Old Hungarian đČ„đłđłđłđł-đČđłđłđłđłą đČąđłđłźđłđł€ SzĂ©kely-magyar rovĂĄs | |
---|---|
Script type | |
Time period | Attested from 10th century. Marginal use into the 17th century, revived in the 20th. |
Direction | Right-to-left script |
Languages | Hungarian |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems |
Egyptian hieroglyphs
|
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Hung (176), Old Hungarian (Hungarian Runic) |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Old Hungarian |
U+10C80âU+10CFF | |
The Old Hungarian script or Hungarian runes ( Hungarian: SzĂ©kely-magyar rovĂĄs, 'szĂ©kely-magyar runiform', or rovĂĄsĂrĂĄs) is an alphabetic writing system used for writing the Hungarian language. Modern Hungarian is written using the Latin-based Hungarian alphabet. The term "old" refers to the historical priority of the script compared with the Latin-based one. [1] The Old Hungarian script is a child system of the Old Turkic alphabet.
The Hungarians settled the Carpathian Basin in 895. After the establishment of the Christian Hungarian kingdom, the old writing system was partly forced out of use during the rule of King Stephen, and the Latin alphabet was adopted. However, among some professions (e.g. shepherds who used a "rovĂĄs-stick" to officially track the number of animals) and in Transylvania, the script has remained in use by the SzĂ©kely Magyars, giving its Hungarian name (szĂ©kely) rovĂĄsĂrĂĄs. The writing could also be found in churches, such as that in the commune of Atid.
Its English name in the ISO 15924 standard is Old Hungarian (Hungarian Runic). [2] [3]
In modern Hungarian, the script is known formally as SzĂ©kely rovĂĄsĂrĂĄs ('Szekler script'). [4] The writing system is generally known as rovĂĄsĂrĂĄs, szĂ©kely rovĂĄsĂrĂĄs, [4] and szĂ©kely-magyar ĂrĂĄs (or simply rovĂĄs 'notch, score'). [5]
Scientists cannot give an exact date or origin for the script.
Linguist AndrĂĄs RĂłna-Tas derives Old Hungarian from the Old Turkic script, [6] itself recorded in inscriptions dating from c. AD 720. The origins of the Turkic scripts are uncertain. The scripts may be derived from the Pahlavi and Sogdian alphabets, or possibly from Kharosthi, all of which are in turn derived from the Aramaic script. [7] Alternatively, according to some opinions, ancient Turkic runes descend from primaeval Turkic graphic logograms. [8]
Speakers of Proto-Hungarian would have come into contact with Turkic peoples during the 7th or 8th century, in the context of the Turkic expansion, as is also evidenced by numerous Turkic loanwords in Proto-Hungarian.
All the letters but one for sounds which were shared by Turkic and Ancient Hungarian can be related to their Old Turkic counterparts. Most of the missing characters were derived by script internal extensions, rather than borrowings, but a small number of characters seem to derive from Greek, such as 'eF'. [9]
The modern Hungarian term for this script (coined in the 19th century), rovĂĄs, derives from the verb rĂłni ('to score') which is derived from old Uralic, general Hungarian terminology describing the technique of writing (Ărni 'to write', betƱ 'letter', bicska 'knife, also: for carving letters') derive from Turkic, [10] which further supports transmission via Turkic alphabets.
Epigraphic evidence for the use of the Old Hungarian script in medieval Hungary dates to the 10th century, for example, from Homokmégy. [11] 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 is still unclear.
In 1000, with the coronation of Stephen I of Hungary, Hungary (previously an alliance of mostly nomadic tribes) became a kingdom. The Latin alphabet was adopted as official script; however, Old Hungarian continued to be used in the vernacular.
The runic script was first mentioned in the 13th century Chronicle of Simon of Kéza, [12] where he stated that the Székelys may use the script of the Blaks. [13] [14] [15] Johannes Thuróczy wrote in the Chronica Hungarorum that the Székelys did not forget the Scythian letters and these are engraved on sticks by carving. [16]
There were still three thousand Huns who fled the battle of Crimhild, who fearing from the western nations, they remained on the cliff field until the time of ĂrpĂĄd, and they did not call themselves Huns, but Szekelys. These Szekelys were the remains of the Huns, who when they learned that the Hungarians had returned to Pannonia for the second time, went to the returnees on the border of Ruthenia and conquered Pannonia together, but not on the Pannonian plane, they were granted estates in the mountainous borderlands together with the Blackis, where mingling with the Blackis it is said they used their letters.
It is said that in addition to the Huns who escorted Csaba, from the same nation, three thousand more people retreating, cut themselves out of the said battle, remained in Pannonia, and first established themself in a camp called Csigla's Field. They were afraid of the Western nations which they harassed in Attila's life, and they marched to Transylvania, the frontier of the Pannonian landscape, and they did not call themselves Huns or Hungarians, but Siculus, in their own word Székelys, so that they would not know that they are the remnants of the Huns or Hungarians. In our time, no one doubts, that the Székelys are the remnants of the Huns who first came to Pannonia, and because their people do not seem to have been mixed with foreign blood since then, they are also more strict in their morals, they also differ from other Hungarians in the division of lands. They have not yet forgotten the Scythian letters, and these are not inked on paper, but engraved on sticks skillfully, in the way of the carving. They later grew into not insignificant people, and when the Hungarians came to Pannonia again from Scythia, they went to Ruthenia in front of them with great joy, as soon as the news of their coming came to them. When the Hungarians took possession of Pannonia again, at the division of the country, with the consent of the Hungarians, these Székelys were given the part of the country that they had already chosen as their place of residence.
The Old Hungarian script became part of folk art in several areas during this period.[ citation needed] In Royal Hungary, Old Hungarian script was used less, although there are relics from this territory, too. There is another copy â similar to the Nikolsburg Alphabet â of the Old Hungarian alphabet, dated 1609. The inscription from Ănlaka, dated 1668, is an example of the "folk art use".
There are a number of inscriptions ranging from the 17th to the early 19th centuries, [18] including examples from KibĂ©d, Csejd, Makfalva, Szolokma, MarosvĂĄsĂĄrhely, CsĂkrĂĄkos, MezĆkeresztes, NagybĂĄnya, Torda, FelsĆszemerĂ©d, [19] KecskemĂ©t and Kiskunhalas.
Hungarian script [20] was first described in late Humanist/ Baroque scholarship by JĂĄnos Telegdy in his primer Rudimenta Priscae Hunnorum Linguae. Published in 1598, Telegdi's primer presents his understanding of the script and contains Hungarian texts written with runes, such as the Lord's Prayer.
In the 19th century, scholars began to research the rules and the other features of the Old Hungarian script. From this time, the name rovĂĄsĂrĂĄs ('runic writing') began to re-enter the popular consciousness in Hungary, and script historians in other countries began to use the terms "Old Hungarian", Altungarisch, and so on. Because the Old Hungarian script had been replaced by Latin, linguistic researchers in the 20th century had to reconstruct the alphabet from historic sources. Gyula SebestyĂ©n, an ethnographer and folklorist, and Gyula (Julius) NĂ©meth, a philologist, linguist, and Turkologist, did the lion's share of this work. SebestyĂ©n's publications, RovĂĄs Ă©s rovĂĄsĂrĂĄs (Runes and runic writing, Budapest, 1909) and A magyar rovĂĄsĂrĂĄs hiteles emlĂ©kei (The authentic relics of Hungarian runic writing, Budapest, 1915) contain valuable information on the topic.
Beginning with AdorjĂĄn Magyar in 1915, the script has been promulgated as a means for writing modern Hungarian. These groups approached the question of representation of the vowels of modern Hungarian in different ways. AdorjĂĄn Magyar made use of characters to distinguish a/ĂĄ and e/Ă© but did not distinguish the other vowels by length. A school led by SĂĄndor Forrai from 1974 onward did, however, distinguish i/Ă, o/Ăł, ö/Ć, u/Ăș, and ĂŒ/Ʊ. The revival has become part of a significant ideological nationalist subculture present not only in Hungary (largely centered in Budapest), but also amongst the Hungarian diaspora, particularly in the United States and Canada. [21]
Old Hungarian has seen other usages in the modern period, sometimes in association with or referencing Hungarian neopaganism,[ citation needed] similar to the way in which Norse neopagans have taken up the Germanic runes, and Celtic neopagans have taken up the ogham script for various purposes.
Not all scholars agree with the "Old Hungarian" notion, mainly based on the actual literary facts. The linguist and sociolinguist Klåra Såndor told in an interview that most of the "romantic" statements about the script appear to be false. According to her analysis, the origin of the writing is probably runiform (and with high probability its origins are in the western Turkic runiform writings) and it's not a different writing system and contrary to the sentiment the writing is neither Hungarian nor Székely-Hungarian; it is a Székely writing since there are no authentic findings outside the historic Székely lands (mainly today's Transylvania); the only writing found around 1000 AD had a different writing system. While it may have been sporadically used in Hungary its usage was not widespread. The "revived" writing (in the 1990s) was artificially expanded with (various) "new" letters which were unneeded in the past since the writing was cleanly phonetic, or the long vowels which were not present back in the time. The shape of many letters were substantially changed from the original. She stated that no works since 1915 have reached the expected quality of the state of the linguistic sciences, and many were influenced by various agendas. [22] [23]
The use of the script often has a political undertone as it is often used along with irredentist or nationalist propaganda, and they can be found from time to time in graffiti with a variety of content. [21] Since most of the people cannot read the script it has led to various controversies, for example when the activists of the Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party (opposition) exchanged the rovas sign of the city Ărd to szia 'Hi!', which stayed unnoticed for a month. [24]
The inscription corpus includes:
The runic alphabet included 42 letters. As in the Old Turkic script, some consonants had two forms, one to be used with back vowels (a, ĂĄ, o, Ăł, u, Ăș) and another for front vowels (e, Ă©, i, Ă, ö, Ć, ĂŒ, Ʊ). The names of the consonants are always pronounced with a vowel. In the old alphabet, the consonant-vowel order is reversed, unlike today's pronunciation (ep rather than pĂ©). This is because the oldest inscriptions lacked vowels and were rarely written down, similar to other ancient languages' consonant-writing systems (Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, etc.). The alphabet did not contain letters for the phonemes dz and dzs of modern Hungarian, since these are relatively recent developments in the language's history. Nor did it have letters corresponding to the Latin q, w, x and y. The modern revitalization movement has created symbols for these; in Unicode encoding, they are represented as ligatures.
For more information about the transliteration's pronunciation, see Hungarian alphabet.
Letter | Name | Phoneme ( IPA) | Old Hungarian (image) | Old Hungarian (Unicode) |
---|---|---|---|---|
A | a | /É/ | đČ đł | |
Ă | ĂĄ | /aË/ | đČ đł | |
B | eb | /b/ | đČ đł | |
C | ec | /ts/ | đČ đł | |
Cs | ecs | /tÊ/ | đČ đł | |
D | ed | /d/ | đČ đł | |
(Dz) | dzĂ© | /dz/ | Ligature of đČ and đČŻ | |
(Dzs) | dzsĂ© | /dÊ/ | Ligature of đČ and đČ° | |
E | e | /É/ | đČ đł | |
Ă | Ă© | /eË/ | đČ đł | |
F | ef | /f/ | đČ đł | |
G | eg | /ÉĄ/ | đČ đł | |
Gy | egy | /É/ | đČ đł | |
H | eh | /h/ | đČ đł | |
I | i | /i/ | đČ đł | |
Ă | Ă | /iË/ | đČ đł | |
J | ej | /j/ | đČ đł | |
K | ek | /k/ | đČ đł | |
K | ak | /k/ | đČ đł | |
L | el | /l/ | đČ đł | |
Ly | elly, el-ipszilon | /j/ | đČ đł | |
M | em | /m/ | đČ đł | |
N | en | /n/ | đČ đł | |
Ny | eny | /ÉČ/ | đČ đł | |
O | o | /o/ | đČ đł | |
Ă | Ăł | /oË/ | đČ đł | |
Ă | ö | /Ăž/ | đČ đł đČ đł | |
Ć | Ć | /ĂžË/ | đČ đł | |
P | ep | /p/ | đČ đł | |
( Q) | eq | (/kv/) | Ligature of đČ and đČź | |
R | er | /r/ | đČą đłą | |
S | es | /Ê/ | đČ€ 𳀠| |
Sz | esz | /s/ | đČ„ đł„ | |
T | et | /t/ | đČŠ 𳊠| |
Ty | ety | /c/ | đČš đłš | |
U | u | /u/ | đČȘ đłȘ | |
Ă | Ăș | /uË/ | đČ« đł« | |
Ă | ĂŒ | /y/ | đČŹ 𳏠| |
Ć° | Ʊ | /yË/ | đČ đł | |
V | ev | /v/ | đČź đłź | |
( W) | dupla vĂ© | /v/ | Ligature of đČź and đČź | |
( X) | iksz | (/ks/) | Ligature of đČ and đČ„ | |
( Y) | ipszilon | /i/ ~ /j/ | Ligature of đČ and đČ | |
Z | ez | /z/ | đČŻ 𳯠| |
Zs | ezs | /Ê/ | đČ° đł° |
The Old Hungarian runes also include some non-alphabetical runes which are not ligatures but separate signs. These are identified in some sources as "capita dictionum" (likely a misspelling of capita dicarum [29]). Further research is needed to define their origin and traditional usage. Some common examples are:
Old Hungarian letters were usually written from right to left on sticks.[ citation needed] Later, in Transylvania, they appeared on several media. Writings on walls also were right to left[ citation needed] 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.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 50 | 100 | 500 | 1000 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
đłș | đłșđłș | đłșđłșđłș | đłșđłșđłșđłș | đł» | đł»đłș | đł»đłșđłș | đł»đłșđłșđłș | đł»đłșđłșđłșđłș | đłŒ | đłœ | đłŸ | ÌČđłœ | đłż |
Text from CsĂkszentmĂĄrton, 1501. Runes originally written as ligatures are underlined.
Unicode transcription: đČȘđČąđČđČâđČ„đČŹđČđČŠđČ€đČŠđČŹđČâđČđČđČđČźđČđČâđČđČąđČđČâđČŻđČąđČđČŠ âđČ„đČđČŻđČâđČ„đČŠđČđČđČđČđČâđČđČđČšđČ€âđČđČđČđČđČ€âđČ€đČšđČŠđČâđČđČđČźđČđČâđČđČđČđČđČđČŠđČâđČđČđČšđČđČ€đČđČ€đČŠđČąâđČđČąđČđČđČđČ€đČŠđČąđČđČđČđČđČđČŠđČđČ đČ·đČđČ·đČ·đȀ·đČ·đČ·đČ·đČđȊ·đČ·
Interpretation in old Hungarian: "ĂRNaK SZĂLeTĂ©SĂ©TĂL FOGVĂN ĂRNaK eZeRĂTSZĂZeGY eSZTeNDĆBE MĂTYĂĄS JĂNOS eSTYTĂĄN KOVĂCS CSINĂLTĂĄK MĂTYĂĄSMeSTeR GeRGeLYMeSTeRCSINĂLTĂK 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 Ăr szĂŒletĂ©se utĂĄni 1501. Ă©vben ĂrtĂĄk. MĂĄtyĂĄs, JĂĄnos, IstvĂĄn kovĂĄcsok csinĂĄltĂĄk. MĂĄtyĂĄs mester (Ă©s) Gergely mester csinĂĄltĂĄk gijas ily ly lta"
English translation: "(This) was written in the 1501st year of our Lord. The smiths Matthias, John (and) Stephen did (this). Master Matthias (and) Master Gregory did (uninterpretable)
After many proposals [31] Old Hungarian was added to the Unicode Standard in June, 2015 with the release of version 8.0.
The Unicode block for Old Hungarian is U+10C80âU+10CFF:
Old Hungarian
[1]
[2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
U+10C8x | 𐲀 | 𐲁 | 𐲂 | 𐲃 | 𐲄 | 𐲅 | 𐲆 | 𐲇 | 𐲈 | 𐲉 | 𐲊 | 𐲋 | 𐲌 | 𐲍 | 𐲎 | 𐲏 |
U+10C9x | 𐲐 | 𐲑 | 𐲒 | 𐲓 | 𐲔 | 𐲕 | 𐲖 | 𐲗 | 𐲘 | 𐲙 | 𐲚 | 𐲛 | 𐲜 | 𐲝 | 𐲞 | 𐲟 |
U+10CAx | 𐲠 | 𐲡 | 𐲢 | 𐲣 | 𐲤 | 𐲥 | 𐲦 | 𐲧 | 𐲨 | 𐲩 | 𐲪 | 𐲫 | 𐲬 | 𐲭 | 𐲮 | 𐲯 |
U+10CBx | 𐲰 | 𐲱 | 𐲲 | |||||||||||||
U+10CCx | 𐳀 | 𐳁 | 𐳂 | 𐳃 | 𐳄 | 𐳅 | 𐳆 | 𐳇 | 𐳈 | 𐳉 | 𐳊 | 𐳋 | 𐳌 | 𐳍 | 𐳎 | 𐳏 |
U+10CDx | 𐳐 | 𐳑 | 𐳒 | 𐳓 | 𐳔 | 𐳕 | 𐳖 | 𐳗 | 𐳘 | 𐳙 | 𐳚 | 𐳛 | 𐳜 | 𐳝 | 𐳞 | 𐳟 |
U+10CEx | 𐳠 | 𐳡 | 𐳢 | 𐳣 | 𐳤 | 𐳥 | 𐳦 | 𐳧 | 𐳨 | 𐳩 | 𐳪 | 𐳫 | 𐳬 | 𐳭 | 𐳮 | 𐳯 |
U+10CFx | 𐳰 | 𐳱 | 𐳲 | 𐳺 | 𐳻 | 𐳼 | 𐳽 | 𐳾 | 𐳿 | |||||||
Notes |
A set of closely related 8-bit code pages exist, devised in the 1990s by Gabor HosszĂș. These were mapped to Latin-1 or Latin-2 character set fonts. After installing one of them and applying their formatting to the document â because of the lack of capital letters â runic 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 rovĂĄs letters, they were encoded as 'uppercase' letters, i.e. in the space originally restricted for capitals. Thus, typing a lowercase g will produce the rovĂĄs character for the sound marked with Latin script g, but entering an uppercase G will amount to a rovĂĄs sign equivalent to a digraph gy in Latin-based Hungarian orthography.
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