History of the Hungarian language facts for kids

The "Funeral Sermon and Prayer". This text, from 1192, is the oldest long document written only in Hungarian. Before this, Hungarian words and sentences appeared inside Latin texts.

Hungarian is a language from the Uralic language family, part of the Ugric group. People have spoken Hungarian in the area of modern-day Hungary since the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in the late 800s.

The language that Hungarian came from likely separated from the Ob-Ugric languages during the Bronze Age. For almost 2,000 years, we don't have many records. Written examples of Old Hungarian start appearing in the 900s, using the Old Hungarian script. Some Hungarian words also show up in Latin writings around the 1000s. The oldest complete text in Old Hungarian is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer, written in 1192. It starts with words that mean: "Do you see, my friends, what we are: truly, we are only dust and ash." The first Hungarian translation of the Bible, called the Hussite Bible, was made in 1416.

The Old Hungarian period usually covers the time from the first arrival in Hungary in 896 AD until the Kingdom of Hungary fell after the Battle of Mohács in 1526. The Middle Hungarian period began with the first printed books in Hungarian in 1526 and lasted until 1772. This was when the Age of Enlightenment led to language reforms, creating the Modern Hungarian language we know today.

In the 1530s and 1540s, Hungary faced big changes. The time of Humanism, which had been popular, ended. People were scared by Ottoman attacks, and much of the country was lost. The remaining parts struggled under new Habsburg rule. This made cultural life difficult. However, Hungary soon entered a new cultural time called the Reformation, a religious movement that encouraged many writers. Hungarian culture began to grow again, especially in Transylvania.

The very first book printed in Hungarian was published in Kraków, Poland, in 1533. It was a part of the Bible, containing the letters of Saint Paul, translated by Benedek Komjáti. The first printed New Testament was published by János Sylvester in 1541. He also wrote the first scientific study of the Hungarian language in 1539, called "Grammatica Hungarolatina." Like Komjáti, Sylvester printed his books in Krakow. The first truly Protestant Hungarian book was Imre Ozorai's Argument, published in Krakow in 1535.

Among other works, Aesop's Fables – a collection of moral short stories – was first translated into Hungarian by Gábor Pesti in 1536. These are considered the first Hungarian short stories. The first attempt to make Hungarian spelling standard was by Mátyás Bíró Dévai. He suggested a clear way to write the language. His book, Orthographia, is known from its second edition, printed in 1549.

The Early History of Hungarian

How Hungarian Separated from Other Languages

The story of the Hungarian language starts in the Neolithic age, a very long time ago. Back then, the early forms of all Uralic languages were spoken in the area around the Ural Mountains.

Some basic Hungarian words are very old and come from this common Uralic origin. This means similar words exist in other Uralic languages, and experts don't think they were borrowed. If these words are not found in Samoyedic languages, they are often called Finno-Ugric words. However, whether there's a clear difference between "Uralic" and "Finno-Ugric" is still debated.

As the Uralic language family split apart between 4000 and 2000 BC, the people who spoke Samoyedic languages moved east. Others, like the speakers of Finnic and Hungarian, moved west. Hungarian and the Ob-Ugric languages (like Mansi and Khanty) share many similarities. They are part of the Ugric group, which is often seen as a branch of Uralic. This means Hungarian and Ob-Ugric languages likely came from a common Proto-Ugric language. The Ugric language speakers lived close together until about 1000 BC, when the ancestors of Hungarians finally separated from the Ob-Ugrians.

Proto-Hungarian: The First Steps

Around 1000 BC, the ancestors of the Hungarians moved southwest from their original lands, which were west of the Ural Mountains in eastern Europe. This is when the Hungarian language separated from its closest relatives, the Ob-Ugric languages, which later split into Mansi and Khanty. It's possible this split happened later, and these speakers were influenced by an Asian tribe as they moved northeast. Proto-Hungarian likely had contact with Permic languages around this time, as they share some words and sound changes not found in other Uralic languages.

The Hungarians slowly changed their lifestyle from hunting to raising animals like sheep and cattle. We don't have any written records from this time, so we know little about it.

After a long journey, the Hungarians settled near the northeastern Black Sea (a region called Levédia). After Attila's empire fell, the Huns moved to this area and formed a new state that also ruled over the Hungarians. A Hungarian myth about Hunor and Magor might remember this time. The legend says they were twin sons of King Nimrod and the ancestors of the Huns and Hungarians.

After the Hunnish rule ended, the Hungarians met the Göktürks and were greatly influenced by them. The Göktürk Turk Empire was powerful in the 500s. This is probably when Hungarians started writing, using the Old Hungarian script (rovásírás). Later, Hungarians also met the Khazars and moved west to Etelköz, where they lived as an independent nation.

In 895–896, led by Prince Árpád, they crossed the Carpathian Mountains and settled in the Carpathian Basin, which is now Hungary. They began to create their own state, the Principality of Hungary. They also launched many raids into western Europe and the Byzantine Empire.

A famous saying or prayer from the 900s, when Hungarian tribes were raiding Europe, was: A sagittis Hungarorum libera nos Domine! This means: ‘From the arrows of the Hungarians, O Lord deliver us!’

Hungarians call themselves Magyar. The name Magyar was once the name of a Hungarian tribe, Megyer(i). It likely means "talking man." The first part of the word might be related to the name Mansi, which means 'man' in the Mansi language. The word 'Hungary' (Hungaria) was recorded in the 1200s in the Gesta Hungarorum ("The Deeds of the Hungarians"), the first Hungarian history book. It said the name came from the castle Ung (Hung) in the 800s.

Early Borrowed Words

Hungarian has some very old borrowed words that made its vocabulary richer. At one point, the language had an estimated 25,000 words. Here are some examples:

During the time of Turkic influence, Hungarians developed a lot culturally. The words they borrowed include terms for fancy clothes and words used by a learned upper class. Even basic reading and writing terms came from Turkic languages. Many words related to agriculture and growing grapes also have Turkic roots.

How Hungarian Sounds Changed

Vowels

The way Hungarian sounds changed a lot during the Old Hungarian period. The biggest change was that the vowels at the end of words, which came from the original Uralic language, disappeared. Many languages lost these sounds, though Finnish still has them. Even so, when you change Hungarian nouns or verbs from Uralic origins, you can still see hints of these lost sounds. For example, ló (horse) becomes lovas (rider). This process is called phonetic reduction. The earliest writings from the 800s still show some of these ending vowels, like hodu 'army', which is now had.

There might have also been a special 'ï' sound, which later changed to an 'i' sound. Today, Hungarian has vowel harmony, meaning vowels in a word tend to be either all "front" or all "back." Some words with the 'i' sound, which is a "front" vowel, still take "back" endings when changed, instead of the "front" endings usually used for 'i' sounds. Examples include nyíl (arrow) becoming nyilat (accusative case), instead of *nyilet.

The change from diphthongs (two vowel sounds together) to simple vowels had already started in the Proto-Hungarian period.

Consonants

Sounds called Plosives (like 'p', 't', 'k') changed when they were between vowels. They became spirants (like 'f', 'v', 'z'). Also, plosives after nasal stops (like 'm', 'n', 'ng') became voiced (meaning your vocal cords vibrate when you say them).

Grammar Changes

The Hungarian language developed interesting features in its grammar, like how verbs change depending on whether they are transitive (acting on something) or intransitive (not acting on something). Ways to show who owns something also appeared. The ending for the accusative case (which marks the direct object of a verb), -t, was developed, along with many verb tenses.

Old Hungarian (10th to 15th centuries)

By the 900s, the Hungarians had set up a principality in what is now Hungary and nearby areas. In 1000, Vajk, who later became Stephen I of Hungary, received his crown from the Pope. This marked the beginning of the Christian Kingdom of Hungary.

In the 1490s, about 3.2 million people spoke Hungarian, which was a high number for that time. The first official and legal documents in Hungarian appeared around these years. Some personal letters and wills are also known. However, the Ottoman Empire was putting pressure on neighboring countries, including Hungary. Hungary was unstable due to arguments among its lords. This led to the Hungarian army, led by Louis II of Hungary, losing the Battle of Mohács in 1526. In 1541, the Ottomans finally captured the capital city, Buda. The country was then split into three parts: the southern regions went under Ottoman rule; the western parts remained the "Kingdom of Hungary" with Habsburg kings; and the eastern area, mainly Transylvania, became independent. Historians mark the end of the Old Hungarian period at 1526 because it was such an important date in Hungarian history.

Important Writings from Old Hungarian Times

Latin was the official language in Hungary, especially from the 1000s to the 1400s. It was the language of literature and religion. However, Hungarian was used in some cases. Sometimes, Hungarian words were added to Latin documents to prevent arguments later about who owned what.

The first official document in Hungary is not in Latin, but in Greek. It's called the "Charter of the nuns of Veszprémvölgy," from 997. This text includes some Hungarian (and Slavic) place names.

Hungarian words in the founding declaration of the Benedictine Abbey of Tihany, 1055

The Old Hungarian poem "Laments of Mary"

The next very important document is the "Establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany" from 1055. In this Latin text, there are 3 Hungarian sentences, 58 words, and 33 word endings. The longest sentence, in its original spelling, means: "to the military road going to Fehérvár." Today, this old document is kept in the abbey of Pannonhalma.

Moving past some smaller Hungarian writings, the next big one is the "Funeral Sermon and Prayer" from 1192. This is the first text written completely in Hungarian. It is found on page 154 of the Codex Pray.

Hungarian literature is counted from these early writings. The first known Hungarian poem is called 'Laments of Mary'. It tells the story of Jesus' crucifixion from the viewpoint of Mary. It was written around 1300, but it might be an older version. The text is clear and easy to understand. The first part says:

Another important old text, with a sad history, is the "Fragment of Königsberg," from about the 1350s. This is what's left of the first known Hungarian book. The book ended up in Wrocław, Poland, by the end of that century. There, a Polish bookbinder didn't understand it, so he cut it up and used the pieces to bind a Latin book. Another important book from this time is the Codex Jókay, a copy from the 1400s of an original from 1372. This book is about the life of Francis of Assisi.

A copy of the Hussite Bible, in the Codex of Munich, from 1466

In the early 1400s, some Latin-Hungarian dictionaries, or word lists, were made. Some shorter texts are also known. But the most important work is the first translation of the Bible: the Hussite Bible, from 1416. Priests Tamás Pécsi and Bálint Ujlaki translated it. They were influenced by the ideas of Jan Hus during their university years (1399–1411) in Prague. The Inquisition (a religious court) went after Hussitism, and the translation was taken from the translators. But it became so popular that several true copies of the original still exist.

More and more Hungarian books were written, mostly about religion. Besides the "Laments of Mary," another important Old Hungarian poem is Szabács viadala ("Triumph of Šabac"). It was supposedly written in the year of the battle (1476). In this battle, Hungarian troops led by King Matthias of Hungary won a great victory over the Ottoman army. This poem is about a worldly event, not religion. It might be a part of a longer poem. Here's a quote:

Some writings in Old Hungarian script are also known, like the "Alphabet of Nikolsburg" (1483) and other writings that have been figured out or are still a mystery.

How Hungarian Changed Linguistically

New Words in Old Hungarian

During this period, Hungarian gained many new words. One way this happened was through loanwords, words borrowed from other languages whose speakers brought new ideas. Another way was by creating new words from older ones within the language.

Compared to Modern Hungarian, Old Hungarian had many more ways to form new words using suffixes (endings added to words). Most of these suffixes also came from other suffixes. There were many suffixes that made words sound smaller or cuter (diminutive suffixes), but most of these are not used today. For example, -d (as in "holmod", from "holom"—"tiny hill").

Making compound words (joining two words together) was also a way to create new terms.

Many words were also borrowed between 896 and 1526. These came mainly from Slavic languages (like kiraːʎ 'king'), German (e.g., hɛrtsɛɡ 'prince'), and Latin (e.g., tɛmplom 'church'). As you can see, these words are mostly related to Christianity and government. Other borrowed words include names of animals not found in Hungary and terms for technology.

Grammar Changes in Old Hungarian

Verbs

Modern Hungarian has two verb tenses: past and nonpast (present/future). To talk about the future, it uses the helping verb foɡ. However, Old Hungarian had six verb tenses: Past Narrative, Past Finite, Past Complex, Present, Future Simple, and Future Complex.

The Past Narrative tense used the endings -é, -á for transitive verbs and -e, -a for intransitive verbs. This tense was used to describe a series of past events. Here's how the verb várni 'to wait' was used in this tense:

Future simple was shown using the ending -nd. Future complex (which is like today's future tense) was formed like this:

Infinitive + helping verb 'fog'

menni fog—he/she is going to go

Middle Hungarian

The first printed book written in Hungarian was published in Kraków in 1533 by Benedek Komjáti. Its title was Az Szent Pál levelei magyar nyelven, meaning The letters of Saint Paul in the Hungarian language. By the 1600s, the language was already very similar to how it is today, though two of the past tenses were still used. Words borrowed from German, Italian, and French also appeared during these years. More Turkish words were borrowed when the Ottoman Empire occupied much of Hungary between 1541 and 1699.

How Middle Hungarian Changed Linguistically

The vowel sounds in Hungarian had mostly developed into their current form by the 1500s. At its most complete, the system had eight vowel sounds that could be both short and long:

This system was mostly balanced, except for the open unrounded 'aː' sound being the long version of the short 'ɔ' sound. In modern Hungarian, this 'aː' is mostly found as a front vowel.

The differences between the mid 'e' and open-mid 'ɛ' sounds (and their long versions) were mostly lost later. The change from 'ɛː' to 'eː' happened widely during the 1500s and 1600s across most Hungarian-speaking areas. In some dialects, this didn't lead to them merging. Instead, 'eː' might have changed to 'iː', or (in northeastern dialects) became a diphthong like 'ie'. The change from 'e' to 'ɛ' also started early in the central dialects that form Standard Hungarian. However, its spread to other Hungarian dialects has been much slower.

Modern Hungarian

In the late 1700s, the Hungarian language struggled to clearly express new scientific ideas. Many writers also felt the vocabulary was too small for literature. So, a group of writers, especially Ferenc Kazinczy, started to fix these problems. They shortened some words (like győzedelem > győzelem, meaning 'triumph' or 'victory'). Many words from different dialects became used nationwide (e.g., cselleng 'dawdle'). Old words that were no longer used were brought back (dísz 'décor'). Many new words were created using different word endings (suffixes). Other less common ways of expanding the language were also used. This movement was called the 'language reform' (Hungarian: nyelvújítás, meaning "language renewal"). It created over ten thousand new words, and many of them are still used today. These reforms helped Hungarian become the official language of the country in 1844, replacing Latin. The Csángó Hungarians did not take part in these language reforms, so their dialect is the oldest form of Hungarian.

The 1800s and 1900s saw the language become even more standardized. Differences between the dialects, which were already easy to understand, slowly became smaller. In 1920, because of the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary lost 71% of its land and 33% of its Hungarian-speaking population. Today, Hungarian is the official language in Hungary. It is also an official language in some regions of Romania, Slovakia, and Serbia.

See also

• Hungarian language
• Regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and other Uralic languages
• Hungarian dialects
• Hungarian literature
• Funeral Sermon and Prayer
• Old Hungarian 'Lamentations of Mary'
• History of Hungary
• Alternative theories of Hungarian language origins