The book is closely related to the historical-etymologyical dictionary of toponyms of Abaúj and Bars counties (Valéria Tóth, Debrecen, 2001). The book lays special emphasis on the systematic approach, which means meaning that the names are analysed as elements of a larger system. It is believed that the main correlations within the system itself can also be demonstrated on the basis of such investigations.

Abaúj County was chosen for analysis because of its dense settlement network. As the county has a rich early toponymical corpus, it provides ideal conditions for toponymic analysis within the given time limits. The author was also convinced that such a study should also include the potential for a comparative-contrastive analysis. She found Bars county to be the most appropriate for such a comparison because it was similar in its geographical structure and size, with approximately the same density of names and same ethnic relations. All these factors provided a balance of correspondences and differences which offered a suitable field for a successful analysis.

Consequently, this work offers the systematic linguistic description of the full toponymic corpus of Abaúj and Bars counties in the Árpád Era; its antecedent being the historical-etymological dictionary of the same onomastic corpus. The theoretical framework for the examination of the toponymic system was provided by the model of toponym studies suggested by István Hoffmann in his work (Helynevek nyelvi elemzése [The linguistic analysis of toponyms]. Debrecen, 1993).

In the first chapter the author surveyed the ways places were named during the Árpád Era: she presented the sources of onomastic research as well as remnants and the characteristic features of the Hungarians’ place naming habits before the conquest of the Carpathian Basin.

In the second chapter the author presented place names as sources for the study of the general history of the language. However, she emphasized the importance of only one of these general aspects, namely, the history of the phonetic system, an area that can be best described with the help of this early toponymic corpus.

The third chapter focuses on the onomatosystematical description of toponyms. The author’s starting point in this chapter was her endeavour the to present the toponymic stock of both counties from a variety of perspectives, highlighting their internal connections and relations. Besides presenting the structural features and the etymoligies of the toponyms she also focused on territoria aspects. She also found it necessary to outline her ideas about the systematicity of toponyms in the form of a short taxonomic summary as a kind of to the name analysis.