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

GOLDZIHER'S MOTHER TONGUE In a letter of 14 December 1893, Nöldeke wrote to Goldziher: "

Sie sind von d. Ungarn, deren Sprache nicht Ihre Muttersprache ist, so schlecht behandelt worden, dass Sie eigentlich eher daran denken sollten, die Ihrigen diesem Lande zu entziehen! " [TOM have been treated so badly by the Hungarians, whose mother tongue is not yours, that you should rather consider taking away the members of your family from that country!]

1'' There is no other mention of this subject in the whole correspondence in its extant part at least so we must suppose that Nöldeke had heard this piece of information from Goldziher at one of their personal meetings. It is also possible, however, that he simply assumed it to be the case. Nöldeke seems to have been interested in the mother tongues of Jews: in a letter to Goldziher dated 28 April 1904, he mentions that a Jew from Russia is attending his courses and that his mother tongue is Russian, with the word "Russian" underlined, indicating that he found the fact strange and unusual: "Nun habe ich, wenn nicht etwa noch einer dazu kommt, 3 Zuhörer: 1 Juden aus Russland (mit russischer Muttersprache), 1 Schotten und 1 belgischen Kleriker. (3 Religionen!) " [I have now three students if no one else joins them: 1 Jew from Russia (with Russian as mother tongue), 1 Scotchman and 1 Belgian clergyman (3 religions!)].

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4 It is interesting to note in this context that Nöldeke regularly criticized Goldziher's German style in his letters, and on one occasion at least he did so also publicly as well. In his review of Part Two of Muhammedanische Studien he made the following remark: "Der deutsche Stil Goldziher's ist nicht immer tadellos. [Goldziher's German style is not always impeccable.]'"

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5 Against this, Wilhelm Barthold states explicitly that Goldziher's mother tongue was Hungarian. However, he does not seem to have known Goldziher well, so this statement is either based on supposition or he heard it from Baron Victor Rosen, who had been a good friend of Goldziher's ever since they had studied together with Fleischer in Leipzig in 1870. Rosen himself seems to have held that Goldziher's mother tongue was Hungarian. Barthold reports that in his university lectures in St. Petersburg, Rosen used to warn his students that Goldziher's works were difficult to read, especially in view of the fact that German was neither the mother tongue of the author nor that of the readers.

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6 I do not consider this as decisive evidence maybe 14

4 Simon, Ignác Goldziher.... 186. 14

4 Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Oriental Collection. Not included by Simon in his edition of Goldziher's selected correspondence with Nöldeke. Cf. also Gotthard Strohmaier's remark on Goldziher's German style in his contribution to the present volume: "It bears the title 'Stellung der alten islamischen Orthodoxie zu den antiken Wissenschaften' and is written in an almost flawless German." (Italics added.) 14

5 Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes 5 (1891), 49. 13

6 Vasiliy Vladimirovic Bartol'd [Wilhelm Barthold], 'Ignaz Goldziher. 1850-1921. Nekrolog', Izvestiya Rossiyskov Akademii Nauk. Leningrad, ser. 6, 16 (1922), 151-152 = Id., Socineniya, vol. 9, Moscow 1977, 722. 231