The correlation between personal name, language and ethnicity in the Transylvanian witch trials of the 17th–18th centuries

Abstract

The correlation between personal name, language and ethnicity is a very complex issue, especially in such a multilingual and multiethnic area as the Carpathian Basin in the 17th–18th centuries. By this time the motivation behind the names analysed in this paper could have already faded, and national identity in the modern sense had not been formed yet. Thus, ethnic reconstruction must be based on a wide variety of linguistic and sociological elements. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of the witch trials as historical sources and the linguistic and ethnic situation of two areas of Transylvania through case studies.