É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.

ORMOS, István: Goldziher's Mother Tongue: A Contribution to the Study of the Language Situation in Hungary in the Nineteenth Century

ISTVÁN ORMOS it is based on assumption, too - yet it does at least prove that in Fleischer's classes in Leipzig, which were held in German, it was not evident that Goldziher's mother tongue could be German and that it was not Hungarian. At the same time the fact that someone who spent a lot of time with Goldziher and communicated with him in German both in conversation and correspondence all his life thought that Goldziher's mother tongue was not German but Hungarian ultimately suggests that Nöldeke's statement may also be based on supposition. One of Goldziher's pupils, Bernát [Bernard] Heller, reports that Goldziher regarded all except Hungarian as foreign languages.

1 7 Goldziher's references to Jüdisch-Deutsch and Jargon In his Tagebuch Goldziher makes a number of mentions of the Jargon referred to above. None of these occurrences proves beyond doubt that he himself used it, yet they strongly suggest that this was in fact the case. After a six-week absence from Hungary in 1894, a meeting in Basel, Switzerland, with Max Nordau, his former class-mate, afforded him an opportunity to hear Jargon once again. At first sight the passage in question seems to imply that the two men conversed in Jargon. Yet the wording is ambiguous and the meaning not clear. Goldziher says that he met Max Nordau soon after the latter's arrival in the same hotel, they spent a few very stimulating evening hours chatting and the next day he heard himself addressed in clear and distinct Jargon once again, after a privation of six weeks: "Gestern Abends bin ich in Basel angekommen und ein glücklicher Zufall fügte es, dass einige Stunden nach meiner Ankunft Max Nordau mit seiner Mutter aus dem schweizerischen Badeort Baden kommend, im selben Hotel abstieg. Wir verbrachten einige sehr anregende Abendstunden mit einander. Tags daraufhörte ich mich nach sechswöchentlicher Entbehrung wieder einmal in klarem deutlichem Jargon anreden." [I arrived in Basel last night and by a happy coincidence Max Nordau and his mother, coming from the Swiss spa of Baden, put up at the same hotel a few hours after my arrival. We spent a few very stimulating evening hours together. Next day, after a privation of six weeks, I heard myself addressed in clear and distinct Jargon once again.]

1'

3 Who addressed him in clear and distinct Jargon? Nordau? But then in what language did they converse the night before? In Hungarian? Or German? Or Jargon - but Goldziher states explicitly that it was next day that he was first addressed in Jargon once again after a privation of six weeks. Or was it a joke of Nordau's, addressing him in Jargon in the morning after having conversed with him in a 13

7 Dr. Bernát Heller, 'Goldziher Ignác', Magyar-Zsidó Szende 44 (1927), 273. 13

8 Goldziher. Tagebuch..., 184. 232