Comparative analysis of names for characters from national minorities occurring in Viennese and Hungarian humour magazines

Abstract

Comparative analysis of names for characters from national minorities occurring in Viennese and Hungarian humour magazines  

The paper compares the personal names appearing in the Viennese humour magazine Figaro and those occurring in some Hungarian humour magazines (Borsszem Jankó [‘Tom Thumb’], Az Üstökös [‘The Comet’]), all published in the 1860s and the 1890s, with the aim of detecting whether surnames and Christian names considered typical of minority groups were identical or different on this and on the other side of the river Lajta. The results show that whilst the Czech and Jewish names quoted in the magazines in the 1860s were rather similar in Vienna and in Pest, in the issues from the end of the 19th century differences were more marked in both the number and the meanings of minority names.