Toponyme im siebenbürgischen Unterwald / Terra ante Silvanum

Abstract

Abstract The aim of the present paper is to analyse the trilingual Transylvanian toponyms (German, Hungarian an d Romanian) from the Terra ante Silvanum (The Realm Beneath the Forest) and to reconstruct and explain them. When the Saxons arrived in Transylvania, in the 12th Century, they met Szekler, Hungarian and Romanian ethnic groups. The Realm Beneath the Forest represents, from a historical point of view, the Western border of the Transylvanian territory inhabited by the Saxons, which was not a compact area and which was divided into three districts (Sibiu, Brașov, and Bistrița) and two ‘seats’ (Mediaș and Șeica). The Realm Beneath the Forest included three ‘seats’ (Lat. sedes, judicial and administrative forums): Orăștie, Sebeș and Miercurea Sibiului. All the areas of the Realm Beneath the Forest, both those inhabited by German and/or Hungarian and Romanian populations and those inhabited only by Romanian people, have corresponding toponyms in all three languages. The toponyms Orăștie, Romos, Aurel Vlaicu, Pianul de Jos, Petrești, Sebeș, Câlnic, Reciu, Gârbova, Dobârca, Miercurea Sibiului, Apoldu de Sus, Amnaș that are analysed in the paper can be classified according to the following criteria: according to their founder, to the river that flows through the area, to the local toponyms, to their origin and their way of formation. A series of toponyms contributed to the apparition of some autochthonous family names such as Broser, Hamlescher, Kellinger, Mühlbächer, Polder, Rätscher, Urbiger.