Lexical-semantic characteristics of the common noun háj (‘grove’) and the proper names Háj in relation to archaeological sites. (The archaeological site and motivation of its name from the aspects of history and linguistics)

Abstract

Abstract The article is an attempt to employ the lexical-semantic reconstruction by Professor Vincent Blanár, whose 100th birthday the authors commemorate, to help us understand the cultural legacy of the past. The core of the text is a retrospective view of the names of areas with occurrence of Pre-Slavic material culture and an attempt to identify the motivating lexical units of the oronyms Háj and their derivatives from the territory of today’s Slovakia by means of interconnected knowledge from the fields of linguistics and archaeology. Proper names such as Háj/Háje occurred as late as in Slavic cultural and linguistic environment; however, material evidence at places with such names suggests presence of an older culture, i. e., settlement by population of a different cultural, social or linguistic provenance. In this study, the lexical-semantic reconstruction of the common noun háj in its original meaning as the motivating linguistic unit for oronyms such as Háj and their derivatives is reflected in the mirror of archaeological research. In connection with the sites named Háj/Háje in the regions of Gemer, Malohont, Novohrad or Hont in the south of Central Slovakia, the authors state that from the aspect of archaeology, they are at least remarkable places of the cultural landscape in which we can expect finds from various stages of prehistory and protohistory. The authors also emphasize that in the studied cases, this is not an absolute rule; it is rather a distinct signal of occurrence of archaeological finds.