Róbert Kenyhercz
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6312-3532 
Debrecen Reformed Theological University

https://doi.org/10.4467/K7501.45/22.23.18061 

The old Spiš county was one of the northernmost counties of the medieval Hungarian kingdom, located right on the border of the Polish kingdom. In this paper, I give an overview of the place name system of this area. The organization of the county dates back to the beginning of the 13th century, and although archaeological findings indicate that some parts of the area had been inhabited earlier, our place-name data have only survived from that period. Between the 13th century and the end of the Middle Ages, Spiš was a multilingual area where Slavs, Hungarians and Germans lived side by side and together. Because of this linguistic diversity, place names were created in different languages, and some names have been loaned to other languages. The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarize the linguistic processes that have affected the formation and evolution of place names in the county. For this, I use the methods of etymology, toponym reconstruction and the analysis of toponym system. At the same time, I also pay attention to the characteristics of the sources that preserve the place-name data and try to consider the possibilities and limitations of linguistic-ethnic reconstruction.

Keywords Spiš county, toponyms, linguistic-ethnic reconstruction, settlement names, medieval charters