Programme title: Preparation for the Codification of Hungarian Geographical Names in the Carpathian Basin and the Compilation of an Electronic Database
Years: 2007–2012
Brief description: The codification of geographical names outside Hungary, as an ongoing professional and administrative task, came under the jurisdiction of the successor states at the beginning of the 20th century. One of the immediate and widespread consequences was that Hungarian linguistic and onomastic considerations were subsequently disregarded almost everywhere. In most cases, local Hungarian naming practices and historical traditions were also ignored, while a state-centred approach to naming was adopted. As a result, parts of geographically contiguous landscapes separated by state borders were assigned separate names. For example, Bene became Добросіля, Dercen became Дрисино, and Zápszony became Заставне, etc.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the use of geographical names on maps published in Hungary is not uniform either and has changed several times over the course of the past century. This was primarily related to the extent to which a state-centred approach was applied in cartographic practice.
In 2007–2009, the aim was to create a database of geographical names in Transcarpathia containing the Ukrainian (state-language) and Hungarian variants of the following types of geographical names: the names of administrative and territorial units larger than settlements; names of regions and landscapes; and names of natural features of the Earth’s surface, including relief features and bodies of water. The compilation of the corpus did not aim to collect exclusively historical material.
The “final product” of the subprogramme was a corpus of Transcarpathian geographical names that can subsequently be used in a wide range of fields. Although not all Hungarian-populated settlements have had their historical names restored, the results achieved so far provide grounds for optimism regarding the restoration of the names of other settlements as well.
Commissioning/supporting organisation: Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Scholarship Programme for Hungarian Scholarship Abroad)
Publications resulting from the research:
Molnár D. István 2014. A kárpátaljai magyar településnevek változása a XX. század folyamán. In: Beregszászi Anikó – Hires-László Kornélia szerk. Meszelt falakon túl: Születésnapi köszöntő kötet Kótyuk István tiszteletére. Beregszász: II. Rákóczi Ferenc Kárpátaljai Magyar Főiskola, 131–150.
Pintér Tibor 2003. Amit a modern nemzeti korpuszokról tudni kell. Fórum Társadalomtudományi Szemle 5/3, 71–84.
Pintér Tibor 2005. A Kárpát-medencei magyar nyelvi korpusz határon túli magyar alkorpusza. Gondolatok és tapasztalatok. Kézirat.
Szoták Szilvia 2005. Fejezetek a kisebbségi magyar nyelvhasználat összehasonlító vizsgálatából. Határtalanítás; őrvidéki szavak magyarországi szótárakban. Keményfi Róbert szerk., Osztrák források – magyar kutatók, Österreichische Quellen – Ungarische Forscher. Debrecen–Bécs: Debreceni Egyetem Néprajzi Tanszéke–Collegium Hungaricum
Csernicskó István 2004a Gondolatok a nyelvi egységről és a nyelvi változatosságról. Beregszászi Anikó–Csernicskó István, … itt mennyit ér a szó? Írások a kárpátaljai magyarok nyelvhasználatáról, 110–117. Ungvár: PoliPrint.
Péntek János 2004. A magyar nyelv szótárai, nyelvtanai, kézikönyvei és a határon túli magyar nyelvváltozatok. Az MTA határon túli kutatóállomásainak feladatait is ellátó nyelvi irodák állásfoglalása. Magyar Tudomány 49, 724–726.