Magyar News, 1999. szeptember-2000. augusztus (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2000-03-01 / 7. szám
The Story of Hungarian A Guide to the Language J Are you aware that there is a language that because of its constructive ability and the harmony of its rhythm I have placed on the same level as Greek and Latin? It is the Hungarian language! I know the poems of the new Hungarian poets and their music has completely enchanted me. Keep your eye on future developments and you will witness such an upsurge in poetic genius, which will totally justify my prediction. It seems the Hungarians themselves are ignorant of the treasure concealed within their language.” A quote from Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti (1774-1849) in ‘Watts Transactions of the Phylological Society, 1855." The Hungarians and Hungary (Pannónia) The Hungarians call themselves Magyars and their land Magyarország, but in most other languages they are styled differently. The international designation of the country is “H” and this is what appears on the license plates of the cars and in the letter code for mail from outside Hungary. “H” is also the mark of Hungarian money: “HUF” (Hungarian Forint). The “H” designation for Hungary was derived from the medieval Latin hungarus. From 700 A.D. on, the word hungarus appears about 60 times in Carolingian charters. Magyar-ország is called Hungary in English, Vengrija in Russian, Wegry in Polish, Ungarn in German, Hongrie in French, Ungheria in Italian, and only in the neighboring Slovakian Madarsko is there any similarity to the original. From whence do these foreign designaby Dr. Géza Balázs tions come which use the syllables as veng-, hung-, ung-, etc. as the introductory sound to the name? The original source of these names is the Turkish name for the nation: onogur, which means on (ten) ogur (arrows), an ancient tribal designation. The Onogurs are first mentioned in the 5th century. There were several tribes called ogur living between the Dnyeper and the Volga during the 5th-9th centuries. The ancestors of the Hungarians lived with these tribes and were therefore also called Onogurs. The Ugor designation is thus derived from the Turkic national name Onogur, and it is from here that the Slavic names for the Hungarians are derived (e.g. the Czech Uhersky, Polish Wegierski and Russian Ugirskij). Starting probably with the 7th century and under the influence of Latin, the terms Ungarns - Hungarus spread to the West. The initial “H” in the western European names for the Magyars, such as the English Hungarian and the French Hongrois comes from identifying the Hungarians with the Huns. Thus the Hungarian-Hun associations appear as early as the 7th century. The Huns, who were a nomadic equestrian people probably speaking some Turkic language and originating from Central-Asia appeared in the Carpathian Basin for the first time in the 5th century and were the first ones to establish a strong empire in this region. They withdrew toward the East after 455 A.D. The Hunor and Magor legend appearing in medieval Hungarian chronicles hints strongly at the common origin of the Huns and the Hungarians. Nations usually referred to themselves simply as “people”. Magyar is a composite word of which the first part may have sounded like mogy - and referred to a national designation from the Ugor period and eri, meaning “man, male”. The first time the composite word mogyeri appears is in 810. This word appeared in several forms in several sources. We have magyar and megyer. The phonetically higher sounding (“thinner” front vowel - e) megyer variation might have referred to something smaller and may have been the name of one of the conquering Hungarian tribes. To this date we have place-names giving clear indication of the areas settled by the Megyer tribe, such as north of Budapest: Békásmegyer; Káposztásmegyer and also Megyer; Bábonymegyer; Nagymegyer; Nográdmegyer; Pócsmegyer, etc. The deeper sounding ("fatter" back vowel - a) word Magyar became the internal national name of the Hungarians, being the second tonal modification of the name of the largest and most dominant tribe. About half of present-day Hungary: Transdanubia (= Dunántúl), with Croatia and Slovenia formed the Roman province called Pannónia. The border (limes) ran along the banks of the Danube. The original Illyrian meaning of the word “pannon”- was swamp or mud and the province probably derived its name from the area surrounding Lake Balaton. Hungarian historians are very much aware of the Pannonian- Hungarian traditions and the medieval humanists, under Latin (Italian) influence, started calling Hungary Pannónia again. The names of certain Reconstruction of the way Hungarians dressed at the time of the Conquest of the Carpathian Basin, by Gyula László Page 6
