On the historical source value of toponyms

Toponyms as a source for the reconstruction of ethnic relations

Abstract

On the historical source value of toponyms. Toponyms as a source for the reconstruction of ethnic relations. – Besides constituting a crucial source material for linguistic history and onomastic research, toponyms occurring in historical sources (medieval charters) can be exploited also for the (history-related) purposes of other fields of research such as historiography (settlement and demographic history in particular), historic geography, ethnography, etc. When trying to map the ethnic composition of earlier times, representatives of historiography like to rely on data extracted on the basis of different layers of the origins of toponyms. However, it needs to be emphasized that such examinations presuppose special circumspection in order to avoid typical stumbling blocks exactly in the field of ethnic reconstruction whose possibilities I want to highlight here. My paper explores the question if toponyms occurring in early Hungarian linguistic monuments could be used for ethnic identification, and if this is the case, how we can draw conclusions related to questions of ethnicity based on linguistic results. In this respect we also need to examine the criteria based on which toponymic data appearing in charters can be linked to certain (Hungarian, German, Turkish or any of the Slavic) languages. Onomastic correlations, information on the evolution of names as well as certain phonetic changes may provide us with some clues in the definition of such links.