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 referred to above, this passage cannot be taken literally to mean that Goldziher began learning German at the age of twelve. Instead it must mean that Goldziher started learning German literature and grammar seriously and systematically, exercising special effort, as a high-school subject, at this age and that this reinforced what in Nöldeke's opinion were his "undesirable" Austrianisms, because everybody in Hungary in those days spoke German with an Austrian flavour. Goldziher wrote both of his diaries in German. The title of the Oriental Diary is in Hungarian while the diary itself is in German - one has the impression that he wrote the title in his "national tongue", Hungarian, because he was a Hungarian patriot, but then switched to German because it came more naturally to him, and in any case the diary was for his own private use. The case of the diary of his adult life, the Tagebuch, is somewhat more complicated. He wrote it in German, but the problem is that his purpose in writing it is not clear. At the beginning he writes: "Derselbe ist fúr meine Frau, meine Kinder und die allernächsten Glieder meines engem Freundeskreises bestimmt. Allen anderen, muss diese Skizze, so lange ich lebe, unzugänglich bleiben. " [It is meant for my wife, my children and the closest members of the circle of my friends. This draft must remain inaccessible to everybody else as long as I live.]

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6 Similarly, but mentioning his children only: "meinen Kindern, für welche diese Blätter bestimmt sind... " [for my children, for whom these leaves are meant...].

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7 and "Meine Kinder ... Diese Blätter sind aber zunächst für sie geschrieben.. " [My children... However, these leaves have been written for them in the first place...].'

5

8 In his will, made in Hungarian at the end of 15

6 Goldziher, Tagebuch..., 15. 15

7 Ibid., 55. 15

8 Ibid., 218. I

5'' My translation from the Hungarian. The original was published in facsimile in Scheiber, Folklór..., vol. III, 557-559 (figs. 75-76). Where is the autograph of the will today? Perhaps in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, where the manuscript of the Oriental Diary (Keleti Naplóm) is kept? Where is the manuscript of Goldziher's Diary [Tagebuch]! It would be worth while consulting it because Scheiber is known to have suppressed Goldziher's remarks on the Hungarian Soviet Republic both in the German edition and the Hungarian translation. Maybe he suppressed other passages too? Sándor [Alexander] Fodor, "A hebraisztika csúcsteljesítménye' [The Climax of Hebraic Scholarship], in: Péter Kertész, A könyvek hídja. Emlékfüzér Scheiber Sándorról [The Bridge of Books. A String of Reminiscences of Alexander Scheiber], Budapest 2005, 219-220. It would be interesting to know whether Goldziher disposed of his library or not, and if so, where and how. It would also be interesting to know whether he wrote a later will. Or was this the only one? As far as the singular form "child" is concerned, it will be remembered that Goldziher's elder son Miksa/Misi/Max died in 1900. When Goldziher's wife died on 29 December 1925 she bequeathed his correspondence, handwritten notes and collection of excerpta to the Hungarian Academy in her will. (See my article on Goldziher's correspondence 236