The origin of the toponym Transylvania
A hypothesis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19224312 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gheorghe Bogdan (Independent researcher, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-25 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-27 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | National Identities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1460-8944 • E-ISSN: 1469-9907 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14608944.2026.2668606 |
| OpenAlex | W7162669081 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
This article challenges the hypothesis, accepted by the overwhelming majority of historians and linguists, that the toponym Transylvania is the Latin translation of the original Hungarian term, Erdély. Although the terms are semantically equivalent, we will attempt to show that Erdély, an isolated example in Hungarian, was not the original, but rather a calque that appeared in specific historical circumstances. The consolidation of the toponyms took about four centuries. Both terms, Latin and Hungarian, are translations (calques) of a Slavic form Zagor(i)a, formed with the prefix za – ‘beyond, across’ and gora ‘mountain, hill, woods, forest’
Ethnic group · Identity (music) · Meaning (existential) · National Identities · Race (biology) · Central European and Russian historical studies · European Cultural and National Identity · Linguistics and language evolution
| Highly cited | No |
|---|