Talk:Great Hungarian Plain

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The Great Alföld can hardly occupy "large parts of eastern Slovakia", since the only plain parts in eastern Slovakia are around Michalovce, Trebišov and Veľké Kapušany, which is less than 5% of the total area of Slovakia, not mentioning the total area of the Carpathian Basin. --Adam78 10:03, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

The term "large" referred to all the countries, especially Romania. And "large" can be also measured in absolute terms (for your information). But that is not worth mentioning. What is worth mentioning, however, is that Mecsek is not the border of the plain (it's just one of several mountains that are not direct part of the plain - I have the geomorphological map in front of me), which is quite obvious already from the fact that the plain in southwest Hungary would have no name if the Alfold ended there. Also, I have to check what you mean by "Transylvanian Mountains" - I assume you mean the Apuseni Mountains, which however are part of the Carpathians. These facts have to be corrected. Juro 12:40, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

I have checked the Transylvanian Mountains. The expression is not a professional term (anymore), hence I will leave it out as well. Juro 12:44, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

1. I'd appreciate if you read carefully what I write. I didn't write "Transylvanian Mountains" but "Transdanubian Mountains" (Dunántúli-középhegység in Hungarian), referring to mountains "beyond" (i.e. west of) the Danube. The Transdanubian Mountains are the mountain range roughly between Balaton and Esztergom city, including the mountains Bakony, Vértes, Gerecse and perhaps Budai-hegység (hegység = mountain range, a small one though).

I am sorry, I am (physically) sick today, so no wonder...Juro 16:43, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

1. I'm aware that "large" can be taken as an absolute term as well, however, here the point of reference is most probably Alföld itself, which the article is about (let alone the Pannonian Plain), where the term "large" is simply misleading for anyone who doesn't happen to know these areas him/herself. As compared to the whole Alföld, the Tatras can be safely called large, and the Slovak part of the Alföld is relatively small. (As compared to the East Slovakian region, the Slovak part of the Alföld is large indeed.) I'd rather not confuse the reader with disproportionate wording.
2. If you want to inform the readers that those parts of the Alföld which are outside of Hungary also comprise a "large" area (which I accept), try to express it another way which is not misleading for the reader.

As I already mentioned, it is not worth mentioning, but since you started to analyze this (and frankly I do not understand why) - the plain in question is bigger than any Slovak mountain in common sense, so not only it is large, it is in fact very large. And - there is no East Slovakian region and I do not understand the relevance of the extent of any "region" when talking about geomorphological units.

1. I clearly remember from my Hungarian geography classes that Mecsek mountain and Sió channel (between Balaton and Danube) were said to form the borders of the Hungarian Alföld. Besides, "the fact that the plain in southwest Hungary would have no name if the Alfold ended there" is not so much of a fact, since that region, south of Balaton, west of Sió, northwest of Mecsek, has the name Dunántúli-dombság ("Transdanubian Hills"), explicitly written on my map, including e.g. Nagykanizsa and Kaposvár cities. So the Hungarian part of the Alföld definitely ends at Mecsek and Sió (at least in Hungarian terminology).Adam78 14:53, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

As I already mentioned, I have a geomorphological map in front of me (it based on several Hungarian geology books). You do not understand how physiogeographical divisions work. It is not enough to take a normal map, because there is not enough space there to repeat 1000 times Alföld, Alföld, Alföld and give the name of all the geomorphological units...In reality, there is the plain and WITHIN the plain there are isolated mountain ranges, some of which are part of the plain and some which are not. In our case, Alfold seemingly stops at the Dunántüli Közephegység (not part of Alfold), but it continues along the H-HR border (a continuation of the Dunamenti sikság) and then behind the Dunántüli Közephegység under the name "Belsö-somogyi homokos hordalékkúp" (part of the Alfold) and in Croatia under the name Dravska nizija/Drávamenti síkság. You MUST see even on normal maps that there are also lowlands in southwestern Hungary, not only hills. Unfortunately my map ends in Nagykanisza and Zalaegerseg for Hungary and continues with the Alps, so I cannot tell you whether the Zalai dombság is considered part of the Alföld or not (probably not, but some "green" parts yes), but in any case Mecsek is not the border. Finally, what you remember from school is not enough, I remember many things that have changed or are wrong. But if you have some professional source we can write that there are various opinions.Juro 16:43, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Renaming the article?

This area is partly in Croatia (where I come from) but I never new it is called "Great Alföld".

Is this really the name used in english? Term "Great Hungarian Plain" sound much better to me. --Ante Perkovic 11:22, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Google has indeed more hits for "Great Hungarian Plain" (35,500) than for "Great Alföld" (969, Wikipedia hits excluded from both). Britannica, however, uses Great Alfold [1]. But I wouldn't mind its moving to the other name. Adam78 12:30, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I support the move too but i'm too lazy to do it. Great Alföld is wrong IMO, it's either Great Hungarian Plain or Nagyalföld. Don't use Hunglish in Wikipedia. :) – Alensha 寫 词 00:05, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Great Alfold is definitely not "wrong", similar names are quite common for geographical features (not only) in English. The world is not that simple. Juro 10:19, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

It's not possible at the moment because there is a disambiguation page at the name Great Hungarian Plain. Someone redirected it to Pannonian plain two years ago and I created a disambiguation page with a link to Great Alföld beside the existing link to Pannonian plain. It should be decided whether it's really common to refer to the Pannonian plain as "Great Hungarian Plain". If not, someone could request deleting the page, this page could be moved to its place and we could link to Pannonian plain in a short note at the beginning of the page ("If you are looking for ..., click ..."). Adam78 00:55, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it's really common, it seems that pages linking to reat Hungarian Plain all mean the Alföld, not the Carpathian basin. BTW we should do something about Little Alföld too. – Alensha 寫 词 14:31, 10 June 2006 (UTC)