Neologisms of place- and personal names in the Uplands (Slovakia) after the Treaty of Trianon (1920)

Abstract

Neologisms of place- and personal names in the Uplands (Slovakia) after the Treaty of Trianon (1920)

The region known as the Uplands (Felvidék) was disannexed from Hungary by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. Becoming an ethnic minority, the Hungarians of this region had to face a completely new situation; their language was exposed to the increasing influence of the (Czecho-) Slovakian official language. Initial bilingualism was quickly substituted by monolingualism of the official language, in many spheres of life. The authorities of the period renamed the settlements, Slovakianized the microtoponyms, and registered the personal names according to the norms of the official language. As a result, the grammatical structure of the names changed. – Within the new circumstances, which were completely different from the ethnic and linguistic situation before Trianon, new and previously rarely used linguistic structures were adopted into the local Hungarian language use. At first the appearance of these neologisms could be ascribed to language contact. Later many of them became an integral part of the language variety used by the Hungarians living in the Uplands. The process described above took place both in its speed and in its intensity within the passing of some generations. – The first part of the study explains why the above mentioned name-structures, characteristic of the official language, have been spreading in the local Hungarian language use since 1920. In the second part, the author classifies these neologisms due to the language contact situation. With respect to the most important types of usage, the author clarifies whether these name forms are occasional borrowings or they are stable neologisms in the local Hungarian language today.