Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1984 (12. évfolyam, 39-42. szám)
1984 / 39-40. szám
/ VII AMGRICÄN HUNGARIAN FOUNDATION HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER BOOKS Fodor, István and Claude Hagege, eds., LANGUAGE REFORM: HISTORY AND FUTURE (3 vols.) Preface by Joshua A. Fishman. Helmut Buske Verlag, Schluterstrasse 14, D-200 Hamburg 13, West Germany, 1983-4. Vol. I. xxi+644 pages; vol. II. xi+521 pages; vol. III. approx. 600 pages, tables, biblio., illus. Approx. $100 pr volume. Vol. I and II are available, vol. Ill will appear in Summer 1984. Volume one of this truly impressive anthology opens with a Hungarian idiom: Nyelvében él a nemzet (a nation lives through its language), and contains articles in English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish. It concerns 70 languages representing a quarter of the literary languages spoken in the world. The anthology focuses on the vocabulary formation process, spontaneous or directed. It analyzes EDITOR'S CORNER A number of persons whose name has appeared frequently on the pages of the HSN have changed jobs recently. We only hope that they will continue to maintain some form of contact with the field of Hungarian studies. Our journal editor, Susan M. Nagy, found the pasture greener in Hawaii than in New Jersey and the future brighter in business than in academe. We extend our heartfelt appreciation for the assistance she gave us during the past two years. We welcome recommendations as to a qualified successor. We also regret the departure of Kara Ettesvold, program officer of the Section on USSR and East Europe at the National Academy of Sciences, and we extend a warm welcome to hersuccessor Dr. Michaele lovine, whoisnewto the field of Hungarian studies but well versed in Bulgarian, Romanian and Yugoslav literary efforts. She is also editor of the American Association of Southeast European Studies newsletter. Last but not least, we are sorry to see Edsel Walter Stroup end his four-year term as secretary-treasurer of the AASHH and as producer of its professionally edited newsletter. We wish him Godspeed. No successor has been named, yet. Recently we heard that some college libraries have bound series of HSN issues into one or two volumes. Adding our index to such bound volumes could greatly simplify the use of the HSN in research. An index for the first 30 issues is available from the publisher. See announcement on page 16 of this issue. Persons who contributed to the morale of the editor and to the content of this issue were Thomas Cute Adams, Thomas Szendrey, Edmund Gaspar and William Sólyom-Fekete. Many thanks to all of you. The Editor the various processes of language reforms, which took place in the past and are going on now. Periferal to the principal theme are essays reflecting on social and political developments and national issues. In the language-specific articles emphasis is on lexical, semantic, and morphological problems of lexemes. Phonetic questions have been only marginally dealt with, hence, the reader will find scant references to pronunciation. Each article is complemented by a bibliographical list of its special topic, while theoretical works and those cited by more than one author can be found in the general bibliography (in the forthcoming Volume III.) The anthology contains several articles concerned with Finno-Ugric languages. Those in English include Fodor’s Hungarian: Evolution, Stagnation, Reform, Further Development (in Vol. Ill), and another essay on Language Reforms of the Past and in the Developing Countries (in Vol. III). Lajos Bese, contri buted a study on The Modernization of the Mongolian Vocabulary (in Vol. I); Valter Tauli on the Estonian Language Reform (in Vol. III). Finnish, Samojed, and Esperanto-related articles by Hungarian authors in languages other than English are original contributions to the field. The anthology is the result of Fodor’s untiring effort, and no linguistwith interest in language development should overlook this study. He is a research associate at the Inst, für Afrikanistik at Cologne. His Introduction to the History of Umbundu: László Magyar’s Record and the Later Sources (Budapest: Akadémiai, 1983) is a significant addition to African linguistic literature. András, Emerich and Julius Morel. HUNGRARIAN CATHOLICISM; A Handbook. Hungarian Institute for Sociology of Religion (HIS) and St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish. Distributed by Corda Books, St. Elizabeth Village, 393 Rymal Road West. Hamilton, ONT L9B 1V2, Canada, 1983. 191 pages, maps, tables, $13.00 (Canadian $16.00) paper. Preface by Aloysius M. Ambrozic. Earlier, we have reported on a book (Church in Transition: Hungary’s Catholic Church from 1945 to 1982) by the same two authors in HSN no. 38. The present book is quite different in character: it is as the subtitle indicates, a handbook of data on the Roman Catholic Church of Hungary. It covers briefly the history of the church and of each diocese, biographies of bishops, areas of jurisdiction, statistics, and like data. It also describes such aspects of church life as religious practices, instruction, publishing, church associations and organizations such as Catholic Action, church finances (especially state support) and a liberal presentation of laws affecting the church, such as nationalization of church property, religious education, agreements between church and state. András is the director of the HIS; and Morel is affiliated with the same institute. (Continued on Page 2) HO. 39-40, SPRING-SUMMER 1984 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
