Multiculturalism in names of restaurants in Baia Mare

The social and linguistic profile of Romania after 1989 has been increasingly multicultural. This phenomenon does not only occur in specific states. Definite and defining intrusions of other cultures in various countries in Europe and on other continents are diagnostic of the existential shape of humankind in the third millennium. The trend has altered all the social sectors in which it became manifest, transforming even, or especially, the level of language. One could claim, without it being an overstatement, that all the speakers of a nation or most of them use an “impure” language, as they “stain” the given historical language with lexical “intruders” without which communication would be suspended. To be a valid speaker of the new millennium one should think, speak and behave multiculturally. We are corporate employees of words, the interface between the conservation of locality and the expansion of multitasking. We behave like citizens of the cyberspace not only when working on online platforms, but also in our day-to‑day existence, which proves that we are three-dimensional individuals. This paper aims at observing and quantifying (qualitatively and quantitatively) the extent to which multiculturalism has infiltrated a certain field of material life in Baia Mare on the onomastic level, i.e. restaurants, as outlets for assumedly gourmet food. The article explores whether one can talk about pure onymic multiculturalism (determining the degree of coexistence of lexical oppositions) or whether the national avatar was eliminated and the borrowed element in the name has been established unequivocally (the novel element). The author uses the methodology specific to linguistics, onomastics and cultural studies.