The Eighth Tribe, 1977 (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1977-01-01 / 1. szám
1 January, 1977 THE EIGHTH TRIBE Page 7 Turkic people, who conquered the Balkans in the seventh century of our era. Although Slavicized linguistically, ethnically they remained at least partially Turkic. On the other hand, there are examples of peoples, who, — although partially or largely transformed from an ethnic point of view — have retained their original language. A good example of this is the case of the Hungarians themselves. Since their conquest of the Carpathian Basin in the late ninth century, they have mixed with Germans, Slavs, and many other nationalities. Thus, the average Hungarian of today is certainly different in appearance from the average Hungarian of the ninth century A.D. Yet, except for their incorporation of various words of Germanic, Slavic, Latin, etc. origin, their language of today is basically identical with that of their conquering forefathers. And now we have finally reached the basic question posed at the beginning of this chapter: Who are the Hungarians or the Magyars, as they generally call themselves? This question must be answered and followed by another question: Ethnically or linguistically? As it is already evident from what has been said above, ethnically the Hungarians of today constitute a healthy mixture of the original conquering Magyars of both the UGRIC and the TURKIC stock, and such other surrounding Indo-European peoples as the Germans, Slavs, and various Latin nations. To these must be added such other partially related Turkic peoples as the Pechenegs (Patzinaks = Bessenyő), Cumans (Kún), and even the Ottoman Turks, who merged into the Magyars following their conquest of the Carpathian Basin. This constant intermarriage and ethnic mixing of the Magyars was a natural byproduct of their exposed position in the Middle Danubian lands, an area that has been a kind of crossroad of the nations of Europe both before and after their conquest of the area in the late ninth century A.D. But while the modern Hungarians or Magyars are a mixed people, and therefore to a large degree ethnically related to the people who surround them, linguistically they are totally different. Their language is not related to most of the languages of today’s Europe. Traditional and well-established linguistic scholarship holds that the Magyar language belongs primarily to the Ugor branch of the FINNO-UGRIC sub-family of the URALIC family of languages. It is also possible, but not certain, that the URALIC linguistic family is part of an even larger URAL-ALTAIC family of languages, whose other main branches may include the Turkic, the Mongol and the Manchu type 5 art originally was white-on-white, but by now has come to include colorful pastels. Wall-painting of floral motifs is unique according to the originality of the creative women of this region and apparently is the only known area of Europe where this sort of artistry is done. Transylvania ■—• Erdély — Hungarians and Székely-people of this segment are presently part of Romania, but some of the oldest and most precious kinds of folk art (of a quiet beauty all its own type) come from this region. Also deserving mention were: (1) Wooden carvings, one with centered mirror, having a short inscription of what was explained as part of the ancient language of the original Hungarians from the vicinity of the Ural Mountain area, such example being known as rovásírás (runic writing) read from right-to-left copied as follows (but whose meaning was unavailable) : (2) Accordian-pleating of outer- and under-skirts of women and girls—done with pleat retention lasting for the life of the garment; some had great stiffness, and some fabrics were done with precision pleating of polka-dotted design, becoming modified so as to appear folded as alternating stripes such as with a dash-dot motif when the pleats swung open. The process for permanent pleating of cloth was described as being patiently done by Hungarian women and girls as follows: first, they would carefully pin the fabric in tiny pleats, then placing it over the hearth-baked, steaming-hot bread, and leaving it for a period of time, thus allowing the pleating to steam through and thoroughly dry, so that the final outcome was fully permanized. As a result, one thus can come to logically conclude that it was actually the women bakers and women seamstresses of Hungary who were the true original inventors of what is considered in contemporary modern clothing and high fashion world of the process known as “perma-pressed pleating” as well as “no-iron fabrics.” (3) Certain unique and colorful embroidered designs featuring vegetables and fruits as well as the usual flowers, birds, hearts, geometries, etc. — these in particular including red peppers (from which, of course, the Hungarian national spice of paprika is made). (4) Embroidery with tan and brown colors intermingled with other hues is unusual to most regions’s creative depictions, and which is identifiable with a certain region that utilizes this idea, since it conveys the fact of reality about the tendency toward dryness of their arid climate in contrast with much of Hungary in general.
