Toponimia judeţului Tulcea – o toponimie a interferenţelor multietnice
The Toponymy of Tulcea County – A Toponymy of Multicultural Interferences

Summary/Abstract: Dobrogea is perhaps one of the most interesting parts of our country and from the ancient Dacian area through its variety and the progression of significant events during the history. These events last from the foundation of the Greek citadels in 7th century B.C. to the Roman dominion in 1st century B.C. They continue with the influence of the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Tsardom. The events last from Dobrotici (Middle Age) to Mircea cel Bătrân and then to the Ottoman Empire and to the statute of Romanian province in 1878. Geographically situated between Danube and The Black Sea, Dobrogea is an important and unitary part of the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic space, where history was always alive. The region always offered to the humans rich and various living resources, attractive considerations for the foundation of communities in the territory. There is no surprise that the enigmatic and hospitable Dobrogea was the host of several populations in time. These populations formed a complex ethno-cultural mosaic, a fact described by Barbu Şt. Delavrancea with the following words: “strange country, with its 12 or 14 nationalities. But the Hun doesn’t argue with the Transylvanian shepherd, in exchange he does not fight with the lipovean man, the German does not fight with the Ottoman and the Christian priest is hail-fellow with the Ottoman hogea.” Tulcea County – integrant of Dobrogea area, together with Constanţa County – is perfectly suited to the environmental frame. There are incontestable proves for the human presence in this geographical space even since the Palaeolithic times. Our paper proposes a linguistic research on the existent toponymy in Tulcea County, on a geographical area of de 8499 square km (3,5% from the territory of Romania), including 51 ubieties – the municipality TULCEA, 4 cities: BABADAG, ISACCEA, MĂCIN, SULINA and 46 villages. The majority of the analysed names are of foreign origin. As mentioned above, Dobrogea and especially Tulcea County are an ethnic amalgam, a real ethnic mosaic. We highlight the fact that these heterogeneous groups cohabited with the Romanian, autochthon element, resulting extremely various and interesting toponym formations, a large and promising field for the linguistic research. Tulcea County is a historical location, a favourite place for the interaction of different developing cultures and a cosmopolite land. One of its characteristics is that of continuous change and assimilation of all the civilization forms in a unitary assemble as a demonstration for the millenary continuity on the Romanian territory.

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