Abstract
In our paper we focus on the translating practice and translatability of surnames used in Hungarian, from the problems of translating the immediate predecessors of surnames to the questions of translating surnames today. Our main interest is in how multilingualism, language contact situations, language prestige considerations, customs, fashion and other potential factors affect the use of these names in different languages, and the translatability in a wider sense in the actual practice in Hungary and other countries. We shall look at name translation practice in medieval documents, the relevant questions of spontaneous and conscious surname changes, the changes of Hungarian surnames used outside of Hungary, and finally the questions of translating surnames occurring in fiction.
Keywords: history of Hungarian family names, translation of personal names, name assimilation, name changes in Hungary, fictional names
Recommended Citation
Farkas, Tamás and Mariann Slíz. "Translating Family Names in Hungarian: A Diachronic Survey." AHEA: E-Journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association, Volume 6 (2013): http://ahea.net/e-journal/volume-6-2013/11
Biography
Tamás Farkas is Senior Lecturer and Director of Studies in the Institute of Hungarian Linguistics and Finno-Ugric Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. He received his PhD in 2002, and completed his Habilitation in 2013. His main research interest is onomastics as a field of interdisciplinary studies, especially historical anthroponomastics, socioonomastics and applied onomastics. He has published several papers on the system and the history of Hungarian family names in the framework of dimensional linguistics. He is the secretary of the Society of Hungarian Linguistics, and the editor of Névtani Értesítő, the journal of Hungarian onomastics. His latest major works include Családnév-változtatás Magyarországon [Surname Changes in Hungary] (2009), and Régi magyar családnevek névvégmutató szótára [Reverse Dictionary of Historical Hungarian Family Names] (2009).
Mariann Slíz is Lecturer in the Institute of Hungarian Linguistics and Finno-Ugric Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She received her PhD in 2010. She is the co-editor of Névtani Értesítő, the journal of Hungarian onomastics. Her main research interests are onomastics (especially personal names, name theory and literary names), historical linguistics and cultural history. She has published several articles on historical personal names (mainly on the history of Hungarian family names) and on the use of fictional names. Her latest major works include Személynévadás az Anjou-korban [Naming in the Angevin Age] (2011), Anjou-kori személynévtár (1301-1342) [A Dictionary of Personal Names in the Angevin Age] (2011), and Személynevek a középkori Magyarországon [Personal Names in the Medieval Hungary] (2011).