Church,

 

 

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or a state organization. Such obligations appeared in Southeastern Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the designation Ohaba was first used in Wallachia in Slavonic documents written in the fourteenth century. There are such place names in Oltenia, but most of them (23) are found in the Banat; there are 10 in Hunedoara County and three in Arad County. [65] Colonists from Wallachia settled in these places; and their villages were called Szabadfalu "free village" in Hungarian and Ohaba in Romanian. The Hungarian name Újfalu "New Village" also indicates that the settlement was of recent date (in relation to the period when the document was written). Similar names created in the feudal period are Lehota and Vola in Hungary, which are respectively of Slovakian and Ruthenian origin, and in the Wallachian Principalities, Slobozia, of South Slavic origin and Uric, from Hungarian örök "inherited, inheritable, donated estate." Uric is frequently used in Moldavia and also appears in Hunedoara County. It is therefore obvious that Ohaba cannot originate from any time before the fourteenth century. [66]

 

 

1. PLACE NAMES

 

The Romanian Place Names

 

According to the meaning of the word it consist of, Iorgu Iordan distinguished four main groups of Romanian place names: 1) geographical, 2) social, 3) historical, and 4) psychological. [67]

 

1) Geographical: Surface formations: albie "the lowest part of a valley"; movilă "hill"; capul "head" (usually a hill, also "the end of something"). A characteristic feature of the place: lunca "waterside, river meadow"; alun, aluna, alunul "hazel tree"; boz "dwarf elder"; alba "white"; neagra "black"; sărata "salty." The position of the place: dosul "the back"; faţa "the face, the front side"; . . . de Jos "lower"; . . . de Sus "upper."

 

2) Social: Iordan included in this group names of villages based on both personal names—Augustin, Blaj, Fărcqs, and Agnita—and the names of historical figures given to settlements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Ţepeş Vodă, Dimitrie Cantemir, Traian. [68] There is a group of names ending in -falău "village" (< Hungarian -falva, falu): Petrifalău (< Hungarian Péterfalva), Ciomafalău (< Hungarian Csomafalva). Several place names indicate ownership or preserve the memory of social institutions (Slobozie "free village" of Slavic origin; Uric also "free village" but of Hungarian origin) or that of different kinds of servants of the court (Stolnic [cf., stolnic "High Steward"], Muftiul from Turkish "supreme judge"). Other names denote the

 

 

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occupation of the villages' inhabitants: bivolari "buffalo boys," cărbunari "coal vendors," and croitori "tailors." There are names of religious content such as biserica "church," apatău (< Hungarian Apáti, apát "abbot"), as well as of popular mythology: balaura "the dragon," draca, dracul "the devil." Certain place names preserve the memory of former settlements: Odaia "flat used by the officials of the Turkish state in their journeys across the country"; Straja "sentry, guard"; and Zalhanaua "slaughter house."

 

3) Historical: Names of different populations preserved in place names: Arvat, Horovatul (< Hung. horvát "Croatian"), Bulgari "Bulgarians"; Comana (fem.) "Cumanian"; Greaca (fem.) "Greek"; Iaşi "Yaziges"; Jidava (fem.) "Jew"; Neamţul "German"; Peceneaga (fem.), Peceneagul (masc.) and, in Transylvania, Beşineu, "Pecheneg"; Cuzdrioara (< Hung. Kozárvár "tower of the Cazars"); Lipovanul "Russian"; Ruşi "Russians"; Sasa "Saxon"; Şcheia "Bulgarian"; Sârba "Serbian"; Secuia "Székely"; Tatarca "Tatar"; Tauta, Tăut "Slovakian"; Ţiganca "Gypsy"; and Unguraş, Ungurei, "Hungarian." Names of Romanians from different districts: Bănăţeni "people from the Banat"; Munteanul "man from Muntenia"; Moldovanul "man from Moldavia"; Ungureni "people coming from /eastern/ Hungary /including Transylvania/ /ethnic Hungarians or Rumanians/"; Vlaha, Vlaşca (from the Slavic name of the Romanians), Româna. Place names also preserve the memory of certain historic events or objects: Grădişte (of Slavic origin) "fortification, tower"; Luptători "warriors"; Orada (< Hung. vár) "tower"; and Războieni (cf., război "war").

 

4) Psychological: There are place names derived from nicknames: Grozăvescul, cf., grozav "terrible, awful"; Afurisiţi "those accursed"; and Risipiţi, cf., risipi "to scatter, to waste." Some are based on human conditions: Flămînda (fem.), cf., flămînd "hungry"; Mămăligari, cf., mămăliga, "maize porridge"; and Vai de ei (approximately) "poor ones." Certain place names are descriptive: Piciorul Porcului "the leg of the pig," and Fără Fund "bottomless."

 

 

The Formal Peculiarities of Romanian Place Names

 

Phonetics: Spontaneous sound changes: Ilva > Ilua, Oacheş > Acheş. Sound assimilations and dissimilations: albie > Alghia, Hung. Egrestő > Rom. Agrişteu. Apocope and syncope: Altul Cucii (instead of înalt-), Hung. Magyaró > Rom. Măierău. Prothesis and epenthesis: găuri (plur. of gaură "hole") becomes Gavuri. Analogies: Transylvanian Saxon Krisbach (Krebsbach) > Rom. Crizbav, Hung. Földvár > Rom. Feldioara. In the process of borrowing the Hungarian and Transylvanian Saxon place names within the Carpathian territory of present-day Romania, many examples of popular etymology, haplology and

 

 

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superurbanism were produced: Hung. Szatmár (from a personal name of German origin) > Rom. Satu Mare "big village," Hung. Mondorlak > Rom. Mîndruloc "proud or handsome place," German Propstdorf > Rom. Proştea (Mare, Mică), cf., Rom. prost "stupid, ignorant, bad, poor." Metathesis: Cărpiniş > Căprinişul; old and dialectal forms; for example, Ceraşul for Cireş.

 

Morphology: One finds variant forms of the plural, such as Baltele (the plural form of baltă "marsh"; today correctly bălţi); and an example of an unusual form of the genitive is Balta Oaiei instead of Balta Oii. Several names appear both in the masculine and the feminine form: Şomcutul Mic, Şomcuta Mare, and Sebeş, Săbişa.

 

Word formation: There is a very large number of suffixes by which place names are formed. Feminine forms have the endings -a, -oaie or -oaica: Secuia (in Vaslui district), the feminine form of Secui "Székely"; and Ceauşoaia, the feminine form of ceauş "messenger, chieftain." The most common suffixes in Romanian place names are -eşti and -ani, -eni. They designate the origin of the inhabitants (coming from a place or belonging to the head of family or to the owner on which the name is based). The suffix -eşti is considered to be of Thracian origin; it also exist in Albanian (cf., the Albanian place name Bukurisht). The suffix -ani (and its variant -eni) is of Slavic origin (-ěninŭ). Romanian Bucureşti (Bucharest) means "the Bucurescu family"; Găureni derives from găură "hole, opening," thus, "people who live in holes or in the vicinity of holes." These suffixes may be used in the study of migrations and colonizations. [69] Another suffix of Slavic origin is -ăuţi, from Ukrainian -ovtsi today -ivtsi), with approximately the same meaning as that of -ani, as in Rădăuţi, from the personal name Radu. The meaning of the suffix -inţ(i), of Slavic origin, is also similar to that of -ani. In several cases, the Romanian form reproduces the Slavic plural: Romanian Stremţi, cf., Slavic *Srěmĭtsi (Serbian Sremtsi "people coming from Srem"). This suffix, like -ăuţi, indicates the personal origin (not the local one) of the inhabitants. [70] Place names ending in -ova, -ava were also created by the use of a Slavic suffix, in most cases by a Slavic population: Ardeova from Hungarian erdő "forest" + the Slavic suffix -ova; Craiova, cf., Slavic kral "king."

 

A large group of place names all over Romania were created by diminutive suffixes. Often, one finds the original form as well as the diminutive not far from each other. In a number of cases the diminutive form was given to the smaller of the two settlements: Blăjel (Kleinblasendorf) near Blaj. Diminutive forms were, however, also created in order to avoid homonymy. The Romanian diminutive, moreover, also has the sense of "similar to" and in geographical names approximately

 

 

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the meaning "in the vicinity of": Tecucel is thus a river that flows through the outskirts of Tecuci. Then there are, chiefly in Transylvania, "pseudodiminutives," that is, place names ending in - oara and -, such as Timişoara, Feldioara, and Adamuş, which were not originally diminutive forms of place name borrowings from Hungarian: Temesvár, Földvár, and Ádámos (-oara thus corresponds in these names to Hungarian -vár and - to Hungarian -os).

 

The suffix -et in place names denotes aggregations (mostly of plants, especially trees): Făget, cf., fag "beech"; Păltinetul, cf., paltin "sycamore maple." The suffix - has the same function, and several place names exist with both of these suffixes: along with Păltinet(ul), there is also Păltiniş. Because of the phonetical similarity and also the similar sense between Romanian - and Hungarian -es, many Hungarian place names ending in -es have - in Romanian: Hungarian Örményes > Romanian Armeniş; Hungarian Kökös > Romanian Chichiş; Hungarian Kertes > Romanian Chertiş. The suffix -işte(a) has a similar function except that the actual presence of the object denoted by the base-word is not necessary: for example, Arişte "place where there was a threshing floor." Many of these place names were borrowed from Slavic: Grădişte, cf., Slavic grădişte "fortress"; Bulgarian grădişte "the place of a former town, fortification, or tower"; Tîrgovişte, cf., Slavic tŭrgoviste "market place."

 

The suffixes -ar and - (-ari and -aşi in the plural), form the names of professions [nomina agentis]: strungar "lathe operator," and puşcaş "fusilier, marksman, shot." They often also denote the origin of the inhabitants: Poienari, Baltaşi. The suffix -arie creates collective nouns and nomina agentis: Bivolăria (with the definite article) "stable of buffaloes, herd of buffaloes," Căşeria "place where cheese was once made."

 

Syntax: The genitive formed by de, which existed once in the Romanian language, is still preserved in several names of small villages: for example, Păuşeşti de Otăsău. In certain place names, one finds the genitive with the definite article placed before the noun: Măgura lui Căţel "the hill of the whelp" (but the literary form Măgura Căţelului is also used); and Cornul lui Sas. On the other hand, the postponed definite article could appear, in certain place names based on personal names, which is also an ancient usage: Drumul Bogdanului (today one would say Drumul lui Bogdan).

 

A small number of Romanian place names are formed by connecting two nouns. This does not agree with the rules of the Romanian language, and most of these place names were borrowed from other languages. Some of them are tautologies: Gurasada (Romanian gură "mouth," and in the case of place names "backwater," Hungarian

 

 

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szád "mouth, opening"); Rudabaia, Rudabania (cf., Slavic ruda and Hungarian bánya, both with the meaning of "mine"); -Murăş-Oşorhei < Hungarian Marosvásárhely (today Tîrgu Mureş); Dicio-Sînmartin < Hungarian Dicsőszentmárton, Hung. dicső "glorious," thus properly an adjective, today Tîrnăveni. [71] There are also place names formed by combining a noun with an adjective: Cimpulung (cîmpul + lung "the long field"). Some place names containing an adjective + a noun are also of foreign origin: Dobrivîrful (Slavic) and others in Transylvania of the type Sîncrai (< Hungarian Szentkirály), which represent the numerous Hungarian names of villages based on the names of Roman Catholic Saints. Examples of place names formed by combining a preposition with a noun are Sup(t)cetate (supt + cetate "under the tower") and (Dealu) Trevăile (între + văi "between valleys"). [72] There are also combinations of a verb with an adverb or an adjective, such as Doarme-Rău "sleep + badly."

 

 

Differences Between Northern Romanian Place Names Recorded on the Balkan Peninsula and Those from the Territories North of the Danube

 

A chronological study of Romanian place names is, not available. North of the Danube, only a few Romanian place names were recorded before the fourteenth century. Several such names were, however, preserved in the documents [hrişovs] written by Serbian kings between about 1200 and 1450. All these clearly belong to the Northern Romanian dialect. Several of them currently exist, in more or less Slavicized form, in Serbia and Bulgaria. [73] Most of them were formed from geographical or personal names + the definite article: Piscul, Corbul, Surdul; with the diminutive suffixes -şor or -el (Cernişor, Negrişor, Banişor, Văcărel, Păsârel, and Cercel) or with the suffix -et (Cornet).

 

These types of place names are also found north of the Danube, in Muntenia, Moldavia, and Transylvania. There, however, they are in the minority among the large number of place names created by the suffixes -eşti and -eni, -ani. The first appearances in the documents of these suffixes in place names in Transylvania are the following: Gureni (1415); Petreni (1425); Toteşti (1438); Luteşti (1439) in the district of Hátszeg (Haţeg); Mărgineni (1437) in Fogaras County; and Chiuleşti (1467) in Szolnok-Doboka County. The Romanian population of the central areas of the Balkan Peninsula disappeared during the fifteenth century. Their place names, first recorded in the early thirteenth century, show what is obviously an earlier type of name-giving. This earlier type is characterized by the frequent use of names in the nominative

 

 

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with the definite article. Later, the use of the suffixes -eşti, and - ani, eni became the main way of forming place names. This must have happened in a period in which the connection between the speakers of Romanian north and south of the Danube were severed, because the place names ending in -eşti did not spread in the Balkan Peninsula.

 

 

A Comparison of Place Names in Transylvania with Those of the Transcarpathian Areas of Romania

  

Formal Differences

 

in Muntenia the suffix -eşti appears more frequently than it does in Moldavia. There are, for example, about 60 villages with the name Popeşti in Muntenia but only 10 in Moldavia. Moreover, family names ending in -escu in the former are more frequent and those ending in -(e)anu, in the latter, in Transylvania, these usual Romanian suffixes are found much more rarely and not everywhere. The suffix -eşti is most common in the area of the Apuseni Mountains where most Transylvanian names of Romanian origin are also found. This suffix also appears along the border area between Transylvania proper and the Banat. More recently, this characteristic Romanian suffix has been used to create new names, often to replace Hungarian -falva, or -telke. In northeastern Transylvania, there are place names ending in -eni, [74] obviously an influence from neighboring Moldavia.

 

In Transylvania, intellectuals and, later, officials have created many place names using neologisms, such as the learned expressions superior and inferior. (In the transcarpathian territory, only their Romanian counterparts de Sus and de Jos are used almost exclusively). Another example of place names given by learned people is the use of o instead of u in Nicoleşti, common in Transylvania. [75]

 

Semantic Features

 

In the transcarpathian areas of Romania many place names have been created with the appellative biserică "church." [76] In Transylvania many fewer names of this kind appear, and they are based on non-Romanian (mostly German) appellatives with the same meaning. [77] A vestige of former frontiers between Transylvania and the Romanian principalities of Muntenia and Moldavia has survived in a number of names such as Carantina, Carantina Veche, Schela ("frontier road not in use, on which grass is growing"), and Vama ("customs").

 

A reminder of frequent and severe plagues is found in the names Ciumaşi, from ciumă "plague." In Transylvania, there are only a few of these, and at least one is a late creation of popular etymology: Ciumani, in Csík (Ciuc) County designed to replace earlier Ciomafaláu ("the village of Csoma"). [78]

 

 

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The name Odaia is frequently found in Muntenia and Moldavia hut does not appear in Transylvania, it is of Turkish origin and means "flat used by the officials of the Turkish state in their journeys across the country." [79] Several other Turkish terms not found in Transylvania appear in the territory of the former Romanian principalities.

 

As in all countries there are many place names in Romania that denote plants (especially trees of different kinds) and animals. In Muntenia and Moldavia these appellatives usually derive from Romanian or from Slavic, while in Transylvania the great majority are of Hungarian origin. The appellative măr "apple," for instance, appears in 39 place names in the transcarpathian territories but only 7 times in Transylvania, [80] where place names using "apple" are usually formed by Hungarian alma.

 

Pruni "plums" and Pruniş "plum wood" appear throughout the country. The Slavic noun sliva "plum" is the basis of several place names such as Slimnic (from Slivnic), Slimnul, Slivna, Slivuţa, and Slevnia, all of which (except Slivuţa, in Hunedoara County) are in the transcarpathian areas. In Transylvania (except for the southernmost part), the Romanians borrowed Hungarian szilva (from Slavic sliva): Silvaş, Silivaş, Silvaşul de Cîmpie, Silvaşul de Jos and Silvaşul de Sus, Silvaşul Român, and Silvaşul Unguresc. [81]

 

The same is the case with păr and Hungarian körte; Romanian fag and Hungarian bükk; Romanian sălcie and Hungarian fűz; Romanian mesteacăn and Hungarian nyír, nyíres; Romanian trestie (from Slavic) and Hungarian nád; Romanian anin, arin and Hungarian éger; Romanian răşniţă and Hungarian örlő; and Romanian coroiu and Hungarian karvaly. On the basis of data from a dictionary of the settlements with Romanian inhabitants within the arch of the Carpathians, [82] Kniezsa drew up statistics on the names of these villages. [83] The Hungarian form of the appellatives mentioned above is used in 69 place names in Transylvania and the Romanian in only 13. In the transcarpathian territories, the Romanian form is used frequently, particularly păr (hruša), fag (buc), sălcie (rakita and vrŭba), and mesteacăn (brĕza), although the corresponding Slavic appellatives are also common. [84]

 

Similar differences between the transcarpathian areas and those within the Carpathian regions of Romania are found in the distribution of place names created from the names of peoples that once lived there. Greaca [85] and similar place names formed from the Romanian name of the Greeks are frequent in Muntenia and Moldavia but do not appear in Transylvania. The Romanian name for the Germans neamţ or gherman (recently german) and Hungarian német have been

 

 

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preserved in many settlements in Romania, in Muntenia and Moldavia these place names are based on Romanian—Neamţul, Nemţi, Măgura Nemţilor, Ghermana, and Ghermăneşti—while in Transylvania they derive from Hungarian német "German" in four cases and szász "Transylvanian Saxon" in sixty: Királynémeti > Romanian Crainimăt; Németi > Romanian Nimţiul, later Minţiul (older forms are Nemiti, Nempty, Nempcii, Nemţi); [86] Szászváros > Romanian Orăştie; Szászkézd > Romanian Saschiz; Szászpatak > Romanian Spătac; Szászlekence > Romanian Lechinţa; Szászcsűr > Romanian Săsciori; Szászfehéregyháza > Romanian Viscri (from German Weisskirch—the German and Hungarian names mean "white church"); and Szászveresmart > Romanian Rotbav (from German Rotbach "red brook," which is also the meaning veresmart). In the transcarpathian areas "szász" appears only in southwestern Moldavia, an area once inhabited by Hungarians: Sascut, from Hungarian Szászkút "fountain of the Saxon."

 

A Turkish people, the Pechenegs, lived from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries in Hungary and in the territory of present-day Moldavia and Muntenia and imparted their name to several settlements. Most of them were probably created during the period of their occupation; but some may be from a later day, from personal names (Besenyő), or after Pechenegs who owned or inhabited a settlement. Various villages are named Pecenoge (after the Slavic form), Pecenegul and Peceneaga (after the Romanian form), and Besenyő (after the Hungarian form), as well as the German equivalent, Beschenbach. Of these Iorgu Iordan mentioned nine Romanian forms (of Slavic origin) in Muntenia and Moldavia and three in the Southern Carpathians near the frontier between Muntenia and Transylvania. [87] In all other parts of Transylvania, only forms of the Hungarian name, besenyő appear. Ştefan Pascu lists 14 such villages, including Romanian Beşeneu, Beşineu, Beşînău from Hungarian Besenyő. [88] There is also a village called Beschenbach, a name given by the Transylvanian Saxons; and in two other cases early Saxons lived near the village of "Besenyő," which they named Heidendorf, "village of pagans" in German. The place names related to the Pechenegs are not derived from the Latin name, as it was assumed by Pascu. The Latin name (Bisseni) was only used in the documents, which at that time were all written in the Latin language. The peoples of Transylvania gave the villages in which Pechenegs settled names in their own languages— Besenyő and Beschen—and the Romanians, when they found these names, borrowed them in the forms Beşeneu, Beşineu, Beşinbac.

 

 

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The Names of Rivers in Romania

 

The investigation of place and river names requires interdisciplinary work in linguistics, archaeology, and history as well as critical analysis of sources. Individual place and river names must also be considered in the context of the total area of dissemination. It is methodologically untenable to generalize on the basis of individual analyses; that will lead to invalid, or at best to only partially valid conclusions. To attain meaningful results it would be necessary to consider the individual groups comprising the entire dissemination area.

 

Pre-Slavic place names, antedating the 7th century, are unknown in Transylvania, thus, the oldest place names there are of Slavic origin. Even pre-Slavic, presumably also pre-Latin names of the large rivers in Transylvania, such as Mureş - Maros - Maris(ia), Someş - Szamos - Samus, and Oltul - Olt - Aluta(s) were transmitted in Slavic form. [89] Consequently, not a single geographical name (place, river, or mountain names) in Romania attests the Roman continuity from the late antiquity to the early Middle Ages.

 

There are 153 tributaries of the rivers Someş, Criş, Ompoi, Mureş, Olt, Timiş, and Bîrzava that flow through at least two or three villages in the Carpathian Basin on the territory of Romania. [90] They may be broken down according to the origin of the name and number of tributaries:

 

 

Of these 38-39, (25.5%) are Slavic; 72 (47.0%), Hungarian; 1 (0.7%), German; 1 (0.7%), Romanian (a name created in a late period); and 41 (26.8%), of unknown origin.

 

 

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River names of unknown origin

 

Of the 41 (26.8%) river names of unknown origin, there are 9 cases in which the sound pattern of the Hungarian and Romanian names clearly indicate that the Romanian form originates from Hungarian: for example, Hungarian Visó > Romanian Vişeu; Hungarian Zilah > Romanian Zalău; Hungarian Tőz > Romanian Teuz; and Hungarian Arapatak > Romanian Arpatac. In the remaining cases, the source of the Romanian name cannot be determined with certainty.

 

None of these names shows a sound pattern indicating a Latin or Romanian origin. Many of them probably derive from Slavic or Hungarian. The southeastern area of Transylvania is one of the regions in which river names of unknown origin are frequent; of a total of 12 tributaries from the south to the Olt River, five (Tatrang/Tîrlung, Zajzon/Zizin, Tomos/Timiş, Barca/Bîrsa (German) Burze, and Porumbák/Porurnbac) have names of undetermined origin. Since Pechenegs are known to have lived in that area in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, some of these names may be of Turkish origin.

 

 

River names of Slavic origin

 

A total of 39 (25.5%) of the 153 tributaries mentioned above have names of Slavic origin. The distribution of the Slavic names is, however, uneven; a fourth of them are concentrated in a small area (Krasso-Szoreny/Caraş-Severin County) in the southwestern corner of Romania. Ten tributaries of the Danube in this area have names of Slavic origin, and all of them were probably transferred to Romanian directly from Slavic: Lisava, Ciclova, Vicinic, Dognacea, Cemoveţ, Prigoru, Oraviţa, Berzasca, Ieşelniţa, and Belareca. Another three Danube tributaries have names of Hungarian origin: Néra, Karas, and Ménes (Romanian Nera, Caraş, and Miniş).

 

In the rest of the territory within the arch of the Carpathians, there are 29 river names of Slavic origin. In 15 cases, the sound pattern of the Hungarian and Romanian forms makes it possible to determine the language from which the name was borrowed by the Romanians. A direct borrowing from Slavic is shown in 7 cases: Slavic Vъrbova or Vъrbovo > Romanian Gârbova (the Slavic word means "willow" and was borrowed by Hungarian in the form Orbó); Slavic Trnava > Romanian Tîrnava (Hungarian Küküllő); Slavic Cernavoda > Romanian Cernavoda "black water" (Hung. Feketeviz); Slavic Sad (from the appellative sadъ "plantation") > Romanian Sad (Hung. Cód, German Zoodt); Slavic ščiuka "pike" > Romanian Sciuca (Hung. Csukás); and Slavic cъrna "black" > Romanian Cerna (Hung. Cserna.. but in the Middle Ages Feketeér "black brook," preserved today in the name of the village Ficatar). Moraviţa (Hung. Moravica),

 

 

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a tributary of the Berzava in the southwest, must also be considered a direct borrowing, because it is situated in an area where the majority of the Slavic names were borrowed directly by Romanian.

 

in 8 cases the sound pattern of the Hungarian and Romanian forms indicates that the Romanians did not borrow the names directly from Slavic but via Hungarian: Slavic Jelšava > Hungarian Jolsava (vowel harmony) > Jolsva > Ilsva > Ilosva (jo > i is usual in Hungarian), from which Romanian Ilişua; Slavic Lъkъnica > Hungarian Lekence > Romanian Lechinţa (in the case of direct Romanian borrowing from Slavic, one would expect *Lecniţa); Slavic Trescava > Hungarian Torockó > Romanian Trăscău instead of *Treascava or *Truskava); Slavic Lovъna or Lovina > Hungarian Lóna (i patak) > Romanian (Pîrîul) Lunei (for example, Romanian Luna instead of *Lomna, as in Slavic Slivnik > Romanian Slimnic, and Slavic Ravna > Romanian Ramna). in the remaining 14 cases, the sound pattern gives no reliable indication about the direct source of the borrowing.

 

 

River names of Hungarian origin

 

Almost half of the tributaries have names of Hungarian origin (a total of 72, or 47%). A few examples are Almás, Nádas, Füzes, Aranyos, Sebes, Ménes, Komlód, Sajó, Kormos, and Vargyas, Romanian borrowed 70 of the Hungarian names, including Almaş, Nădaş, Fizeş, Arieş, Sebeş, and Miniş. One river name is of German origin and was transferred to Hungarian as well as to Romanian: Weidenbach > Hungarian Vidombák, and Romanian Ghimbav. Only a single river name is of Romanian origin: Cornăţel, in the region of Sibiu. This name appeared late in documents; from 1319 to 1555, the village from which this river received its name appears in the forms Hortobagh, Hortobag, Hortobaghfalua, and German Harwasdorf. [91] Kornicsel appeared for the first time in 1733 [92] (German Harbach).

 

The direct source of the Romanian names for the 153 Transylvanian rivers is unknown in 48 (31.4%) of the cases; 87 (56.8%) derive from Hungarian, 17 (11%) from Slavic, and 1 from German. The absence of geographical names of Latin origin north of the lower Danube is often explained by reference to the rural, pastoral life of the 'Daco-Roman" population and is thus not considered to contradict the theory of continuity. According to abundant evidence, however, river names are in general borrowed by the new arrivals in a country. The Romans borrowed most of their river names from the peoples they subdued; and in modern times, one can cite the Europeans' large-scale borrowing of Indian river names in the New World. This also shows that the newcomers borrow such names even when they are more numerous and have a more highly developed culture than the indigenous

 

 

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population. In the territory within the arch of the Carpathians a large proportion of the river names used today by the Romanians, Hungarians, and Germans are of Slavic origin. This indicates that the Slavs were living in the territory prior to its present inhabitants. About half the river names are, however, of Hungarian origin; and almost all of these were borrowed by the Romanians. Furthermore, the Romanians borrowed from Hungarian at least eight names of Slavic origin and nine of undetermined origin. At least 56% of all Romanian river names were transferred to Romanian from Hungarian.

 

 

Place Names of Slavic Origin in Transylvania (Hungarian, German, Romanian)

 

The study of the place names of Slavic origin in all three languages now spoken in Transylvania—Romanian, Hungarian, and German— is indispensable when analyzing the early settlement of these peoples.

 

Hungarian place names of Slavic origin

 

These are found mostly along the borderline between mountainous regions and plains; they are rare along the edges of the Transylvanian Basin (Mezőség, Cîmpia Transylvaniei). Most of the Slavic place names are based on appellatives denoting natural phenomena: geographic features, plants, and animals; and a smaller number derive from Slavic personal names. There are also a few names indicating a settlement, such as Szolcsva and Szelicse (in the region of Torda/Turda), from a Slavic appellative meaning "village," or with the Slavic suffix -an, as in Kályán (Kolozs/Cluj County). Place names derived from Slavic personal names include Bezdéd, Déda, Dedrád, Dezmér, Gesztrágy, Lecsmér, Miriszló, Naszód, Szopor, Vajola, Vista, Völcsök, and Zovány. [93] Most of these are only names without a suffix; and since the Slavs almost always used a suffix to create place names out of personal names, they were probably formed by Hungarians. [94] A few place names created from Slavic personal names by Slavs (with suffixes) appear in Máramaros (Maramureş)—Bocskó; in the Háromszék (Trei Scaune, now Covasna) County, Papolc, Csernáton; and in Krassó-Szörény (Caraş-Severin) County—Orşova, Radimna, and Mácsova. [95]

 

There are no reliable chronological criteria in the sound pattern of the Slavic borrowings that would make possible to determine when they were transferred to Hungarian. Some information can, however, be gained by examining the Slavic dialects once spoken in Transylvania. Since several of the Slavic names contain -grad (Moigrad, Bălgrad), the Slavic typonymy can hardly have been Russian (in Russian the corresponding form is gorod). In the south, the ancient Slavic population was most probably Bulgarian (cf., for instance Bolgárszeg, Romanian

 

 

 

Şchei, in Brassó [Braşov] with parallel Hungarian-Romanian names), in the southwest there were also Serbians in the Middle Ages. In the northern areas, however, in the place of Slavic ĕ one finds always ë or i (e.g. Hungarian Peleske, old Hungarian Piliske). The Slavs who left these names were not Bulgarians but, most probably, Western Slavs. [96]

 

Different Slavic groups also settled in Transylvania in the later Middle Ages and thereafter Russians (cf., Hungarian Oroszi, from Hungarian orosz "Russian" + i "possessive suffix," German Reussmarkt, Romanian Rusu). There are also place names indicating the settlement of Czechs and Croatians (e.g. Páncélcseh > Romanian Panticeu, with Romanian borrowing from Hungarian). Hungarian place names such as Tót and Tótfalu (> Romanian Tăuţi, in early borrowings and Tot in more recent ones) are frequent but indicate only Slavs in general (Hungarian tót "Slovakian" was the Hungarian name for the Slavs in the Middle Ages).

 

In at least five settlements named after different Slavic populations these settlements were already assimilated to the Hungarians when the Romanians arrived. This is clearly indicated by the sound pattern of the Romanian names of these villages: Hungarian Páncélcseh (Hung. páncél "armour" + cseh "Czech") > Romanian Panticeu borrowing of the Hungarian name, without any sense in Romanian) in Cluj (Kolozs) County; and in southern Transylvania, where there are two villages called in Hungarian Oroszi (Hungarian orosz "Russian" + suffix -i) > Romanian Urusiu and Orăsia, respectively. These names are borrowings from Hungarian rather than translations of the Hungarian meanings. Obviously, if the Romanians had found the original Slavic population in these villages, they would have named the localities after them (Ruşi or Sîrbi, for example).

 

Two villages in Transylvania (one each in Hunedoara and in Mureş Counties) are called in Hungarian Nándor (Lándor), the former Hungarian name for the Bulgarians which probably disappeared soon after 1000, when the Bulgarian Empire was subdued by Byzantium. It is not known whether the two settlements with this name preserve the memory of Bulgarians found there by the Hungarians in the tenth century or that of later immigrants. The Romanian forms of these names, however, indicate that when the Romanians arrived in the area, they did not find Bulgarians there, since they borrowed the Hungarian name of these villages (Romanian Nandru [Hunedoara County] and Nandra [Mureş County]). The Romanian name for the Bulgarians was Şchiau; many villages in Muntenia and Moldavia are called Şchei.

 

 

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German (Transylvanian Saxon) place names of Slavic origin

 

Place names of Slavic origin in Transylvanian Saxon appear in several areas, especially in the region of Bisiritz (Beszterce/Bistriţa) and Sächsisch-Regen (Szászrégen/Reghin): Windau, from Slavic Wende; Pospesch (literary German Passbusch), from Slavic Pospech "hurry, haste"; and Billak (cf., bil "white"). Among the 242 names of villages in which Transylvanian Saxon dialects were spoken in the twentieth century, 8 were found to be of Slavic origin: [97]

 

 

That Transylvanian Saxons lived together with Slavs is also indicated by parallel place names such as German Stolzenburg, cf., Slavic Slynьnikъ, from the adjective slynьnъ "famous" (Romanian Slimnic, Sibiu County); and Saxon Stein cf., Slavic Grot "edge" (de Lapide in a document from 1309), the Romanians borrowed the German name Stena and the Hungarians the Slavic Garat. [98]

 

 

Romanian Geographical Names of Slavic Origin

The Definition of Geographical Names Borrowed from Slavs

 

The number of geographical names that are ultimately of Slavic origin is high in many parts of present-day Romania. Discussing early contacts among the different populations that once lived in the country, it is essential to distinguish between the geographical names given by the Slavs and borrowed from them directly by the Romanians and other names of a Slavic pattern. [99] In the latter group there are many geographical names in which a Romanian word of Slavic origin appears: Lunca, Dumbrava, Dumbrăviţa, Izvor, Poiana, Peşteră, Slatina, These were given by Romanians.

 

Another group of geographical names ultimately of Slavic origin were borrowed by the Romanians from Hungarian. These are found almost exclusively within the Carpathian Mountains (in Transylvania): Slavic *Vrĭbovo > Hungarian Orbó (in Satu Mare County) > Romanian Orbău. Slavic *Vrĭbovo resulted, when borrowed directly from Slavic, in Romanian Gîrbova (Alba County). Similarly, from Slavic selišče

 

 

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"hamlet, small village," Hungarian Szelicse (Cluj County) > Romanian Sălicea; Hungarian Krakkó, of Slavic origin (Alba County) > Romanian Cricău, and Slavic *Go̧bĭcĭ > Hungarian Gambuc (1303; Gambuch), [100] which transferred to Romanian now has the form of Gîmbuţ. There are several river names in this group: Slavic Jelšava > Hungarian Jolsava, later Ilosva > Romanian Ilişua; Slavic Trescava > Hungarian Torockó > Romanian Trăscău. From the viewpoint of contacts between Slavs and Romanians, it is of importance that a Slavic population loaned place names to Romanians as well as Hungarians: Romanian Băcăinţi (Hunedoara County, Orăştie district), Hungarian Bokalyalfalu (in 1278, Bakay); Romanian Covăsinţi (in the region of Arad), in 1333, Couasi; Romanian Cuvin (in the Banat, Lipova district), Hungarian Kövi (Aradkövi); in 1323, possessio [owned by] Kev; Romanian Beşenova (Timiş region), Hungarian Óbesenyő, German Alt-Beschenowa (in 1213, terra castri Boseneu, in 1230, Beseneu). [101] These geographical names are the remnants of a time in which Slavs, Hungarians, and Romanians were living in Transylvania.

 

Geographical names with a Slavic sound pattern are also found among names given by officials. With regard to the significance of the names in which -în appears, the example given by Petrovici [102] may be mentioned here: There is a small river in Suceava County (northern Moldavia) to which the name Pîrîul Dîmboviţei was given. This territory is far from the part of southern Romania where names with -în, -îm are found. The local inhabitants do not use the official name but call the river Apa Rusului.

 

Geographical names once given by Slavs and borrowed directly from them by the Romanians consist of only the following: names in which a Slavic lexical element not existing in the Romanian language appears and names with a Slavic suffix, which is not used in Romanian. (The question is somewhat complicated by the possibility that place names could have been created using an appellative borrowed from Slavic which later disappeared from Romanian).

 

 

The Slavic Elements of the Romanian Language

 

The oldest Slavic influence reached Romanian (that is, the East Latin idiom from which Romanian later emerged) probably beginning in the sixth or seventh century. In this earliest period, through the eighth century, only a weak influence with a few borrowed words can be demonstrated. The name of a Slavic tribe, slověninъ (plural slověne) was transferred to Late Latin in the form of Sclavus (or

 

 

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Sclavinus), plural Sclavi (or Sclavini). This is attested beginning with the sixth century. Northern Romanian şchiau (plural şchei) continues this (with the characteristic sound change of East Latin: cl > ch); Arumanian has şcl'eau "servant"; Albanian shqa (plural shqe) "Bulgarian." [103] There are some words of an ancient sound pattern and probably of Slavic origin, although these questions have been difficult to decide definitively. Mătură "broom," sută "hundred," stăpîn "master, lord, ruler," stîncă "rock," are, for example, shown by their sound pattern to be early borrowings (before the 9th century). The words smîntînă "(sour) cream," daltă "chisel," and scovardă "pancake" are considered to be Slavic and also early, although their sound pattern from the time before the ninth century may have continued to exist even later in dialects in lateral areas. [104] In conclusion, there are some (but remarkably few) Slavic elements transferred to Romanian before the ninth century.

 

Most of the Slavic influence on Romanian was exerted from the ninth through the eleventh centuries, that is, during the last centuries of Common Romanian, before the development of the dialects, and shows a Middle-Bulgarian sound pattern. It is therefore from the period after the metathesis of the liquids, the third palatalization of the velars, and the disappearance of the jers in the weak position. [105] They do not show a for Slavic o; u, i for Slavic jers or u for Slavic jery (y). [106] This influence, overwhelmingly Bulgarian, is, in principle, found uniformly throughout the Romanian language, that is, in the entire area of Northern Romanian ( including the territories never occupied by Bulgarians) and in all or at least in one of the southern dialects (Arumanian, Meglenitic, and Istro-Rumanian). Moreover, these lexical elements transferred to Romanian from the ninth through the eleventh centuries are often also found in other Balkan languages: "There are isoglosses that comprise Romanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Albanian, and Greek. These reflect the common structural features of the Balkan languages." [107]

 

The Slavic influence on Romanian after the twelfth century shows a different character. Loan translations made beginning in the thirteenth century are spread only regionally: Bulgarian words in the south, Oltenia, Muntenia, and southern Transylvania; those from Ukrainian, beginning in the thirteenth century but in larger numbers from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in Moldavia; and Serbian words in the Banat and adjacent areas, beginning later, in the fifteenth century. [108]

 

In Mihăilă's opinion the different distribution of Bulgarian borrowings could be explained by the fact that for a long time Transylvania had had a political and economic life different from that of Wallachia

 

 

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and Moldavia; and, in any case, no direct influences could penetrate there from the south. On the other hand, Wailachia's relations with Bulgaria continued and were intense until the occupation of this country by the Turks (fourteenth century); and later the continuous migrations of Bulgarians north of the Danube could have resulted in the transfer to the Romanian language of new words of Bulgarian origin, for example, in the sphere of gardening. A certain influence, Mihăilă continued, could be observed also in the south of Transylvania, a region that had close contacts with Wallachia. [109]

 

This explanation is far from sufficient and evades the real problem. Not only a subdialect spoken in one area or another but the entire language shows differences between the Slavic influences before and after the twelfth century. This characteristic feature of Romanian must be connected with the early history of its speakers. Assuming that they were living north of the Danube before the Slavs, that is, before the sixth century, a different picture would be expected. The Bulgarian influence on their language would, for example, be mostly restricted to the southern part of the country where Bulgarians were living even before the twelfth century. In Moldavia, at least in the northern part, eastern Slavic elements would be expected from the time before the g > h change and other ancient characteristics. In the Banat, assuming an autochthonous Romanian population, the Serbian influence should be of a much more ancient date than the fifteenth century, since Serbians were living in adjacent areas much earlier.

 

 

The Geographical Names of Slavic Origin

 

Two relevant characteristics of these names will be discussed here: 1) the geographical distribution of names from the different Slavic idioms and 2) their age.

 

The geographical names of Slavic origin in present-day Romania are of four different types, according to the Slavic idiom from which they originate. [110] Their distribution in the country corresponds roughly to the elements of Slavic origin transferred to Northern Romanian beginning in the thirteenth century.

 

1. In the northeast, they are of an eastern Slavic type, showing polnoglasia, [111] h, u, i, (í), -ău (-îu), -âuţi in the place of Common Slavic *g, *o̧, *e, -*ov, (-ev), *-ovĭci: Dorohoi, Horodnic, Putna, Bilca, Rîşca, Sadău, Başîu, Rădăuţi, instead of *Dorguńı̌, "Gordŭnikŭ, *Po̧tina, *Bělŭka, *Rěčika, *Sadovŭ, *Baševŭ, *Radoĭvci.

 

2. In the south, the place names of Slavic origin show Bulgarian characteristics: št, žd, 'a (a), -în, (-îm) for the Common Slavic clusters *tj, *dj, and for Common Slavic *ě, *o̧: Coşuştea, Medvežde, Breazova

 

 

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(Brazua), Doftana, Smadoviţa, Dîmboviţa, from Slavic *Košutja, *Medvědje, *Berzova, *Degŭtěna, *Smědovica, *Do̧bovica.

 

3. In a smaller area in the west, western South Slavic features are found: u, e, ǵ for Common Slavic *o̧, *l̥, *ě, *dj: Muthnuk, Vucova, Belareca, Sagěvecŭ, Sagjavĭc, from Slavic *Mo̧tĭnikŭ, *Vl̥kova, * Bělarěka, *Sadjavĭcĭ.

 

4. In a northwestern area (inhabited, however, only partly by Romanians), the Romanian geographical names show the metathesis of the liquids, the preservation of the occlusive character of g, and sometimes also the closed pronunciation of *ĕ: Bălgrad, Moigrad, Zlatna, Craiova, Zagra, Gîmbuţ (Hung. Gambuc), Rişca, (Rîşca), Sici (Hung. Szécs), from Slavic *Bělgordŭ, *Mojĭgordŭ, *Zoltĭna, *Korl'evo, *Zagora, *Go̧bĭcĭ, *Rěčı̌ka, *Sěčı̌. [112]

 

The geographical names of Slavic origin in Romania, in contrast to the borrowings from Slavic found in Romanian, do not show sound characteristics older than Middle Bulgarian. There is, in other words, no geographical name dating to the sixth through the eighth centuries, which would correspond to the words from that period in the Romanian language. Moreover, the geographical names, in contrast to the language, never contain the reflex -un, -um for Slavic o̧, but exclusiveiv the reflex -în, (-îm): [113]

 

 

With respect to this difference, the first problem that must be examined is the origin of these two reflexes of the Slavic nasal vowel o̧. It was similar to present-day French õ or, more exactly, to Provencal õn. [114] This vowel changed before the eleventh century to u and, in the following period in Middle Bulgarian, to ăn, written in the Cyrillic alphabet ъ.

 

 

The two different reflexes (representations) in Romanian have been explained by the hypothesis that -un, -um derived from Serbian and -în, -îm from Bulgarian. This has, however, been shown to be incorrect; and this hypothesis is no longer defended by Romanian linguists. Densusianu, like Philippide (with whom Rosetti, Pătruţ, and Mihăilă agree), [115] as previously mentioned, has explained the different treatment of this sound by chronological circumstances: In an earlier period, the Old Slavic o̧ was rendered in Romanian by -un, -um; later, (in Middle Bulgarian) this vowel changed to ăn, which was rendered in Romanian as -în, -îm (More exactly, as ăn; ă developed later to î),

 

 

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for example, Old Slavic mo̧dŭrŭ > Middle Bulgarian mănduru > Romanian mîndru. [116] The Slavic nasal vowels were also represented by a vowel + a nasal consonant in the Slavic borrowings of Albanian, Greek, and Hungarian, since no nasal vowel existed in these languages. According to Vladimir Georgiev, the difference shown by Romanian also exists in these languages:

 

 

A chronological connection between Romanian and Albanian is considered possible also by Ion Pătruţ: [118] in borrowings before the twelfth century, there are, for example, Rom. luncă, dumbravă, and Albanian sundoj < (Slavic so̧diti) -un, -um corresponding to Common Slavic o̧; and from the following period, for example, Rom. pîndar and Albanian pëndar (cf., Common Slavic po̧darĭ), -în corresponding to Middle Bulgarian ăn. [119]

 

 

 

The Discrepancy Between the Geographical Names of Slavic Origin and the Slavic Elements of the Romanian Language

 

Now to the problem of the difference between Romanian words and geographical names of Slavic origin, the geographical names being clearly of a more recent date than many Slavic borrowings in the Romanian language. An explanation was given by Petrovici, who proposed that earlier the Romanians may also have used -un, -um in geographical names, thus, they may have had *Dumbova, *Glumboca, but that they adapted their pronunciation to the changes in Slavic. This would have occurred during the time in which the Slavs living north of the Danube were being assimilated to the Romanians and the sound pattern of these names was then preserved in this form (with -în, -îm). [120]

 

This is, however, a very unlikely assumption. No example of such a process has been shown from other areas and other languages. On the contrary: The general rule is that elements once borrowed are treated as any other element of the borrowing language, not as parts of the language from which they originate. It is also difficult to understand

 

 

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why a majority population would adapt, without any exception, all the geographical names that their ancestors had used for generations and that they must have considered Romanian, rather than Slavic, to the pronunciation of a decreasing Slavic population, in the course of assimilation.

 

The Romanian borrowings from Hungarian both appellatives and geographical names, were preserved in their original form, regardless of the subsequent changes in Hungarian; certain early loans from Hungarian have even been used by Hungarian linguists in establishing Old Hungarian (13th to 15th century) sound patterns. The Romanian tuluaiu, tuloaie "thief," for example, represents the fourteenth-century Hungarian tulβoj. The Hungarian word later evolved to modern Hungarian tolvaj; [121] but Romanian tuluaiu did not change, accordingly, to *tolvaiu. In eastern Transylvania, adjacent to Moldavia, there is an area called Csík (Ciuc). Present-day Hungarian has in this name a palatal i, which developed from an earlier velar i. This velar i still existed in Hungarian in the thirteenth century, [122] when the Romanians borrowed it in the form of Ciuc. The Romanian name is still the same, in spite of the change in the Hungarian vowel.

 

One could counter that in the case of Slavic influence on Romanian, one is dealing with an especially intensive influence exerted in close symbiosis for several centuries and that this circumstance could have led to exceptional results. In spite of this close symbiosis and in spite of the changes in Slavic, however, the Romanian language preserved appellatives with an old sound pattern (for example, all the words with -un, -um, despite of the change in Middle Bulgarian to ăn).

 

There is a more likely and natural explanation for the appellatives of Slavic origin. As shown above, there is a general agreement that the words of Slavic origin in which -în, (-îm) appear were borrowed from Middle Bulgarian, which had ăn. The same must have been the case with the geographical names: those in which -în, -îm appear were borrowed from Middle Bulgarian, near the end of the eleventh century at the earliest and in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. [123]

 

The area in which such geographical names are found was consequently populated by Romanians during the twelfth and the early thirteenth centuries; and these names appear, in fact, in a well-defined area: the southern incline of the Southern Carpathians. A total of 27 geographical names borrowed from Slavic and containing -în, -îm are described by Petrovici in the northern part of Oltenia and Muntenia (Gorj, Vîlcea, Argeş, Dîmboviţa, Prahova, and Buzău Counties; the last one is southern Moldavia). [124] This suggest that the Romanian population arrived in these mountainous areas presumably in the

 

 

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twelfth century and borrowed the Bulgarian geographical names they found there. This mountainous area is connected with the mountains south of the Danube between the Timok and Morava rivers and further to the south with the mountainous central area of the Balkan Peninsula, where several Northern Romanian geographical names existed in the Middle Ages. Many of them are still preserved in the Slavic toponymy; there are still settlements and mountains called "Vlach," for example, Vlaška Pianina "Vlach Mountains" near to the town of Pirot. Such names existed as early as in the tenth century, [125] which means that the oldest of them antedate the geographical names mentioned above with -în, -îm in the Southern Carpathians. The pastoral population of the Vlachs living in those areas spread, after the tenth and eleventh centuries, throughout the Balkan Peninsula. In the north the most natural area for them to settle was the continuation beyond the Danube of the mountainous territory of the central and northeastern parts of the Balkans, that is, the southwestern and the Southern Carpathians. Northern Romanians are still living today in the Timok Valley immediately south of the Danube, facing the southwestern Carpathians.

 

Concerning the historical data, it is known that in the tenth through the twelfth centuries a numerically large Vlach population lived in Bulgaria. In 1020 they were subordinated to the bishop of Ochrida by the Byzantine Emperor; Byzantine documents from that period use the terms "Moesians" or "Vlachs" to designate the inhabitants of Bulgaria. As previously mentioned, the Vlach population played a very active role in the uprising against the Byzantine rule in the second half of the twelfth century. All this does not, however, exclude the possibility that Vlachs also lived north of the Danube in or before that period, as has been pointed out by Romanian historians. The study of the geographical names and the Romanian language, however, greatly decrease the likelihood that this was the case.

 

 

Hungarian Geographical Names

 

Some of the earliest Hungarian place names derive from the names of the Hungarian tribes that occupied the country. These names were preserved only in the writings of the Byzantine Emperor and scholar Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in a text from around 950: Nyék, Megyer, Kürt, Gyarmat, Tarján, Jenő, Kér, and Keszi. They appear as place names in the area around present-day Budapest but also frequently in Bihar (Bihor) County and in the Banat. Kniezsa mentioned 16 such names in those areas. [126] Only three are found in Transylvania proper: Keszü > Romanian Chesău (Kolozs/Cluj County); Jenő > Romanian Ineu (Szolrtok-Doboka/Dăbîca County); and Keszi > Romanian Chiseu (Satu Mare County).

 

 

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The Early Hungarian Place Names

 

Source: I. Kniezsa, "Keletmagyarország helynevei", in Magyarok és Románok ("The Place Names of Eastern Hungary," in Hungarians and Romanians], ed. J. Deér and L. Gáldi, Vol. I. (Budapest: 1943); Gy. Kristó, "Szempontok korai helyneveink történeti tipológiájához" [Considerations About the Historical Characteristics of the Early Hungarian Place Names], in Acta Historica, LV, 1976, pp. 3-99.

 

 

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TABLE VI

Early place names of Hungarian and Romanian origin within the arch of the Carpathian Mountains of contemporary Romania: settlements existing today

 

 

From the end of the eleventh to the middle of the thirteenth centuries, several Hungarian place names were created either alone from personal names and names of different ethnic groups or with the suffixes -d and -i. An early form of composed place names formed with -laka, -népe, -telke, -ülése, -soka have been established in the twelfth century, while the form with -háza, -falva, originate from the thirteenth century (Kniezsa-Bárczi). [127]

 

The great majority of the early place names (mostly those created before the sixteenth century) within the arch of the Carpathians of present-day Romania are of Hungarian origin. Table VI summarizes the origins of the names of settlements existing today and mentioned in documents before 1400.

 

 

The Appearance of Parallel Hungarian and Romanian Place Names

 

Parallel Hungarian-Romanian place names do not appear before the fourteenth century. [128] In Hunyad (Hunedoara) County (later one of the main Romanian districts), one finds Hungarian Gonoszfalu "evil village" (1360, Gunuzfolu), Romanian Rea "bad"; Malomviz "water of the mill" (1359, Malomwvz), Romanian Râu de mori "river of the mills"; Tamáspatak "river of Thomas" (1341, Tamáspataka),

 

 

332

 

Romanian Tămăşasa. In the same century the first Romanian place names transferred to Hungarian appeared in Hunyad County: Romanian Râusor (1377, fluv. Ryusor, from Romanian rău "river" + diminutive suffix) > Hungarian Rusor; Romanian Nucşoara (1394, Noxara; cf., Romanian nucă "walnut") > Hungarian Nuksora. In Szolnok-Doboka (Dăbîca) County, 9 of the 120 place names mentioned for the first time in the fourteenth century were parallel Hungarian-Romanian names: for example, Damunkusfalva, mentioned in 1393, Romanian Dămăcuşeni; Danpataka (1331), Romanian Văleni; Oroszmező "the field of the Russian" (1366, Symisne nunc Wruzmezeu), Romanian Rusu. The incidence of such parallel names subsequently increased; and in the fifteenth century Romanian place names that were transferred to Hungarian also appeared in Szolnok-Doboka County: in 1424 Karbonal was mentioned (today Hungarian Gorbonác), from Romanian Cărbunari "coal vendors," and in 1405, Kocholatfalva from Romanian Cuciulata (derived from Romanian căciula "fur cap"). [129]

 

 

German (Transylvanian Saxon) Place Names

 

The areas in southern Transylvania in which Germans were settled in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries were described in several documents as terra deşerta et inhabitata. [130] Although this could not have been true for the entire territory, the fact that the majority of the place names in the area are of German origin and that there are large areas with such names gives some support to these documents. The two biggest Saxon towns, Hermannstadt and Kronstadt, have German names; other original German names include Agnetheln, Rotbach, Almen, Brenndorf, (Klein- and Gross-) Probstdorf, Reen (cf. Regensburg), Reussen, Streitfort, and Weisskirch. These were often borrowed by the Hungarians and the Romanians: for example, Saxon Schorsten, Schorosten > Hungarian Sorostély, Spring, Gespráng > Spring, Burgberg > Borberek (by popular etymology: bor "wine," berek "riverside coppice, grove") and Romanian Vurpăr; and German Agnetheln > Romanian Agnita; Hochfeld > Fofeldea; Katzendorf > Caţa; Kaltwasser ("cold water") > Calvasăr; (Hungarian Hidegvíz "cold water"); Rotbach > Rotbav; Weisskirch > Viscri; and Ziegenthal > Ţichindeal.

 

The German place names derive from appellatives that describe local geographical characteristics (mountains, fields, rivers) as in the case of Engenthal, Burgberg, Weidenbach; and social events such as Streitfort. Numerous German place names derive from personal names: Hermannstadt, Petersdorf, Martinsdorf. Over the years many of them changed and today can be recognized as personal names only with

 

 

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difficulty: Brenndorf was formed by popular etymology from an earlier Bringindorf, from the personal name Brink, mentioned in a document from 1396; Neppendorf derives from the personal name Eppo; Etschdorf was mentioned in the documents under several names—Echtorf, villa Arnoldi (> Romanian Iernuţeni), and villa Renuoldi (> Hungarian Radnótfája—and came from the personal name Renuold = Reinhold). [131]

 

Another group of German place names derived from names of Saints: Sanktgeorgen, Mergeln, Mergenthal, and Mariental (near Agnetheln > Hungarian Szentágota, Romanian Agnita), mentioned from 1332 to 1335 as villa Marie, borrowed by Hungarian Morgonda, and Romanian Merghindeal; and, in the same area, Gürteln in 1336, Gertrudental > Hungarian Gerdály, Romanian Gherdeal. [132]

 

A list compiled by Thomas Nägler [133] of those villages in which Transylvanian Saxon dialects were spoken in the twentieth century gives some idea about the proportion of German place names: Of 242, 140 (58%) had German names, 16 (6.6%) Hungarian, 8 (3.3%) Slavic, and 78 (32.2%), names of unknown origin. [134]

 

Among the German settlers from the west were Walloons as well, whose presence is shown by a few place names: in Nagyküküllő (Tîrnava Mare) County, for example, there is Wallendorf (in 1231 Villa Latina, in 1396 possessio [owned by] Waldorph, from German Wallen-Dorf "Italian village," Romanian earlier Valendorf, and recently renamed to Văleni). There are also an Aldorf in the region of Bistritz (1332 to 1337, Waldorf, from German Wallendorf) and a Galt in the former Nagyküküllő County, from Old French galt > gaut (which derives from Germanic Wald "forest"); the Hungarian name of this village, Ugra, is borrowed from Slavic *u -gora "beside a forest, beside a mountain." [135] A parallel Hungarian-Saxon place name is, for example, Szászsebes, German Mühlbach. The two villages Kleinkopisch and Grosskopisch, from Hungarian Kis- and Nagykapus (cf., Hungarian kapu "door") along the Nagyküküllő (Tîrnava Mare) River indicate former fortifications of the Hungarian kingdom.

 

There are no early place names borrowed by the Saxons from Romanian. [136] This supports the testimony of the early thirteenth century documents that refer only to the terra Blacorum [137] but do not mention any permanent Romanian settlements.

 

 

Geographical Names in the Transylvanian Area of the Carpathian Basin in the 12th to 13th Centuries

 

The earliest stratum of place names and river names in the Transylvanian area of the Carpathian Basin is of Slavic origin (or, in the

 

 

334

 

case of the great rivers, was transferred by the Slavs). In the southern area, the sound characteristics of place names is mainly Bulgarian and, in a small region in the southwest, also Serbian. In the northwest no Bulgarian features are found; and so far as it can be established from the Hungarian loans, the Slavic once spoken there was related to the western group of South Slavic.

 

These names were borrowed by Hungarian and, in a lesser number, by Romanian and German. Of 511 names of villages mentioned up to the end of the thirteenth century, about one-tenth belong to this category. The great majority of these early names are Hungarian and a smaller share German. [138] In the thirteenth century only three settlements with a name of Romanian origin are recorded. Among the Hungarian place names, there are certain types that were created early, no later than in the thirteenth century: names constructed with the suffixes -d and -i. Many of the place names formed by a personal name or an ethnic name alone are also early. These Hungarian place names were all borrowed by Romanian; and there is no case of parallel Hungarian-Romanian borrowings similar to the parallel Hungarian-Slovakian place names in present-day Slovakia, in which both the Siovakians and the Hungarians used their own suffixes in creating the names. [139]

 

As previously mentioned, the oldest stratum of river names in the Transylvanian area of the Carpathian Basin must be that of the Slavic names, borrowed from a Slavic population that was assimilated from the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries (except in the southwest, in Caraş-Severin County). Almost half of the river names are of Hungarian origin. The Romanian population borrowed most of them, together with another 17 river names, of which 8 are of Slavic and 9 of unknown origin. Altogether, 56% of the Romanian river names in the territory in question were with certainty borrowed from Hungarian. Only 11% (17 out of 153) of the river names were transferred to Romanian directly from Slavic; and they are found mainly in southern Transylvania, especially in Caraş-Severin County.

 

In southern Transylvania, in the region of Hermannstadt (Sibiu) and Kronstadt (Braşov) and in the northeast, around Bistritz (Bistriţa), more than half of the place names are of German origin. Several of these were borrowed by Hungarian and Romanian. There is no German place name among the more ancient stratum of names that have been borrowed from Romanian.

 

The first Romanian place names appear in southern Transylvania, where most of the direct borrowings from Slavic are also found. Only three are recorded from the thirteenth century, but during the following period such names appear in increasing numbers there as well as in

 

 

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the region of the Apuseni Mountains and in Maramureş. Assuming a Roman continuity north of the Danube, one must ask why there are no ancient Latin names in the Romanian toponymy of small rivers and villages in the mountains, as is the case on the Balkan Peninsula, where several geographical names of this type indicate that the Slavs found a Latin-speaking population in several areas (cf., Ptuj, Sisak, Sitec, Kimp [from Latin campus], Poljud [from Latin paludem]). It may be argued, however, that inherited Latin geographical names in Romanian are rare (cf., Sărună) even on the Balkan Peninsula and that north of the Danube, no pre-Slavic names were preserved at all.

 

Geographical names of Latin origin are, however, not the only thing that might be expected if a Romanized (Romanian) population had lived in central Transylvania in the ninth century. The geographical names borrowed from Slavic would show a sound pattern from that time, that is, without the metathesis of the liquids, with -un, -um in place of the Common Slavic nasal vowel, as is the case with a series of lexical elements of the Romanian language that were borrowed from Slavic. There are no such geographical names whatsoever north of the lower Danube. The only sound pattern in the toponymy borrowed from the Slavs north of the Danube that indicates a certain period of borrowing is the presence of -în, -îm corresponding to the Slavic nasal vowel. This can be dated to the late eleventh, the twelfth, and the early thirteenth centuries. It is even questionable whether those three village names with -în, (-îm) on the northern slope of the Southern Carpathians were created in the same era. It seems more probable that they were populated later by Romanians coming from the southern rim of the Carpathians, where similar names were, and still are, common.

 

 

The name of Transylvania

 

This name is for the first time found in a document from 1075; there is "Ultra siluam" and from 1111, "Mercurius princeps Ultrasiluanus" is mentioned. Later in the same century, "Partes Transsilvanae" appears, and in the documents of the Hungarian kingdom, written in the Latin language, this form is used thereafter. - In the chronicle of Anonymus, the territory is mentioned as "terra ultra siluam" or "terra ultra siluana" and as "erdeuelu" (cf. above, pp. 15-18). This is the first mentioning of the Hungarian name of the territory, derived from the Hungarian appellative erdeu "forest" (Medieval Hungarian eu corresponds to modern Hungarian ő , thus today erdő); and the suffix elv(e) "beyond" (an ancient form, but not unknown today, cf. for example hidelve "beyond the bridge").

 

 

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Obviously, the Hungarians, who approached Transylvania mainly from the West, found mountains covered by huge forests in their way, which resulted in this designation.

 

The Latin names, "Ultrasiluanus", "partes Transsiluanae", are translated from the Hungarian language; the official Romanian "Transilvania" is thus not a popular Romanian name but a borrowing from the Hungarian documents.

 

The Hungarian name of the territory was translated also to German: in 13th - 14th century documents appear "Überwald", "über Walt" (Ş. Pascu, Voivodatul Transilvaniei, 1972, p. 22). The German (Transylvanian Saxon) population has, however, its own designation for Transylvania: Siebenbürgen.

 

 

The popular Romanian name of the territory is "Ardeal". (The Latin name, "Dacia", did not survive but in antique texts.) The first mentioning in a known document of this name is in the form "Ardeliu" in the year 1432 (cf., for example, Pascu, op. cit., vol. I, p. 22). In that century, as well as later, the Romanians borrowed many Hungarian place names; initial Hungarian e- was regularly rendered in Romanian by a-: Hung. egres "gooseberry" - Rom. agriş-, in place names: Hung. Egyed - Rom. Adjud; Hung. Erked - Rom. Archiud, Hung. Erdőd - Rom. Ardud, Hung. Erdőfalva - Rom. Ardeova, Ardeu, etc. It is obvious that Romanian Ardeal (in the 15th century, Ardeliu) was borrowed from Hungarian Erdély.

 

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1. Emil Petrovici, "La population de la Transylvanie au XI'' siecle," in Revue de Transylvanie, Sibiu, X, 1944, pp. 71-98.

 

2. Petrovici, 1944, op. cit., p. 72. In note 4, Petrovici refers to Julius Jung, Römer und Romanen in den Donauländern (Innsbruck: 1887), p. 352, note 4: "jene Slaven gehören eben zu den Stammvätern der heutigen Rumänen"; and to Jagić, Die Kultur der Gegenwart, Teil I, Abteilung IX, (Berlin-Leipzig: 1908), p. 6. In note 5, Nicolae Drăganu, Românii în veacurile IX-XIV pe baza toponimiei şi a onomasticei (Bucharest: 1933), p. 590, and E. Petrovici, in Dacoromania, X, p. 276 are quoted.

 

3. Günter Reichen krön, "Urslavisch õ im Rumänischen," p. 43, in: Die Welt der Slaven, V (1960).

 

4. Theodor Capidan, Elementul slav în dialectul aromân, (Bucharest: 1925); cf., Reichenkron, "Urslavisch õ," 1960, op. cit., p. 44.

 

5. Petrovici, Dacoromania, 10, (1941), pp. 128-146; cf., Reichenkron, 1960, op. cit., p. 45.

 

6. Ibid., p. 44.

 

7. Alexandru Rosetti, Istoria limbii române III: Limbile slave meridionale (Bucharest: 1940), p. 58; cf, Reichenkron, 1960, p. 44, note 19.

 

8. Christo Vasilev, "Bulgarische Sprache. Literatur und Geschichte," in Südosteuropa Studien, Heft 27, Neuried 1980.

 

9. Ivan Duridanov, "Bulgarische Sprache," 1980, op. cit.

 

10. Stefan Kniezsa, Ungarns Völkerschaften im XI. Jahrhundert, (Budapest: 1938) p. 9, quoted by Petrovici, 1944, op. cit., p. 75.

 

11. Petrovici, "La population de la Transylvanie," 1944, op. cit., pp. 75-

 

12. Ibid., p. 77.

 

13. Ibid., p. 87.

 

 

389

 

14. Emil Petrovici, "Toponymes roumains d'origine slave présentant le groupe 'voyelle + nasale' pour si. comm. *o̧." In: Studii de dialectologie şi toponimie, Bucharest 1970 (published first in Bahama, VII, 1944, pp. 465-474), p. 197, referring to István Kniezsa, Keletmagyarország helynevei, 1943, p. 178.

 

15. Ibid., p. 183.

 

16. Petrovici refers to Ion Pătruţ, "Velarele, labialele şi dentalele palatalizate," in Dacoromania, X, 1941-43, p. 306 et seq.

 

17. Petrovici, 1970, op. cit., p. 184.

 

18. Coriolan Suciu, Dicţionar istoric al localităţilor din Transilvania [Historical Dictionary of the Transylvanian Place Names], 2 vols., (Bucharest: 1967), I, p. 196.

 

19. Petrovici, in Transilvania, LXXIII, p. 864, quoted by Kniezsa, 1943, p. 172.

 

20. Kniezsa, Keletmagyarország helynevei [The Place Names of Eastern Hungary], 1943, p. 172.

 

21. Ibid., p. 284.

 

22. George Y. Shevelov, A Prehistory of Slavic. The Historical Phonology of Common Slavic, (Heidelberg: 1964), pp. 327-328. "It was part of the general trend toward eliminating descending diphthongs, and it was made possible by gradual loss of motivation in vocalis alterations." (Ibid., p. 331).

 

23. Ibid., p. 331.

 

24. Ibid., p. 584. This is the background of Kniezsa's statement about the disappearance of the Slavic nasal vowels; see in: Keletmagyarország helynevei [The Place Names of Eastern Hungary], in: Magyarok és Románok [Hungarians and Romanians], József Deér and László Gáldi (reds.), (Budapest: 1943), p. 120. According to Kniezsa,

 

"because the nasal vowels in the language of the Slavs who lived in contact, with the Hungarians disappeared early, by the end of the tenth century, the Slavic place names borrowed by Hungarian indicate that the Hungarians borrowed these names before the disappearance of the nasals, that is, before the end of the tenth century (Dombró, Gambuc, Dombó, Gerend) . . ."

 

"The Slavs who lived in contact with the Hungarians" were the Slovaks, Czechs, Serbians, Croatians, and Bulgarians. The statement is valid with regard to all these Slavic idioms except Bulgarian. (Kniezsa, p. 120, note 1).

 

"In Bulgarian, however, the nasals were preserved in general throughout the entire Middle Ages; moreover, in certain regions, such as in northeastern Bulgaria and in Macedonia, they are still extant (Oblak, Mazedonische Studien [Wien: 1896], p. 19; Miletic, Das Ostbulgarische, [Wien: 1880].). The medieval Bulgarian texts are characterized by the consistent marking of the nasals, which shows their preservation. Also, the Bulgarian texts from Cserged (Cergău, Alba County), which, as shown by their ortography, cannot have been written before the end of the seventeenth century, have preserved the nasals, with the exception of the end-position. Cf., Stefan Mladenov, Geschichte der bulgarischen Sprache, (Berlin-Leipzig: 1929), p. 115. Consequently, in areas inhabited by Bulgarians, place names in which nasals appear may have been borrowed after the tenth century as well."

 

 

390

 

25. G. Mihăilă, "Aspecte teoretice şi istorice ale studierii raporturilor lingvistice vechi slavo-române" [Theoretical and Historical Aspects of the Study of the Ancient Slavo-Romanian Linguistic Contacts], in Studii şi cercetări lingvistice, Bucharest, XXXIII, 1982, pp. 65-66. Mihăilă, Studii de lexicologie şi istorie a lingvisticii româneşti [Studies of Lexicology and of History of the Romanian Linguistics], (Bucharest: 1973), p. 77: "o̧ > un: prund, scund; o̧ > a̧ ăn > în: mîndru (a more recent reflex, early middle Bulgarian, from the end of the eleventh century to the thirteenth century)." Mihăilă refers here to K. Mircev, Istoričeska gramatika na bălgarskija ezik [Historical Grammar of the Bulgarian Language], 1958, p. 127 et. seq., and to S. B. Bernstein, Gramatica comparată a limbilor slave [Comparative Grammar of the Slavic languages], (Bucharest: 1965), p. 222 and 295, a translation into Romanian of Bernstein's work, which appeared in Moscow in 1961 in Russian. Rosetti, ILR, 1968, p. 340: "Old Slavic o̧ was, in ancient times, rendered as u ". . . "and later, Old Slavic o̧ having been changed to ă in middle Bulgarian, was rendered in the normal way in Romanian by î (< ă): mîndru Old Slavic mo̧dŭrŭ, middle Bulgarian măndŭrŭ (referring to Petar Skok: Osnovi romanske lingvistike [The Basis of Romance Linguistics], [Zagreb: 1940], p. 91).

 

26. Petrovici, 1944, op. cit., p. 75, note 2; Petrovici refers to L. Miletič, Sedmogratskitě bălgari, in "Sbornik za narodni umotvorenija, nauka i kniznina," XIII, (1896), 153 et. seq; id., Sedmogradskitě bălgari i tehnijat ezik, in "Spisanie na Bălgarskata Akademija na naukitě" kniga XXXIII, klon istoriko-filologicén i filosofsko-obštestven, 18, Sofija 1926, 1 et. seq.

 

27. Petrovici, "Toponymes roumains," 1970, op. cit., p. 202. Chart no 1 shows the 27 geographical names in which -în, (-îm) appears in northern Muntenia and Oltenia and the 3 in southern Transylvania. With regard to the importance of this statement, the relevant section is given here in the original:

 

La dénasalisation des voyelles nasales bulgares a commencé dans certains parlers dés le XIIe  siécie. Toutefois il y a même aujourd'hui des parlers slaves méridionaux de type oriental (bulgaro-macédonien)—dont ceiui des Bulgares de Transylvanie, actuellement roumanisés, et quelques parier Bulgares au nord-est, répandus le long de la frontière linguistique bulgaro-roumaine—qui ont conservé la nasalité jusqu'à nos jours [50]. Par conséquent, la conservation de la nasalité dans les toponymes qui figurent sur la carte n°1 ne nous donne aucune indication sur l'époque â laquelle ils ont été empruntés par les Roumains aux Slaves.

 

It is noteworthy that the article above mentioned of Petrovici, first published in 1958, was republished in 1970 in the collective work Emil Petrovici, Studii de dialectologie şi toponimie.

 

28. Petrovici, 1970, op. cit., p. 77, note 15; p. 78, notes 16, 17, 18.

 

29. Petrovici, 1944, op. cit., p. 75.

 

30. Ibid., pp. 79-80.

 

31. Ibid., p. 79.

 

32. Ibid.

 

 

391

 

33. Suciu, Dicţionar istoric, 1967, II, p. 225. Only "Valea Bistrei" is mentioned by Suciu.

 

34. Petrovici, 1970, "Istoria poporului român oglindită în toponimie" [The History of the Romanian People Reflected in Toponymy], p. 245; the article was first published in 1964 (in French and in Romanian). The French version was also published, with small changes, under the title "Toponymie et histoire," in Revue Roumaine d'Histoire, IV, 1965, no. 1, pp. 1-13. Petrovici refers to the works on geographical names written by Iorgu Iordan, such as Nume de locuri romíné şti în Republica Populară Română, 1952, and Toponimie românească, 1963.

 

"The examples of the place names Cîmpulung, Bălgrad, Tîrnava, contradict the theory that the place names are not translated but in case of parallel names in several languages, are created simultaneously in each language on the basis of the same physical or social situation." (Ibid., p. 246).

 

With regard to the significance of these borrowings, especially that of the river name Tîrnava, and in light of the theory that Transylvania was the most ancient Romanian province, one wonders why this allegedly autochthonous population does not even have names in its own language for the most important rivers in its territory? Rosetti (ILR, 1968, p. 328), in fact, commented on this: "The fact that the Romanians have inherited this name proves that they found in that area a Slavic-speaking population [that had] settled there earlier."

 

Finally, it should be noted that for a long time Romanian toponymic research has devoted itself exclusively to proving the continuity of a Romanized element north of the lower Danube.

 

35. Ion Moga, Les roumains de Transylvanie au Moyen Age, (Sibiu: 1944), p. 138.

 

36. Ibid.

 

37. Géza Bárczi, Lóránd Benkö, Jolán Berrár, A magyar nyelv története [The History of the Hungarian Language], (Budapest: 1967), p. 151.

 

38. Kniezsa, Keletmagyarország helynevei, 1943, op. cit., p. 209.

 

39. Ibid.

 

40. Suciu, Dicţionar istoric, 1967, vol. I, p. 159.

 

41. Iorgu Iordan, Nume de locuri, 1952, op. cit., p. 26.

 

42. Ibid.

 

43. Ibid.

 

44. Kniezsa, 1943, op. cit., pp. 224-225.

 

45. Ion Moga, Les roumains de Transylvanie au Moyen Age, (Sibiu: 1944).

 

46. Kniezsa, 1943, op. cit., pp. 212-217.

 

47. V. Frăţilă, "Vechimea unor toponimice din centrul Transylvaniei" [The Ancientness of Certain Place Names in Central Transylvania], in Limba româna XIX, 1970, pp. 229-238.

 

48. Suciu, 1968, op. cit., p. 125.

 

49. Ibid.

 

 

392

 

50. Nicolae Drăganu, Românii în veacurile IX-XÎV pe baza toponimiei şi a onomasticei [The Romanians in the 9th to the 14th Centuries on the Basis of Place Names and Onomastics], (Bucharest: 1933), p. 502; quoted by I. Pătruţ, in Onomastică românească, (Bucharest: 1980), p. 125.

 

51. Ioan Pătruţ, 1980, p. 123.

 

52. Iorgu Iordan, Nume de locuri, 1952, op. cit., p. 119: "The personal names that become place names only rarely preserve their original form."

 

53. Frăţilă, "Vechimea unor toponimice," 1970, op. cit., p. 233.

 

54. Cf., Stefan Kniezsa, "Die Gewässernamen des östlichen Karpatenbeckens," in: Ungarische Jahrbücher, 23 (1943), pp. 197-198; Lajos Kiss, Földrajzi nevek etimológiai szótára, (Budapest: 1978), p. 121; Béla Kálmán, The World of Names, (Budapest: 1978), p. 41 and 138.

 

55. Christian Ionescu, Mică enciclopedie onomastică, 1975, p. 165.

 

56. Frăţilă, "Vechimea unor toponimice," 1970, p. 233.

 

57. Scheiner, Balkan-Archiv II, 29; quoted by Kniezsa, Keletmagyarország helynevei, 1943, p. 185. The present Romanian name of this village is Broşteni.

 

58. With regard to Bozko, this is also stated by N.A. Constantinescu, Dicţionarul onomastic românesc, (Bucharest: 1963), to whom Frăţilă refers. Zyn or Sin is of Bulgarian origin, from Bulgarian sino "blue." Bozko "personal name" + Hung. sár "mud" = "the mud of Bozko"; Zyn "personal name" + potok "brook" + -a "genitive suffix" = "the brook of Zyn."

 

59. Iorgu Iordan, Nume de locuri, 1952, op. cit., p. 72.

 

60. Ibid.

 

61. Frăţilă, "Vechimea unor," 1970, pp. 235-236.

 

62. The data about the mentions of this place name in documents are taken from Suciu, Dicţionar istoric, 1967, op. cit., vol. II, p. 10.

 

63. Convorbiri literare, XI, 1906, p. 295; quoted by Lajos Tamás, Rómaiak, románok és oláhok Dácia Trajánában [Romans, Romanians, and Vlachs in Dacia Traiana], (Budapest: 1935), p. 171.

 

64. Rosetti, ILR, 1968, p. 329.

 

65. Iorgu Iordan, Toponimie românească, p. 523; quoted by Frăţilă, 1970, p. 236.

 

66. Aurelian Sacerdoţeanu ("Elemente de continuitate şi unitate în istoria medievală a românilor," p. 115, in Unitate şi continuitate în istoria poporului român, [Bucharest: 1968], quoted by Frăţilă, 1970, p. 236, note 24) proposed the etymology Latin habitatio "dwelling place" or habitus "state" > Romanian ohaba. There are two sounds in Ohaba that exclude its being an inherited Latin word in Romanian: h and intervocalic -b- were not preserved in Romanian, as Frăţilă also pointed out.

 

67. Iorgu Iordan, Nume de locuri, 1952, op. cit. Iordan gives a great number of examples of the different kinds of place names of which here only a few are given to illustrate the subject.

 

68. Iordan made the following remark on the frequent appearance of "Traian": I think the presence of the name Traian in 12 counties speaks eloquently for the nationalist tendency, coexisting with economic exploration.

 

69. Iorgu Iordan, Toponimie românească, 1963, p. 404.

 

 

393

 

70. Ibid., p. 340

 

71. On page one of the original edition of Petru Maior's chief work, Istoria pentru începutul romînilor în Dacia [The History of the Beginnings of the Romanians in Dacia], written in the Cyrillic alphabet, the author's name is followed by information about his origin: "de Dicio-Sînmartin."

 

72. The origin and initial meaning of this name is now forgotten and it may be considered to mean by many speakers Tre văi "three valleys." V. Bogrea (cf., Iordan, 1963, p. 494) proposed the derivation of this place name from the personal name Trivali, based on the name of the Thracian population in Serbia and in Bulgaria known from ancient sources as Tribalii.

 

73. Cf., Silviu Dragomir, Vlahii din nordul Peninsulei Balcanice în evul mediu [The Vlachs in the Northern Balkan Peninsula in the Middle Ages], (Bucharest: 1959). A map drawn after Dragomir as well as a list of the appellatives which are on the basis of the Northern Romanian place names and geographical names still extant in the Balkan Peninsula and an English translation are given by Du Nay, 1977, pp. 26-27.

 

74. Iordan, Nume de locuri, 1952, op. cit., p. 123.

 

75. Ibid.

 

76. Ibid., p. 194.

 

77. Chirpăr (reg. of Agnetheln, Romanian Agnita) from Transylvanian Saxon Kirpərich = German Kirchberg, and Nocrihi or Nocrich, in the same area, from Transylvanian Saxon Nogrech = German Neukirch (cf., Iordan, 1952, p. 194).

 

78. Iordan, 1952, p. 213.

 

79. Ibid., p. 214.

 

80. Ibid., p. 60.

 

81. Ibid., p. 73.

 

82. S. Moldovan and N. Togan, Dicţionarul numirilor de localităţi cu proporţiune română din Ungaria [Dictionary of Place Names With the Romanian Share in Hungary], (Sibiu: 1909).

 

83. Kniezsa, Keletmagyarország helynevei, 1943, op. cit.

 

84. Cf., Iordan, 1952.

 

85. Iordan, 1952, p. 231. Also Gărcea, Gârceni (from Slavic) and Caţaoni (a Romanian pejorative form) appear.

 

86. Suciu, Dicţionar istoric, vol. I, 1967, op. cit., p. 424. In other parts of Hungary, there are at least 35 place names containing "német" (cf., Elemér Mályusz, in Századok, 1939, quoted by T. Nägler, Die Ansiedlung der Siebenbürger Sachsen, 1979, p. 182 and map no. 22).

 

87. Iordan, 1952, op. cit., p. 237.

 

88. Ştefan Pascu, Voievodatul Transilvaniei, I, (Cluj: 1971), p. 82.

 

89. Emil Petrovici, Dacoromania, 10, 1938-1941, p. 266; Ion I. Russu, Cercetări de lingvistică, 2, 1957, pp. 263, 266; Gottfried Schramm, "Frühe Schicksale der Rumänen," 1985, op. cit., p. 235; cf., for example, Rosetti, ILR, 1968, pp. 227-228.

 

90. Kniezsa, "Die Gewässernamen," 1943, op. cit., pp. 187-235.

 

91. A document containing this name and dated to 1306 is a forgery made in the 19th century; cf., Kniezsa, "Die Gewässernamen," 1943, p. 217;

 

 

394

 

and Suciu, Dicţionar istoric, I, 1967, op. cit., p. 166: "document of questionable authenticity."

 

92. Suciu, 1967, p.166.

 

93. Kniezsa, "Keletmagyarország helynevei," 1943, op. cit., p. 118.

 

94. Ibid.

 

95. Ibid., p. 119.

 

96. Ibid., p. 121.

 

97. Thomas Nägler, Die Ansiedlung der Siebenbürger Sachsen, (Bucharest: 1979), pp. 174-179.

 

98. Ernst Wagner, Historisch-statistisches Ortsnamenbuch für Siebenbürgen (Köln-Wien: 1977), p. 28; Kniezsa, "Keletmagyarország helynevei," 1943, p. 138.

 

99. Petrovici, "Toponymes roumains," 1970, p. 195.

 

100. Ibid., p. 197.

 

101. Kniezsa, "Keletmagyarország helynevei," 1943, p. 154.

 

102. Petrovici, 1970, op. cit., p. 196.

 

103. Mihăilă, Studii de lexicologie şi istorie a lingvisticii româneşti [Studies of Lexicology and History of Romanian Linguistics], (Bucharest: 1973), p. 16; Rosetti, ILR, 1968, p. 286.

 

104. Mihăilă, 1973, op. cit., pp. 22-23; Mihăilă, "Aspecte teoretice şi istorice ale studierii raporturilor lingvistice vechi slavo-române" [Theoretical and Historical Aspects of the Study of the Ancient Slavo-Romanian Linguistical Contacts], in Studii şi cercetări lingvistice, 33, (1982), p. 65 under the headline: "Miscellanea."

 

105. Petrovici, "Toponymes roumains," 1970, op. cit., p. 145. See also, Ioan Pătruţ, "Vechimea relaţiilor lingvistice slavo-române," in Pătruţ, Studii de limba română şi de slavistică, (Cluj: 1974), pp. 101-123.

 

106. Ibid.

 

107. Petrovici, 1970, op. cit., p. 74.

 

108. Mihăilă, Studii de lexicologie, 1973, op. cit., p. 13; Mihăilă, "Aspecte teoretice şi istorice," 1982, op. cit., p. 61.

 

109. Mihăilă, Studii de lexicologie, 1973, p. 41.

 

110. Petrovici, 1970, op. cit., pp. 77-78.

 

111. Polnoglasia: "A linguistic phenomenon characteristic of the Eastern Slavic languages, consisting of the presence of the groups of sound "oro," "olo," "ere," "ra," "la," "re," "le" from Old Slavic. From Russian polnoglasie" (Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române [DEX], Bucharest, 1975).

 

112. All the geographical names given by Petrovici, 1970, pp. 77-78, are taken up here. In the fourth, northwestern area, the direct borrowing from Slavic by Romanian is not always certain; Gîmbuţ, for example, was transferred to Romanian from Hungarian, (Petrovici, 1970, p. 197) as also noted elsewhere, and should not be mentioned in the present context.

 

113. Petrovici, "Toponymes roumains," 1970, op. cit., p. 197; "En examinant la liste des noms de lieux roumains â élément nasal pour si. comm. *o̧ d'origine incontestablement slave, la premiere constatation qu'on est obligé de faire, c'est que, dans ces toponymes, l'unique traitment de si. comm. *o̧

 

 

395

 

est în, îm, et jamais un, um." Petrovici stated that the geographical names of Slavic origin in Romania do not show sound characteristics older than Middle Bulgarian: Petrovici, 1970, p. 77, note 15; p. 78, notes 16, 17, 18.

 

114. Rosetti, ILR, 1968, p. 339.

 

115. Ibid., pp. 340-341; Mihăilă, "Aspecte teoretice," 1982, op. cit., pp. 65-66; Pătruţ, "Vechimea relaţiilor," 1974, op. cit., pp. 244-245.

 

116. Rosetti, ILR, 1968, p. 340.

 

117. Pătruţ, 1974, p. 243.

 

118. Ibid., pp. 244-245: "The most ancient Romanian reflex of Slavic *o̧ is un, um, which, probably, as also Albanian un, must be connected with the stage of Slavic nasal o. The corresponding în/îm, parallel with Albanian ën, reflect probably the stage of Slavic nasal ă."

 

119. Rosetti, ILR, 1968, p. 341. See further Oblak, Mazedonische Studien, (Wien: 1896) p. 19; Stefan Mladenov, Geschichte der bulgarischen Sprache (Berlin-Leipzig: 1929) p. 115.

 

120. Petrovici, 1970, op. cit., pp. 197-198. This assumption of renewing of the pronunciation, adapting it to the changes in Slavic has been also advanced to explain the fact that most of the Slavic elements of Romanian are of a relatively recent sound pattern. Cf., for example, Rosetti, ILR, 1968, p. 288.

 

121. G. Bárczi, L. Benko, I. Berrár, A magyar nyelv története [The History of the Hungarian Language], (Budapest, 1967), p. 114.

 

122. Ibid.

 

123. Pătruţ, 1974, p. 245: "The Romanian place names of Slavic origin in which the reflex în/îm appears cannot be from before this period [the 11th-12th centuries]."

 

124. Petrovici, 1970, pp. 199-200. These are the following: Dîmbova (village), Dîmbova (brook), Dîmbova (marsh), Lînga (village), Glîmboaia (brook), Glîmbocul-Fleşti (village), Glîmbocel (village), Glîmbocelu (village), Glîmbocata (brook), Glîmbocata (village), Glîmboca (hamlet of the village Glîmbocata), Glîmbocata (hill near the village of the same name), Glîmbocelul (hamlet of Tîrgul Cîrcinov), Glîmboca (brook, affluent of the river Argeş), Rîncăciov, (river, village, and monastery), Dîmbovicioara (village in Argeş district, the Romanian diminutive of Dîmboviţa), Dîmboviţa (village), Cîmpina (brook), Dîmbovicioara (village in Dîmboviţa district), Dîmboviţa (river), Dîmbovnic (river), Cîmpina (town), Cîmpiniţa (brook flowing through Címpina), Dîmbul (brook and village), Dîmbroca (village).

 

Another three names of this type are found in southern Transylvania: 1. Glîmboca (village in Sibiu County), modern Hungarian Glimboka. In documents: 1322: Honrabach, 1418: villa Hunerbach and only beginning with the late sixteenth century (1589) Glemboka; in 1854: Glimboka, Hühnerbach, Glîmboaca (Suciu, 1967, vol. I, p. 266). This name originates from Slavic glo̧boka "deep" and could be, formally, a direct borrowing from Slavic. Its late mention in the documents suggests, however, that it was created later, possibly by Romanian immigrants from the southern slope of the Southern Carpathians, where several villages bear this name. 2. Glimboceni, a small

 

 

396

 

river in Hunedoara County not attested to in medieval sources. 3. Glimboca or Glîmboca, modern Hungarian Glimboka, a village in Caraş-Severin County (Krassó-Szörény), which was first attested to (in 1475) as Glamboka; in 1492: Glomboka. These early forms show a Hungarian sound pattern, with -am, -om for Slavic o̧ (Petrovici, 1970, p. 200). (The modem Hungarian name is a recent borrowing from Romanian.) Originally, the name of this village is thus probably a parallel Hungarian and Romanian borrowing from Slavic.

 

125. Rosetti, ILR, 1968, p. 431: Rosetti mentions 35 geographical names of Northern Romanian origin found in Bulgaria, having eliminated those with an Arumanian sound pattern and those that are questionable. He refers to works by Gustav Weigand (for example, Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache, [Leipzig: 1909] XV, 88-134); I. Petkanov, "Les éléments romans dans les langues balkaniques," Actes du Xe Congres international de linguistique et philologie romanes, Strasbourg 1962, Paris 1965, pp. 1167-1172; Ivan Duridanov, in Sbornik St. Romanski, 1961, pp. 469-474; and I. Zaimov. A thorough presentation of these geographical names is found in: Silviu Dragomir, Vlahii din nordul Peninsulei Balcanice în evul mediu [The Vlachs on the Northern Balkan Peninsula in the Middle Ages], (Bucharest: 1959).

 

126. Petrovici, 1970, p. 143.

 

127. Erdély története [The History of Transylvania], 1986, vol. I, p. 587. See further Kniezsa, ''Keletmagyarország helynevei," 1943, op. cit., p. 124; Béla Kálmán, The World of Names. A Study in Hungarian Onomatology, (Budapest: 1978); Lajos Kiss, Földrajzi nevek etimológiai szótára [Etymological Dictionary of Geographical Names], (Budapest: 1978). For the early Hungarian historical topography: György Györffy, Az Árpád-kori Magyarország történeti földrajza [Historical Geography of Hungary in the Árpád-age], 3 vols., new edition (Budapest: 1987).

 

128. Kniezsa, A párhuzamos helynévadás [Parallel Namegiving], (Budapest: 1944), p. 23.

 

129. Ibid., p. 20.

 

130. Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Siebenbürgen, vol. I, 1191-1342, compiled by Franz Zimmermann and Carl Werner (Hermannstadt: 1892), p. 11, 16, 17, 19, documents 370 no 19. See further Thomas Nägler, Die Ansiedlung der Siebenbürger Sachsen, 1979, p. 119. The assumption of Nägler is questionable.

 

Writh regard to the settlement of the Transylvanian Germans, it is now generally accepted that they immigrated primarily from middle Franconia (Moselle-Franconia) and the west banks of the Moselle and the Rhine (Cologne, Lüttich, Aachen, Trier, and Luxembourg). A smaller part of them apparently came from Westfalia, Hesse, Bavaria, and Thuringia. An organized settlement of Germans into special areas of Transylvania was started in the mid-twelfth century by King Géza (1141-1162). In 1224 Endre II granted territorial, political, and religious autonomy to the Transylvanian Germans (Saxons) in his so-called "Golden Charter" (Goldener Brief, Andreanum). Literature on the settlement and history of the Transylvanian Germans: Georg Eduard Müller, Die Sächsische Nationsuniversität, (Hermannstadt: 1928); Otto Mittelstrass,

 

 

397

 

Beiträge zur Siedlungsgeschichte Siebenbürgens im Mittelalter, (München: 1961); W. Grandjean, Die Anfänge der Hermannstädter Propstei im Spiegel päpstlicher Urkunden (Siebenbürgisches Archiv 1971).

 

131. Wagner, Historisch-statistisches Ortsnamenbuch, 1977, op. cit., p. 27.

 

132. Ibid., p. 47.

 

133. Thomas Nägler, Die Ansiedlung, 1979, op. cit., pp. 174-179.

 

134. Of the names of "unknown origin," 25 are possibly German, 17 Hungarian, and 8 Slavic. The only name (Reps, Romanian Rupea, Hungarian Kőhalom) considered by Nägler "Romanian? from Latin?" is of neither Latin nor Romanian origin.

 

135. Kniezsa, "Keletmagyarország helynevei," 1943, p. 249.

 

136. Ibid., p. 139. There are, of course, several Romanian names borrowed more recently: Reschinar, from Romanian Răşinari, was earlier German Städterdorf; Porkendorf is from Romanian Porceşti; Predeal, Fundata, and Kolobitza are also Romanian names borrowed and used today by the Saxons.

 

137. Mittelstrass, Beiträge zur Siedlungsgeschichte, 1961, op. cit., p. 25. Zimmermann and Werner, Urkundenbuch, Urkunde: no. 31, pp. 18-20; 1223: Silva Blacorum et Bissenorum, Urkunde: no. 43, pp. 32-35.

 

138. Kniezsa, "Keletmagyarország helynevei," 1943, p. 157.

 

139. Kniezsa, A párhuzamos helynévadás [Parallel Namegiving], (Budapest: 1944), pp. 16-17.