Вопросы ономастики (Apr 2023)
Historical Toponomastics and the Study of Medieval Hungarian Forged Chartres: Chronological Layers of the Pécsvárad Abbey Founding Charter
Abstract
Charters written in Latin containing vernacular toponyms represent important sources in the early history of European toponymic system. Besides authentic and original charters, there are numerous forged charters and charters that can be read only in later copies. The umbrella term used for such documents is charters with an uncertain chronological status. From the perspective of historical toponomastics and linguistics, we may suppose the existence of multiple chronological layers in such documents. The author uses the example of the Pécsvárad Abbey Charter to introduce a method for distinguishing these layers using the charter’s toponymic data and the methods of historical toponomastics. Primarily, it takes to identify possible chronological periods that can be reflected in the studied charter, followed by the subsequent linguistic analysis of the language forms attested in the document with a special focus on place names as the key elements of the charter’s content. The author emphasises two techniques of analysing toponymic materials of charters that can help clarify the chronological attribution of specific forms: the comparative analysis of the Latin naming constructions largely used in Hungarian medieval charters and displaying a distinct statistical pattern in their evolution, and the method of toponym reconstruction which consists in establishing the possible evolution of the toponym based on a variety of linguistic, historical and geographical data and language laws. The first method helps isolate parts of the text that can relate to a specific chronological layer, while the application of the second leads to outlining the relative chronology of the toponym change and thus to attributing its form attested in the charter to a particular period of time. Although the analysis relies on one single Hungarian charter, it has wider-ranging consequences and may be applied to other Latin medieval sources that include toponymic units in other “vulgar” languages.
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