Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 109. kötet (2013)
Tanulmányok - Rácz, Anita: Ethnic groups and settlement names in Hungary 255
RACZ, ANITA Ethnie groups and settlement names in Hungary1 Ethnic group names as elements of the Hungarian onomasticon are present from the earliest period of the Hungarian language. According to my research there are 39 ethnic group names that took part in coining settlement names. The analysis of the toponyms containing ethnonyms shows us that they can be clearly described morphologically, and they belong to different morphological types. Between these types we can detected significant chronological differences. In the earliest period on the one hand we find toponyms formed without any name-formant, while some names were coined by the formant -i, less frequently by -d, but there are other suffixes as well which were used rarelier. Later such structures appeared that contain an ethnonym and another lexeme (e.g. other toponyms, common geographical name). In my paper I show the latest findings on this important layer of the Hungarian onomasticon. Keywords: ethnonyms, typological analysis, topoformants, interdisciplinal. 1. The Hungarian language was the first of the Uralic languages to be recorded in writing. The earliest written records of the language, dating from the lllh century, are found in foreign language texts. These are essential for research in historical linguistics, since from them we can learn a number of valuable lessons about the contemporary state of the Hungarian language, and the subsequent change processes it underwent. However, these names are not only of interest to those who concern themselves with the linguistic sciences. Since place names reflect the everyday life of the name-bestowing community from many aspects, representatives from the fields of history, ethnology and geography consider it vital to use such name data in accordance with the goals of their own research. In this respect historians and linguists are fully in agreement that historical research into toponyms provides such important source material on the early history and language history of Hungary that it cannot be ignored. The verifiable name layers from the early period of the conquest were subjected to study in Hungary from the 1930s and 1940s, resulting in early historical place-name typologies (Moor 1936: 110-117, Kniezsa 1938, 1943, 1944, 1960, Kertész 1939: 33-39, 67-77, Kristó 1976), the results of which are still to this day largely accepted by the research community without reservation. These 1 This work was carried out as part of Research Group on Hungarian Language History and Toponomastics (University of Debrecen - Hungarian Academy of Science). Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 109. 255-266.
