Toponymic Strata on the Dobrogea Bank of the Danube Seen from a Historic and Multicultural Perspective

• Main Author: Smaranda Enica
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Danubius University 2016-10-01
• Series: Journal of Danubian Studies and Research
• Subjects: historic evolution; ethnic diversity; toponymic strata; romanian ethnographic area
• Online Access: http://journals.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/research/article/view/3516/3472

The aim of this paper is to catalogue and introduce toponymic names from the Danube area of Dobrogea in the context of a troubled historic evolution of this area. A toponymic stratification was done, where the oldest and the most important stratum belongs to the native population, on which other strata overlapped, strata we have tried to deal with in this paper. What we meant to point out as a result of our research of the territorial distribution of the place names was not only the concentration of the Romanian inhabitants in the area situated in the vicinity of the Danube, an area standing as a permanent connection with the Romanians living on the left bank of the Danube, but also the idea of identifying a variety of toponymic names stemming from other languages, as a result of the settling down, in Dobrogea of many peoples throughout history. The results of our research are based on the presentation of some aspects of the Romanians ‘symbiosis with other ethnic groups, as well as the presentation of the conditions and duration of the process of their assimilation by the Romanians. What we bring, in addition to other studies, is a thorough analysis of the ethnic diversity of the area that was realized by analyzing a great number of toponymic names and their classification according to the language of origin and the period of time they were used, thus constituting a rich and valuable source of information.