Pre-Indo-European roots in Romanian toponyms of Hungarian origin?

Some remarks on Sorin Paliga’s An Etymological Dictionary of the Romanian Language

Abstract

In 2024, Peter Lang published An Etymological Dictionary of the Romanian Language by Sorin Paliga, Associate Professor of Slavic Studies at the University of Bucharest, as part of its South-East European History series. The dictionary devotes considerable attention to toponymy: place name entries account for at least 30% of the entries. What is more, around 70% of the Romanian toponyms discussed are of Hungarian origin. Paliga seeks to demonstrate that all place names previously regarded – often unequivocally – as of Hungarian origin (e.g. Oradea < Várad, Orlat < *Váralatt, Ardeal < Erdély, Chioar < Kővár, Hunedoara < Hunyadvár, Orăștie < *Várasti, Timișoara < Temesvár, Arad < Arad, Ardud < Erdőd, Archiș < Árkos, Ardusat < Erdőszáda) are, in fact, of Pre-Indo-European origin, transmitted into the Romanian language through the medium of Thracian. To support this claim, he identifies phoneme clusters in each name that appear similar to supposed Pre-Indo-European roots (*OR-, *UR-, *AR-). This study considers Paliga’s toponymic etymologies as arbitrary, as he both disregards the findings of earlier place name research and the established methods of historical linguistics and phonetic reconstruction.