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CentroConsult - Research in Slovakia and former Austria-Hungary



In 1998  Veda (the publishing house of Slovak Academy of Sciences) published the book

Názvy obcí Slovenskej republiky (Vývin v rokoch 1773 - 1997)
Names of settlements in Slovak Republic (development in the years 1773 - 1997)

The author  Milan Majtán introduces his book as follows:

The complex situation in the multi-ethnic Hungarian state, the ethnic suppression and the decay of the monarchy, as well as the development of Slovakia of the Czecho-Slovakia state and other factors were the reason that the official names of the settlements often changed over time. Thus arose the need to develop a historical dictionary of names of settlements. This dictionary is addressed not only to the small group of linguists, historians and archivists, but it becomes a welcome and requested manual for public servants and other specialists (e.g. genealogists - comment of Peter Nagy).

Two decades ago, the need for a manual documenting development of the names of settlements in Slovakia in course of last 200 years was answered by the publication of the book, "Names of settlements in Slovakia in last 200 years". The book was very successful and all printings (2,000) were sold out in one week. The goal of the book was to record development of the names as well as development of the administrative constitution, thus creation of new settlements, merging of settlements, etc.

Since 25 years have now passed since it's publication, the book is practically unavailable.  There has been a never-ending development of new names, and the need to correct the mistakes of the first book created the need to publish a new manual.

So, the book "Names of settlements in Slovak Republic (development in the years 1773 - 1997)" answered those needs. The book has documented the very diverse development of the official names of settlements in the given period, their "magyarisation" as well as their "reslovakisation", changes of ideological character (abandoning of the adjectives like saint, etc.) and changes of administrative nature. In condensed way it also presents the administrative development from second half of 19 century. The core of the book is alphabetic list of settlement names with chronology of the historical names. In the dictionary of older and non-Slovak names, which is set up in index form there is alphabetic list of Latin, German, Hungarian and old Slovak names of present and historic settlements in all known variants. The index is linked to the core of the book.

The book is addressed not only the experts, historians, archivists, but preferably to the broad group of public servants, registrars and educational staff active in homeland study.

The publication is issued by occasion of the fifth anniversary of the creation of independent Slovak Republic.

Centroconsult is offering free look-ups in the book on written request.

Credit to Bill Tarkulich for proofreading corrections and comments



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