Liszka József (szerk.): Az Etnológiai Központ Évkönyve 2000-2001 - Acta Ethnologica Danubiana 2-3. (Dunaszerdahely-Komárom, 2001)
1. Tanulmányok - Paládi-Kovács Attila: Természeti tájak és nyelvhatárok a régi Felső-Magyarországon
beech is a much-loved tree often figuring in songs and ballads of the Slovak people, while the oak appears in those of the Hungarians in the southern subregions. The Hungarian geographers Lajos Glaser and László Kádár made a very instructive observation about the Hungarian-Slovak language boundary in the early 20th century. They pointed out that the ethnic boundary almost exactly coincides with the northern limit of the downy oak and even more of the Tartar maple. They also noted that the Hungarians who settled in the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century occupied the southern subregion of the Upland up to the northern limit of the downy oak already in the first phase, but the zone of beech and pine was conquered only gradually in the 11th and 12th centuries. From this geographical viewpoint, the language and ethnic boundary stretching from Léva (Levice) to Kassa (Košice) and remaining relatively stable for centuries is at the same time a sharp natural boundary. It can be added that this vegetation limit is also the northernmost limit of a number of important cultivated plants. Foremost of these are grapes which are grown in large areas along the southern edge of the Upland (e.g. Eger, Tokaj). The northern boundary of the vine is Nyitra (Nitra) - Léva (Levice) - Ipolyság (Šahy) - Tomallya, then the Szepsi (Moldava nad Bodvou) and Kassa (Košice) area. Vines are not grown in the Rozsnyó (Rožňava) basin or in the Csermosnya valley where the Hungarian-Slovak language boundary lies a little further to the north than that of the vineyards. Maize and wheat are also cultivated with success to the south of this vegetation limit. Both crops have northern and elevation limits that can be drawn with topographical precision. The limits of the trees and crops mentioned represent characteristic bundles of the natural boundaries. The fact that a sharp border can be seen on the population density and demographic maps in the immediate vicinity of these limits shows their significance. During the time of traditional agriculture there was a high population density to the south of this boundary and a significantly low density to the north. The population in the north living from mining and industry was supplied with food from the south. The Upland is a region divided into valleys and basins. Each river and stream valley is a separate world, even the smaller ones are separate life spaces and comers. To use a term borrowed from human ecology and cultural anthropology, they are ecological niches. They favoured the development and survival of population islands and enclaves not only in nature but also in the history of human society. In the High Upland the separate existence of the basins is reminiscent of the Swiss cantons. The river valleys join the series of larger basins, generally in a north-south direction. The old church and state administration system closely followed these “life spaces”. Most of the counties covered a particular basin (e.g. Nógrád, Gömör, Szepes, Túróc, Liptó, Árva). Other counties comprised a two-branched valley (e.g. Bars, Abaúj-Toma, Sáros). The boundaries of the royal counties and later the noble counties, as well as the church dioceses and deaneries followed the natural boundaries. The coincidence of geographical regions and administrative units contributed to the intertwining of regional and ethnic awareness among the peoples of the Upland. 2. Language-boundaries in the eastern part of the region In the 20th century the question of ethnic and language-boundaries aroused the interest not only of scholarship but also of international politics. When the new borders were drawn after 166
