Everything about The Old Hungarian Script totally explained
The
Old Hungarian script also known as
rovásírás ( or simply ) is a type of
writing system used by the
Magyars (mainly by
Székely Magyars) prior to AD 1000. The name comes from the Hungarian word for "carving," since the letters were usually carved on wood or sticks.
Although the alphabet technically isn't a true
runic alphabet, unrelated to the
Futhark, the letter shapes' similarities to runes have led to popularly used names such as "
Hungarian runes", "
Hungarian runic script" etc.
The script is thought to be derived from the
Old Turkic script, and probably first appeared between 600 to 700 AD. In 895, the Hungarians settled the region that's now
Hungary. In December 1000, the country had turned into a Kingdom, where the
Latin alphabet was adopted. However, the pagan runic script remained in use in remote regions of
Transylvania until the late
1850s.
Some claim that this writing system is more suitable for writing Hungarian than the Latin alphabet, because it includes letters for all the
phonemes of the
Hungarian language, such as
cs, gy, ly, ny, ö, sz, ty, ü, zs.. However the modern Hungarian alphabet is able to write these sounds with digraphs (letter sequences used to write a single sound) and diacritic letters.
Note that the alphabet doesn't contain the letters for the phonemes
dz, dzs of the modern
Hungarian — which are relative recent developments in the language's history. Neither do the Latin letters
q, w, x and
y have a mapping which stand for no separate phonemes in Hungarian but are used to spell foreign words only.
History
Early period, 600 – 896
Around 600 AD, the as yet illiterate Hungarian tribes moved southwest from their earlier territories to the coastal region of the Eastern
Black Sea. The Hungarian Runes are almost certainly related to the
Orkhon or Turkic Runic script. This is supported by the Hungarian tribes' early geography propinquity to the Göktürks. Moreover, thirteen of the Hungarian
rovás glyphs closely resemble characters of the Orkhon script. The additional characters were Hungarian developments rather than borrowings, but some signs seem to derive from Greek ones, such as 'eF'. The Hungarian Runic script isn't directly related to
Germanic Runes: the only tie between them is that both derive from the
Phoenician alphabet.
The origins of the Hungarian runes are also demonstrated by the genealogy of the
Hungarian words for 'letter' (betű), 'to write' (ír) and 'stamp' (bélyeg): all derive from a
Turkic language. The word
rovás, the name for this kind of writing, interestingly, derives from the verb ró (to carve) which is derived from old
Finno-Ugric.
Around 830, after living for 230 years in Khazaria, the Hungarians moved westwards, to
Etelköz (the land of present-day
Moldavia). Off here, they descried the
Pannonian Basin. In 896, because of external pressures, they left behind Etelköz and conquered the territory of present-day
Hungary.
Later Middle Ages, 896 – 1526
The century after 896 saw the emergence of the Hungarian State. The seven Hungarian tribes settled the
Pannonian Basin, where the Principality of Hungary was formed. There are archaeological findings from the 10th century, for example, from
Homokmégy The latter inscription was found on a fragment of a
quiver made of bone. Although there have been several attempts to interpret it, the meaning of it's still unclear. In 1000, with the coronation of
Stephen I of Hungary, Hungary became a
Kingdom. The
Latin alphabet was adopted as official, however rovasiras remained in use for a long time.
The runic script was first mentioned in the 13th century Chronicle of
Simon of Kéza, where he stated that the
Székelys borrowed the
Vlachs' script:
"... non tamen in plano Panonie, sed cum Blackis in montibus confinii sortem habuernut, unde Blakis commixti litteris ipsorum uti perhibentur". The earliest surviving copy of the actual alphabet is an
incunabulum from
1483, found at the library of the castle of Nikolsburg, now
Mikulov in
Moravia. This alphabet lists 35 letters and 15 ligatures with Latin transcriptions.
The period between 1526 – 1850
In 1526,
Hungary lost the
Battle of Mohács against the
Ottomans. This led to the partition of the Kingdom: the western and northern parts remained
Royal Hungary, the southern parts were occupied by the
Ottoman Empire, and the eastern portion became independent. The latter, notably the
Principality of Transylvania, favoured Hungarian culture.
The indigenous script wasn't widely used, as previously, but became part of
folk art in several areas. Thus, the corpus of Hungarian runes became more voluminous at the time. In 1598, János Telegdi wrote his primer, "Rudimenta Priscae Hunnorum Linguae", where he presents his understanding of the rovás. It also contains Hungarian texts written with runes, for example, the
Lord's Prayer. In
Royal Hungary, rovás was used less, although there are relics from this territory, too.
There is another copy – similar to the Nikolsburg Alphabet – of the rovás alphabet, dated 1609. The inscription from
Inlăceni, dated 1668, is a good example of the "folk art use".
In 1686, the
Kingdom of Hungary regained the territories lost in 1526. After that time several other runic inscriptions were created, for example the inscriptions of
Kibéd,
Csejd,
Makfalva,
Szokolma,
Marosvásárhely,
Csíkrákos,
Mezőkeresztes,
Nagybánya,
Torda, Felsőszemeréd
(External Link
),
Kecskemét and
Kiskunhalas, all ranging from the 17th to the early 19th century.
After 1850, with the spread of modern education, Hungarian runic writing was all but extinguished.
20th century: the era of research
Because their use had died out, researchers in the twentieth century had to reconstruct the alphabet from historic sources, with very limited reference to a living tradition.
Gyula Sebestyén,
Hungarian folklorist, did the lion's share of this work.
His publications,
Rovás és rovásírás (
Runes and Runic Writing,
Budapest, 1909) and
A magyar rovásírás hiteles emlékei (
Official Relics of Hungarian Runic Writing,
Budapest, 1915) contain valuable information on the topic.
In the latter part of the twentieth century, several new rovás and
rovás-like inscriptions were found all over Hungary. This includes the 10th century relic from
Homokmégy, which is surely Hungarian, and the 8th century inscribed
Avar needle-box from
Szarvas. Also, runic inscriptions appear on the
Nagyszentmiklós Treasure, which is a precious golden hoard of unknown origin. These created much confusion. However, nowadays, experts agree that the alphabets used on the
Nagyszentmiklós Treasure and on the Szarvas needle-box are the same, while the Hungarian one is of another ancestry.
Today
Though the rovás script is no longer in practical use, Hungarians treasure it — especially the Hungarians of Transylvania. The worldwide Hungarian Scout organisations are still teaching it today.
The script doesn't have its own code page, and it isn't coded in Unicode either.However, there are some fonts which contain Hungarian Runic characters. After installing one of them and applying their formatting to the document – because of the lack of capital letters – rovás characters could be entered in the following way: those letters which are unique letters in today's Hungarian orthography are virtually lowercase ones, and can be written by simply pressing the specific key; and since the modern digraphs equal to separate rovás letters, they were encoded as 'uppercase' letters, for example in the space originally restricted for capitals. Thus, typing a lowercase
g will produce the rovas character for the sound marked with Latin script
g, but entering an uppercase
G will amount to a rovás sign equivalent to a digraph
gy in Latin-based Hungarian orthography.
Just like the German
runes, the Hungarian rovás writing appeared in Hungarian neopaganism as well. The runes sometimes also have a political undertone, as they're used by far-right groups in their propaganda or graffiti across Hungary.
Characters
The runic alphabet includes 42 letters. Some consonants have two forms, for example, a
S and e
S. The 'a' form should be written after vowels a, á, o, ó, u, ú, while the 'e' form after e, ë, é, i, í, ö, ő, ü, ű.
To gather information about the transliteration's pronunciation, see
Hungarian alphabet.
The Hungarian runes also include some non-alphabetical runes which are not ligatures but separate signs. These are called . Further research is needed to define their origin and traditional usage. Some examples:
Features
Old Hungarian letters were usually written from right to left on sticks. Later, in Transylvania, they appeared on several media. Writings on walls also were right to left and not
boustrophedon style (alternating direction right to left and then left to right).
The numbers are almost the same as the Roman, Etruscan, and
Chuvash numerals. Numbers of livestock were carved on tally sticks and the sticks were then cut in two lengthwise to avoid later disputes.
- Ligatures are common. (Note: the Hungarian runic script employed a number of ligatures. In some cases, an entire word was written with a single sign.)
- There are no lower or upper case letters, but the first letter of a proper name was often written a bit larger.
- The didn't always mark vowels. The rules for vowel inclusion were as follows:
- If there are two vowels side by side, both have to be written, unless the second could be readily determined.
- The vowels have to be written if their omission created ambiguity. (Example: – can be interpreted as – [wheel] and – [rounded], thus the writer had to include the vowels to differentiate the intended words.)
- The vowel at the end of the word must be written.
- Sometimes, especially when writing double consonants, a consonant was omitted.
Text example
Text from Csikszentmárton, 1501.
Runes originally written as ligatures are underlined.
Interpretation in old Hungarian: "ÚRNaK SZÜLeTéSéTÜL FOGVÁN ÍRNaK eZeRÖTSZÁZeGY eSZTeNDŐBE MÁTYáS
JÁNOS eSTYTáN KOVÁCS CSINÁLTáK MÁTYáSMeSTeR GeRGeLYMeSTeRCSINÁLTÁK
G IJ A aS I LY LY LT A" (The letters actually written in the runic text are written with uppercase in the transcription.)
Interpretation in modern Hungarian: "(Ezt) az Úr születése utáni 1501. évben írták. Mátyás, János, István kovácsok csinálták. Mátyás mester (és) Gergely mester csinálták [uninterpretable]"
English translation: "(This) was written in the 1501st year of our Lord. The smiths Matthias, John (and) Stephen did (this). Master Matthias (and) Master Gergely did [uninterpretable]"
Archeological findings
Rune relics exist all over the territory of the
Kingdom of Hungary, from
Transdanubia to
Transylvania. Only some of these:
A labeled crest etched into stone from Pécs, late 13th century (Label: aBA SZeNTjeI vaGYUNK aKI eSZTeR ANna erZSéBeT; We are the saints [nuns] of Aba; who are Esther, Anna and Elizabeth.) (photo)
Runic stick calendar, around 1300, copied by Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli in 1690. It contains several feasts and names, thus it's one of the most extensive runic records.
Nicholsburg alphabet
Runic record in Istanbul, 1515.
Dârjiu: a brick with runic inscription, found in the Unitarian church
Énlaka: runic inscription, discovered by Balázs Orbán in 1864. (photo)
Székelydálya: runic inscription, found in the Calvinist church
The inscription from Felsőszemeréd (Horné Semerovce), Slovakia (1400s)
A letter by missionary János Zakariás from Peru, Pauline runes
Gallery
Image:Nikolsburg abc.gif|The alphabet of Mikulov, 1483
Image:Homorodkaracsonyfalva_rovas.gif|Rovás inscription from Homoródkarácsonyfalva, 1200s
Image:Enlaka rovas inscription.jpg|Inscription in Énlaka's Unitarian church (1668)
Further Information
Get more info on 'Old Hungarian Script'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://old_hungarian_script.totallyexplained.com">Old Hungarian script Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
