1151 | 618 | The Effects of the Lack of Standardisation of Hungarian Toponyms in Slavonia

Slavonia as a whole has a very small number of Hungarian inhabitants. Even within Croatia only a very small percentage of the Hungarians live in Slavonia. Only two municipalities have a significant Hungarian minority. Despite this the use of Hungarian toponyms in these municipalities is widespread and is used in almost all areas of geographical names. The only exception is the name of the railway station. These two municipalities are Kórogy/Korođ and Szentlászló/Laszlovo. Both villages have the village name signposted in the two languages. Furthermore not only bilingual toponyms are used, but also many other Hungarian language signs are seen in public areas. All public buildings, streets, schools and kindergartens have both Hungarian and Croatian names. These names are all signposted on bilingual signs. Hungarian toponyms are used to an even greater extent than in southern Baranya, which has a much larger number of Hungarian inhabitants, and was part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon. All toponyms in the Kingdom of Hungary were standardised by an Act in 1889 to ensure each settlement has a unique name. However the Act did not apply to Slavonia since it was part of the Kingdom of Croatia, not the Kingdom of Hungary, both of which were countries of the Holy Hungarian Crown. Szentlászló in Slavonia thus kept its name colliding with Szentlászló in Baranya which, as per the Act, was the only settlement in the Kingdom of Hungary to bear the name. In 1991 during the ”Croatian war of Independence” as it is called in Croatia, Hungarian media did extensive reporting from Szentlászló in Croatia creating a situation where the name Szentlászló became associated with the town in Slavonia rather than the one in Baranya, which officially bears the name, leading to confusion and pushing Szentlászló in Baranya into obscurity.

János Jeney
Institute of Hungarian Research

ID Abstract: 618

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