Germ an place-nam es have verified the presence of early H ungarian bor
der-guard settlements since the twelfth century. According to Istvan Knie- zsa's now-classic research: "The Saxon place-names from northeastern and southern Transylvania yield very good evidence in the region. For in the northeast, along the Saj6 River which flows into the Nagy-Szamos not far from Bethlen, as well as in the area to the west, the German place-nam es of the Saxon population, with only one or two exceptions, all derive from the H ungarian" (e.g. Sarvar-Schueret-Sirioara; Kendtelek-Kindeln-Chintelecu;
V erm es-W arm esch -V erm es; K £kes-K ikesch -C h io ch is; So m k erek -S im - krugen-^intereag, with the third version being Romanian). "Sim ilarly, there is a rem arkably large number of Saxon place-names, both in the area be
tween the two Ktikullds and in the Kiralyfold between the N agy-K iikull6- Maros line and the Olt River which also came originally from the H ungar
ian. These place-names convincingly prove that when the Saxons settled in the area they found permanent Hungarian settlements already in place. Since it is known that the Saxons moved to their present habitat area in the
mid-die of the twelfth century, the Hungarian settlements must be placed ear
lier, at least to the beginning of the twelfth century or perhaps to the second half of the eleventh century. (E.g. O rm enyes-Irm esch-Orm enis; H oldvilag- H alwelagen-H oghilag;Ludas-Lodges/Ludesch-Ludos; V esszSd-W assied- Vesaud; M ed g yes-M ediasch -M ed ias; B arom lak-W u rm loch -V oru m loc;
S& rpatak-Scharpendorf-^arp otok; K 6zd -K eisd -C h izd u ; E g erb eg y -A r- begen-A garbiciu; Bilrkos-Burkesch-Birgis; KO vesd-Kabisch-Coves; H o- m or6d-H am ruden-H om orod; Halm&gy-Halmagen-Halmeag; A rp£s-A r- pasch-A rpasu and Talm dcs-Talm esch-Talm aciu.) "In the Barcas&g, ... un
like the Saxon regions mentioned so far, not a single Saxon place-nam e de
rived from the Hungarian can be fou n d ... no Hungarian population to speak of could have lived here prior to the arrival of the Saxons ... It also follows from this reasoning that the SzSkely people could not have settled in the area known today as the counties of Csfk and Haromszek before the middle of the twelfth century."30
Already Kniezsa discovered significant eleventh- and tw elfth-century surviving Slavic population groups in the region stretching from the Latorca River across the valleys of Tur-Kraszna to Beszterce. This finding can be complemented with results from later studies which show that the large majority of such eastern Slavic place-names from the Arp&d period as " Ard6"
(forest guard/forester) and "D ar6c" (trapper/forest hunter) originated in this area. The results also demonstrate that the Szildgys^g, the M&ramaros and the Beszterce regions were once one huge woodland area w here it was possible to find Slavic servants of the king holding the above nam es as per
sonal names even as late as the thirteenth century. Igalja (Igyalja), the first village w ith a H ungarian nam e, appears in Doboka (northw est of the Kir&lyfCld of Beszterce and east of the Saj6 Valley) in a charter from the time of Bela III. This village later assumed the name of the Church of Saint Andrew which was already standing at the time of this first mention. Even a hundred years later, however, the estate consisted mostly of woods, bushes, groves and meadows.
The most important evidence for the continuing presence of the Slavic population in Transylvania has been provided by the names of the smaller rivers and streams. Of all the tributaries of the united Szamos, the Krasna, Tur, Tur6c, Pisterna, Lekence, Kapnik, Debrek and D ebreke (M elsed = M elysed, in Arpadian Hungarian) rivers have Slavic names, as do the Lozdd, Lona, Gorb6 on the left side of the Kis-Szamos, and the Tiha, IloSva, Ilva, Salva, Rebra, Besterce and Lekence on both sides of the Nagy-Szamos. There are fewer rivers w ith Slavic names along the Maros River: the Kalodva, O rb6 and Lekence. Of the rivers flowing into the Aranyos, only the Tur and the Torock6 have Slavic names. On the other hand, there are more such rivers in Hunyad, and these include the LeSnek, Strig, Dobra, Cem a and Bistra. The parallel Slavic name of Tirnava for the Kiikullc5s has already been mentioned in the chapter on the A var-Bulgar period. The left-side tributaries of the FelsS-Olt also have Slavic names, including Toplica, Kis-3 0 .1. Kn ie z s a, Magyarorsz^g n£pei a Xl-dik sz&zadban. (The Peoples of Hungary in
the Eleventh Century.) In: Szent Istvan Emlekkotryv. (Saint Stephen Memorial
Volume.) II. Budapest 1938, 389, 447.
150
Besterce, Cemavoda, K^son, Kov£sna, and Debrenpatak, as do the streams of the Cem a and Gerebenc in the region of the Olt bend and its tributaries, the Cibin, the Cemavoda and Cdd in Szeben. Most of the tributaries in the upper region of the Temes River have Slavic names such as Gladna, Bistra, C em a and Lank6.
There is an equally large, or perhaps even larger, number of stream s and small rivers with Hungarian names in Transylvania, such as Szil£gy, Egregy, Alm£s, L3pos, Bereksz6, Hagym^s, N3das, Ludas, Kapus, Ftizes, Fej£rd, Gyekenyes, Melyes, Hodos, Saj6 and Fenes — all of which flow into the Szam os River; and the following tributaries of the Maros River: Tekerd, Bekdny, Kdves, Kigyds, Ezenes, Magyaros = Mogyor6s, Gdrgeny, Nyarad, Egregy (the Hungarian name given to the Cem a), Farkad, Gydgy = Di6d, the other Gy6gy, Aranyos, with the Monyordspataka and Sdspataka brooks flowing into it; Koml6d, Ludas, Sebes, and the Ktikullds with Szekes, Szek^s, Buzgds^r, Segesd, Csergdd, Fenes, Kdrtvelyes, Szilas, Egres, Hagymas, and Sdsed/Sdspatak flowing into them. Of the tributaries of the Olt River, Fekete- iigy (Hungarian name for the Cemavoda), Vargyas, the two Homordds, Kozd (1206: Cwezfey), Kokdnyes, Kormos, Saros, Sebes, Arp£s, HortobSgy, another Sebes and Feketeviz all have Hungarian names. Into the Slavic- named Krasna flow the Slavic Zolina and Sereden as well as the Hungarian Eldpatak, Bikagytir, Egres, and Szekpataka. The same Slavic-Hungarian dual nomenclature is found around the headwaters of the Kdros rivers. The Slavic Bistra/Besterce and Derna and the Hungarian Almas, Gyiimdlcsenes, Gye- pes, Er and Jdn3s flow into the Hungarian Berettyd. At the river-head of the Sebes-Kdrds there is the Slavic (?) Kalota, but right after it the Hungarian Sebes, Mehsed, Hegyes, Kutas, Ny&rer, Koleser follow each other. In the M iddle Ages the tributaries of the Fekete-Kdros had only Hungarian names:
Belenyes, Fenes, Solymos, Holldd, Hodos, Gyepes. A big tributary of the Temes is the Hungarian Sebes.
Apart from the ancient names of the Maros, Kdros, Szamos, Olt, Ompoly and Berzava rivers (all of which came into the Romanian language after going through Slavic or Old Hungarian transmutations) only the three river names of suspected Turkic origin in the upper region of the Olt River, the Barot, Barca and the Brassd, should be mentioned. W ith that, all Transylva
nian rivers worth the name have been accounted for.
Only one conclusion may be drawn from these river names, which usu
ally prove m uch m ore lasting than other kinds of geographical nam es.
Transylvania must have been inhabited by two different peoples up until the end of the twelfth century, the widely scattered Slavs who arrived ear
lier and the Hungarians who have been continuously present in the region since the tenth century. The Slavs lived almost everywhere in Transylvania, although after the Hungarian Conquest larger groups of Slavic settlements were only in the Kraszna region, between the Szamos, Nagy-Szamos and Upper Tisza rivers, in the Haromszek Basin, in the area between the Sztrigy and the Szeben rivers, and in Krasso-Szoreny. There was also a smaller Slav population in the Aranyos region. By the twelfth century, these larger Slavic blocks became further diluted. In those times the Slavs and H ungarians lived mixed alm ost over the whole of Transylvania. The Slavic and H un
garian names of 143 rivers were adopted in still recognizable forms by the
Germ an-speaking population except for the smallest streams and without exception by the Romanian speaking people of Transylvania. Not even a m ountain stream with Rom anian nam e could be found in the w hole of Transylvania up until the fifteenth century.
The question of place-names is only mentioned briefly here since Slavic place-names had also been adopted by the Hungarians, the Germans (Rudna, Bistritz, etc.) and the Romanians, the last mostly from the first two. The significance of the Slavic place-names, and consequently of Transylvania's autochthonous Slavic population, must not, however, be overestimated. Of the 1119 Transylvanian place-names known from various charters before 1400, only 104 are Slavic in origin, that is, less than ten per cent. There are some place-nam es in central Transylvania, around the confluence of the M aros and Ktiktillfi rivers, which have definitely been borrowed from the Slavic language, such as the two Gerends, Domb6, Dombr6 and Gambuc.
In these names, the Hungarian kept the nasal vowels that later disappeared from the Slavic language.
In reality, Hungarian place-names dominate the whole of Transylvania.
In practice these place-names include nouns in the nominative case refer
ring to a tribe, a people, a person or a trade, and from the twelfth century onward, the patron saint of a church. This way of denominating places is unknown in Slavic, Germ an and Romanian. The following Slavic nam es for occupations appear everywhere over the entire Carpathian Basin: B o csir = cup-bearer; Csatar = armourer; Hari = cook; Igric = entertainer. Similarly, the Hungarian nomenclature derived from certain trades of the so-called service-villages is not unique to Transylvania, either. Such names include Sz&nt6 = ploughman, K ovicsi = blacksmith, Fazekas = potter, Ebes = m as
ter of hounds, Solym os = falconer and Sz61os = wine-grower.