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 Goldziher and his wife did not change their language habits after their settlement in Székesfehérvár, certainly not during the initial years. We have a quotation at our disposal which proves that the Goldziher family spoke German in everyday life. Mór Ballagi's son, Aladár wrote in his reminiscences that Goldziher often quoted his grandmother, who, being aware that he had an inborn aversion towards practical affairs and being afraid that this might cause problems in later life, had the habit of warning him: "Nazi, Nazi! Lasz dich nicht in einen Sack hineinfoppen!" [= Nazi, Nazi! Don't let yourself be cheated!] 12 1 We have some interesting testimonies from the Goldziher family concerning the multilingualism referred to in the preceding paragraph - this of course may not necessarily be valid either for Goldziher's parents or for himself. An uncle of Goldziher, Mihály Goldzieher (born 1827), 12 2 moved from Köpcsény to Pest around the middle of the 1840s, and the letters he wrote to his bride around i860 were "in a Hungarian-German 'macaroni language', such as was spoken by the townspeople of Pest in those days, with the Hungarian words in Roman and the German words in Gothic script". The address was always: "Meine liebste Kedveském! [My dearest GERMA N | darling, HUNGAR1A N]". The following sentence may serve as an example: "Felöled álmodám die ganze Nacht. [I dreamt of ^ o w HUNGARIA N | a// «/g/7i. GERMA N]" 12 3 In another branch of the family, the following sentence occurs in the first decades of the twentieth century in Budapest: "Tout égal, de ha nem túl peinlich pour toi, chére maman, ich glaube, mégis mieux, ha magyarul beszélünk. [It doesn 't really matter ERENC H \ but ifit is not to o HUNGA R' A N | embarrassing GERMA N | for you, dear mother• FRENC H, | I think GERMA N \ it would nevertheless ^HUNCIAR.AN | betted™ I if we spoke Hungarian ™ NGARIA N]" i t should be noted, however, that Frojimovics et al., Jewish Budapest..., 171 (n° 225). Cf. ibid., 522-523. Where is the Goldzihers' family Bible now? 12 1 Aladár Ballagi, 'Emlékezés Goldziher Ignáczra' [Remembering Ignaz Goldziher], Vasárnapi Újság 68 (1921), no. 23, 269. (= Id., Elő tanítások [Living Teachings], Cegléd 1934, 277). The article is in Hungarian, the quotation is in German. Ballagi uses the word "öreg anyját", which most probably means "his grandmother" but there is a slight possibility that it may refer to Goldziher's mother in her old age. On the German expression involved here cf. Gerhard Wahrig, Deutsches Wörterbuch, Gütersloh 1968, col. 1314 (s.v. foppen). 12 2 The various members of the family wrote the family name differently. Ignaz Goldziher used a traditional transliteration of the Hebrew form, while others followed the rules of modem German orthography. See Goldziher's own view on this question in a letter to Theodor Nöldeke quoted in Róbert Simon, Ignác Goldziher. His Life and Scholarship as Reflected in his Works and Correspondence, Budapest-Leiden 1986, 345. (It should be noted, however, that the Hebrew form in the source referred to here contains four misprints.) See also Hegedűs, Előjátékok..., 140. 12 3 Hegedűs, Előjátékok..., 151. 228

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