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 should not go unmentioned that one of the centres of this struggle happened to be Székesfehérvár, Goldziher's birthplace - see below.)

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' In general, the prestige of Hungarian rose inexorably in the country, and the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which made the Hungarian part of the Empire semi-independent with Hungarian as the official language, was an important landmark in this process. Emerging nationalism added considerably to the importance of the Hungarian language in the political and cultural life of the rapidly growing and flourishing country.

5" To many Jews it seemed that by relinquishing the inelegant, "stigmatized" language of their forefathers they could become members of a fiery and chivalrous nation, at the same time partaking in the blessings of modern technology and culture. In many cases it was not even a question of free choice on the part of the individual: with the spread of schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction there was no other choice left, and no doubt most people did not regret this development, because it enabled them to step out into the wider world. It can be assumed, then, that they were all too ready to take this step, and that most of them did not regard it as a sacrifice at all.

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1 It is worth noting in this context that it was Goldziher who changed the official language of the Jewish community in Pest to Hungarian during his years in office as secretary of the Jewish community: "auch das Magyarisiren der Gemeindesprache habe ich bewirkt".

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2 4

9 When speaking of Orthodoxy, a "Western" and an "Eastern" branch must be differentiated. In the second half of the nineteenth century at least the adherents of "Western" Orthodoxy spoke a language that was "practically German although they tried to give it a Jewish colouring by using Hebrew and Yiddish expressions." Katzburg, Fejezetek..., 100-101. 51

1 On some of the historical, ideological, sociological and denominational aspects of linguistic assimilation in Hungary, see Karády, Egyenlőtlen elmagyarosodás..., passim. 5

1 Claus Jürgen Hutterer, 'Geschichte des Vokalismus der westjiddischen Mundart von Ofen und Pest', Acta Linguistica (

Budapest

) 17 (1967), 352-353; Id., 'Theoretical and Practical Problems of Western Yiddish Dialectology', in: The Field of Yiddish. Studies in Language, Folklore, and Literature. Third Collection. Ed. Marvin I. Herzog et al., London-The Hague-Paris 1969, 2-5; Wolfdieter Bihl, 'Das Judentum Ungarns 12801914', in: Stadia Judaica Austriaca. III. Studien zum ungarischen Judentum, Eisenstadt 1976, 23-26 (Die sprachliche Umschichtung). Cf. also Gábor Gyáni - György Kövér, Magyarország társadalomtörténete a reformkortól a második világháborúig [Social History of Hungary from the Age of Reforms until World War II], Budapest 1998, 130131,136-139. Ignaz Goldziher, Tagebuch. Ed. Alexander Scheiber, Leiden 1977, 156. Another source maintains that this was achieved by the aforementioned Chief Rabbi Sámuel Kohn (see below), Goldziher's neighbour in No. 4 Holló utca. Zsidó lexikon [Jewish Encyclopaedia], Ed. Péter Újvári, Budapest 1929. 494-495. Most probably the two achieved it jointly at various levels of the community administration. Cf. Groszmann, Kohn Sámuel..., 35-36. 214