On The Hungarian National Toponym Registry

Conceptual and practical problems

Abstract

On The Hungarian National Toponym Registry: Conceptual and practical problems

The online database entitled The Hungarian National Toponym Registry (http://mnh.unideb.hu) offers historical and contemporary toponymic datasets to researchers and the general public. The paper puts forward a number of critical remarks in connection with the modern toponymic dataset, focusing on place names that can be searched and projected onto maps in the unit of the database known as the Hungarian Digital Toponym Registry (http://mdh.unideb.hu/ujkorihelynevtar.php). The main arguments are: 1) it is doubtful that the contents of the website satisfy the social expectations generated by the title of the database; 2) the concept of toponymic fieldwork concentrating thoroughly on settlements excludes important toponymic categories from cataloguing; 3) source criticism should be exercised when gazetteers with place names collected locally are concerned; 4) the Hungarian Digital Toponym Registry includes arbitrarily transformed name forms; 5) considering the number of philological, orthographic and geographic inaccuracies, the social utility of general public access to the project in its present phase is questionable.