The
age of unification of Székely character set
Due to the widespread use of
the Neolithic character set, it is easy to find the parallels of five-ten
Székely signs in the later sign systems of Eurasia, Africa and
Various authors demonstrate
10-20 or even more coincidences of shape between the signs of the Tatárlaka,
Tordos and Vinca Neolithic cultures, Sumerian script, Egyptian hieroglyphs,
early Chinese script, proto-Khwarismian rock drawings of the Bronze Age on
the one hand, and Székely runes on the
other.[1]
I also found a strikingly large number of parallels among the signs of Tepe
Yahya (
It seems as if the older a
system is, the more numerous and the moreconvincing coincidences in shape to Székely
signs it contains. As if the development of most new and divergent character
forms were caused by the fading of common religious traditions, the birth of
dynastic and nationalistic feelings, and the later changes in culture, economy
and writing technology.
In trying to clarify the
structure of the oldest sign systems, the self-evident explanations are
striking. The Székely “alphabet” seems to be able to help read the pebbles from
Mas d'Azil though they contain more characters. The words in parentheses are,
however, only theoretical possibilities for deciphering the inscriptions, as we
have no accurate knowledge about the language and the writing system. Still
these and the other pebbles representing the equivalents of Székely “nt” and
“us” (Fig. 29) give the impression of a phonetic script whose forms and system
is very similar to those of Székely runic script.
The same conclusions can be
drawn from the American Indian “jm” ligatures, which form a world model (Fig.
10). They are the unambiguous equivalents of the world model on the Csángó
painted egg made up by “j” and “m” characters (Fig. 4). They reinforce the view
that the phonetic predecessor of Székely runic script had already existed at
that early age. It is not accidental that these world-representations (one of
them painted on an egg), together with the Irani idea of the egg of the world
(from which the first man was born) and Jima, the name of the first man of
Avesta, form a system.
The question that arises
concerning the Mas d'Azil signs: is it possible to write longer texts on
pebbles? It is a reasonable question: pebbles are hardly suitable medium for
the technology of real writing. Therefore, the isolated signs painted on them
could rather be symbols, hieroglyphs (or more precisely phonetic word or
syllable signs that were also used as symbols).
Only those pebbles that have
several signs on them suggest genuine writing.
Fig. 29 Mas d'Azil signs
comparable to Székely runes; syllable signs and letters used as symbols (the
words in parentheses are only examples of
possible interpretations)
It seems reasonable to
assume, that the scribes of this Neolithic culture were able to write down (carve in wood?) longer phonetic texts.
Scribes of the glacial period, like the Huns much later, could use their signs
both as symbols and as sound-representations at the same time.
In this early age, state
(scientific and economic) requirements hardly demanded a use of writing, rather
we can assume a use of symbols in village communities for religious, genealogical
and calendar purposes. Otherwise (remembering the arguments about the time
sequences of early megalithic cultures) our views on the origin of statehood
must be reassessed.
This early writing system
that can be traced back to both the Mas d'Azil and the American Indian cultures
seems to have been developed in one central area that surrounds
The rapid distribution of
the first religious symbols and the scripts that developed from them was helped
by the common essence of the most ancient religious concepts. Our knowledge at
present is too limited to decide in what measure are coincidences between
symbol-sets of the Neolithic world the result of long-distance trade of the
first states. It seems more probable that the coincidences between the first
symbol-sets are due to religious, philosophical reasons.
The only thing that is
certain on the basis of finds from thousands of years later (Fig. 1) is that signs
that were similar to Székely runes were used in quite a large geographic area.
They were applied to form picture structures (world models and ligature
montages) which were also similar to the Székely ones. This similarity implies
that the signs (the prototypes of Székely characters) meant basically the same
all over the “civilized” world of that time.
The Hungarians knew these
symbols right from the very birth of the nation,[2]
that is why the structure and meaning of these world models can be understood
with the help of Székely character names and mythology. The ancient Hungarian
language, mythology and symbolic system form such an indissoluble union that
even the Creator seems to have aligned the stars with Székely alphabet (Fig.
23, p 77.).
The agglutinative grammar
and irregular sound system of the Hungarian language have forced our ancestors
to use syllable and letter script from the start, and the development and
regular use of the present form of Székely script have depended only on the
changes in language and the demands for writing.
There is only one way to
summarize the above paragraphs: the beginning of Székely script coincides with
the beginning of writing itself.
The later reforms in Székely
script are connected to the turning points of our history.
The Hungarian vocabulary for
horse breeding and metallurgy shows that the Hungarians already formed a
developed society when they took part in the conquest of the steppe and the
domestication of horse around 4000 and 2000 BC (cf. Veres/1997/109), around the
area of Mount Ararat and the Aral sea. That is, no later than this time state
administration made it necessary to use a script, similar to the Székely runes,
which was suitable to record longer passages.
At that early era highly
organized nations could have migrated to the steppe from the South, where writing
had already been in use, where the earliest (around 2800 BC) horse
representation engraved in bone was found around
The character set must have
changed through the years, for example, some features of “c,” “u,” and “v”
suggest later addition. According to Hungarian linguists, the sound “c” is a
relatively new addition to the Hungarian sound system seems to have got later
into the original “abd” sequence. However, the character for “c” is of ancient
origin (Fig. 29), therefore, it probably stood for a different sound or
syllable at one time.
The forms of “u” and “v,”
(which were simplified from representations of metal ingots in the shape of an
ox-hide), developed in the Bronze Age.
In other words, they seem to be new compared to the other Székely characters,
which could be the reason for their location at the end of the sign set. Aegean
metal ingots of similar shape from
Székely script could also
have been modified through historical necessity under the influence of other
scripts.
Thus, after the collapse of the Hungarian-speaking
Avar Empire, the Hunnish-Avar script was influenced by Frankish script in the
West, by Bulgarian in the South, and by Turkish in the East. These did not
necessarily cause great changes in the structure of writing but rather
alterations in the style and content of texts. The ligature “ALBeRT,” for example,
suggests Frankish influence.
Similar circumstances may explain some contradictions
in Hungarian historiography of the Hunnish and Avar times, which could have
entered the medieval Latin chronicles through adoption of the runic texts of
Hunnish and Avar annals.
The original Hunnish and Avar chronicles have survived
only in undeciphered fragments. The Avar-Hunnish scribes, who lived through a
major changes and worked under governors appointed by Bulgarian and Frankish
dynasties, had to adapt to new power structures. The Hungarian conquerors then
adapted the local variants of the original Avar-Hunnish chronicles that were
thus created with their own chronicles. At that time a writing change seems to
have occurred since the few discovered runic scripts of the Hungarian
conquerors is not identical to that of Székelys (the descendants of Huns and
Avars) who received them.
Developing connections with the West and the adoption
of Christianity reformed and further confused this summarization process.[4]
At last the chronicles were translated into and continued in Latin,[5]
but still preserved data that were originally recorded in runes by our
ancestors. For example the name of the heavenly triad in the ancient Hungarian
religion has survived as Enedubelianus, the ancestor of Álmos.
Today we only perceive the uneven data frequency and
the contradictory time sequences of the chronicles of Hungarian ancient
history. Not only the diversity of Hungarian history is behind this phenomenon,
but also the greatest tragedy of the history of Székely script: the almost
complete destruction of runic chronicles, which could have preserved traditions
of thousands of years.
[1] Forrai/1994/23, 25; Novotny/1978;
Galánthay/1913; Szekeres/1993/62; Varga/1993/109, 131, 155.
[2] Hungarian is generally assumed to be
six thousand years old, but - due to the lack of suitable sources, such as the
experience offered by Székely writing - linguistics has little to say about the
earliest periods.
[3] The data are mentioned by Götz László
adopted from Hancar/1956 (Götz/1994). Horse-breeding, however, could be much
earlier; from the discoveries at
[4] The law declaring the annihilation of
all runic remains and attributed to Saint Stephen has never existed, though it
has been mentioned and quoted countless times by the media. The text of the
"law" is a rather primitive forgery from the 20th century. As Forrai
Sándor wrote, its first known variant was written on a typewriter.
[5] Despite the influential historical
and philosophical changes, Latin writing has hardly been able to make an effect
on Székely runic writing in the past 1500 years. Probably the only examples are
the fading of Székely vowel omission and the recent alignment of Székely
character order to the Latin one. Both the spreading and the fading of vowel
omission depend on writing technology as well. Due to the different materials
used for writing throughout history, this process could have changed direction
several times.
Contents
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9. | |
History of the scientific views on the origins of Székely runic script | 10. |
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