Linguistics’ interest in Hungarian names of tribes was solely etymological in the last century. The present paper approaches the topic from a different direction: it examines how names of tribes (Nyék, Megyer, Kürtgyarmat, Tarján, Jenő, Kér, Keszi) were integrated into the system of Hungarian toponyms and anthroponyms.
How they fulfilled their “name functions”, what role they could play in the Hungarian language and what were their linguistic characteristics like.
The starting point of the linguistic examination is that a name of a tribe belongs to the socalled social group names similarly to ethnonyms and names of tribes and professions. A common characteristic of these lexemes is that they denote a group of people, human communities even in the nominative. The paper first examines how these group names relate to different types of changes in linguistic functions:
is there a way from them to toponyms and/or anthroponyms, and if there is, using what linguistic means?
0 20 40 60 80 100
120 without a formant
with a derivational suffix with a geographical common word as an attribute next to an oikonym
The paper briefly discusses how social group names could become members of the Hungarian toponymic system: what kind of similar or different structural characteristics they present in this function, and what kind of changes they can go through or may have gone through. According to the results, settlement names originating from names of tribes form a closed group from a structural point of view. In contrast, settlement names formed from ethnonyms and names of professions are more flexible. A topoformant and a geographical common word meaning settlement could easily join the base lexeme when it became a settlement name. This difference can also be explained with the supposed difference between the dates of the formation of different name types. The structurally closed nature characterizes toponyms originating from names of tribes not only in their origins but also in their existence.
The final section of the paper raises the question how we can explain the phenomenon that we have hardly any settlement names originating from names of tribes whose structure would present purely linguistic changes. And, why cannot we find name variants besides these names in charters?
Valéria Tóth
On the Changes of Patrociny Settlement Names
The changes of patrociny settlement names are determined by the circumstances of their origin. This name type came about not on the basis of name models but through a clerical support, as a kind of cultural name type. It was this clerical prompt that resulted in a significant influence in the structure of names by the use of names, thus causing a significant susceptibility to change in this name type. The degree of susceptibility of change is distinctly demonstrated by the fact that, in the case of patrociny settlement names, 17% underwent structural modifications, while in the case of toponyms derived from tribe names, the same indicator is below 1%.
I will present the changes of patrociny settlement names in the general change typology framework that I have elaborated on and applied later in a separate monograph (Településnevek változástipológiája [Change Typology of Settlement Names], Debrecen, 2008), while the body of name data comes from a work by András Mező (A templomcím a magyar helységnevekben (11–15. század) [Patro
cinies in Hungarian Settlement Names (11th–15th century)], Budapest, 1996).
Processes in the change of toponyms can occur at three levels: 1. the denotative meaning of a toponym changes without any change in the sound form (changes in meaning), 2. the nameform changes without any change in the denotative
meaning (morphological changes), and 3. processes that lead to a change in both nameform and denotative meaning (complex changes).
Complex changes occur during the course of name disappearance, name dif fer
entiation, and name integration. For example, a settlement in Arad County by the name Szentandrás ‘Saint Andrew’ is not mentioned in any of the sources after the 15th century. Csanád County’s Szentiván ‘Saint Ivan’ was divided into Belső- and Kül ső szentiván ‘Inner and Outer Szentiván settlement’ parts. Bille and Mindszent ‘All Saints’ (in Zala County) merged under the name Mind szentbille.
In the category of changes in meaning, the toponym loses its original referential meaning and gains another denotation: for example, the former settlement name lives on as a microtoponym. The former Szentegyed ‘Saint Aegidius’ settlement (in Baranya County) today denotes a plain area near the border of its neighboring settlement. Morphological changes may modify or affect the whole form or just a part of it: the former of these is recognized as complete change or name replacement, while the latter is referred to as partial change. Name replacement within the group of patrociny settlement names is a rather frequent phenomenon (36%): e.g., Tóti (< tót ’Slavic’ + -i topoformant) > Szentdemeter. The list of regu
lar partial changes contains complementation (Szentanna > Sze re daszent an na), ellipsis (Szent lőrinctelke > Szentlőrinc), reduction (Szentmiklóstelke > Miklós-telke), extension (Szentgyörgy > Szentgyörgyúr), name constituent replacement (Szent jakabfalva > Szent ja kabfa), and name element replacement (Szentiván >
Szentjános). Irregular structural changes result in the opaqueness of the name’s originally transparent lexical and semantic structure (Szent mária > So mor ja), or in resemantization (Szentdienes > Szent egyenes ‘saint straight’.
The reason for the great degree of susceptibility to change of patrociny settlement names and for the diversity of such changes lies in the fact that this name type with basically cultural roots could become an organic part of the Hungarian settlement namesystem precisely because of its changes and transformations.
István Hoffmann
Szentmárton in Hungarian Toponyms
The present paper was written for the 1700th anniversary of the birth of St. Martin of Tours (in Hungarian Toursi Szent Márton) and for the Hungarian memorial year in his honour. The veneration of St. Martin in Hungary was influenced by the fact that he was the patron saint of the Abbey of Pannonhalma, the first monastery established in Hungary in 996. In Hungary patrocinies became namegivers in a significant number of settlements: we know of 1 390 such settlements, which amount to nearly 7% of all medieval settlement names.
In medieval Hungary we know about the patrons of 5 700 different religious institutions, among them 336 churches and monasteries were offered to the protection of St. Martin. The names more frequent than his belong to the Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas. Among settlement names formed from patrociny Szentmárton is the fourth most frequent, 104 settlements are known to have borne this name.
There appears to be a specific relationship between the names of churches and the settlement name usage of patrocinies: the more frequent patrocinies went on to become settlement names relatively infrequently, since similar names close to each other would not have been able to fulfil the basic, individualizing function of toponyms. Accordingly, among all St. Martin patrociny, about every third one became a settlement name as well.
The regional distribution of Szentmárton toponyms is roughly the same as that of patrociny settlement names: in medieval Hungary they occurred more frequently in South West Hungary and in Transylvania. This documentations of this type of settlement name increased in the second half of the 13th century and in the first half of the 14th century, similarly to other semantic types in which the onepart forms without geographical common words (falu ’village,’ város ’town’, telek
‘land, village’, etc.) became very frequent at this time. It is also striking that patrociny settlement names—among them, Szentmárton names—first appeared in Latin (e.g., villa Sancti Martini) in sources. This could indicate that the church had a significant role in popularizing and spreading this type of toponym, which in that era seemed like a novelty and spread in Hungary due to Western European influence.
The Szentmárton names have later undergone different linguistic changes: some of them took on a geographical common word as a second part (Szentmártonfalva), some of them joined an already existing settlement name (Szentmártonkáta), most frequently, however, different attributes were added to the name (Kunszentmárton), in order to facilitate differentiation.
Map 1. Szentmárton Toponyms in the Medieval Hungary. (Settlement symbols do not show accurate localization, only refer to belonging to the county in question.)
Map 2. Szentmárton Toponyms at the Beginning of the 21st Century
Katalin Reszegi