Nume de locuri în texte vechi româneşti. Între modelul cultural şi constrângerile administrative

Abstract

Research on old Romanian texts, religious or non-religious translations, original writings underlying acts of culture or administrative records, documentary sources authored by Romanians or foreigners (missionaries or mere travellers fascinated by various aspects of Romanian space) brings to the foreground a significant number of toponyms for anyone interested in this onomastic variety. The toponyms in question mainly include names of settlements, provinces, and countries, as well as names of important landforms, most of which are real and can be located. Often recorded as phonetic variants linked to different geographical areas or stages in the evolution of language or influenced by the graphical form of their source and one’s knowledge of the Romanian language, thus with morphological and lexical structures determined by the adaptation, translation or calque of a toponym from a foreign language, many place names recorded are linked to the same referent. Therefore, they are genuine toponymic synonyms. Depending on the type of source, place names in old Romanian texts illustrate a model or cultural attitude, while they may also provide useful information regarding the administrative constraints manifested in specific historical ages or in several provinces of Dacoromanian space.