Hungarian
vocabulary connected to writing
The Hungarian language bears uncontrovertible evidence
for millennia-long knowledge and use of
various - but usually scored or engraved - writing systems that also had a
religious-philosophical significance as well. That implies that the Hungarian
script is not an invention of scientists, but the result of natural development.
It is the creation of the Hungarian people, who came into contact with other
writing systems throughout their long history. With the analysis of Hungarian
words we can prove that the Hungarian writing system does not fit the
pigeonhole into which academic “science” tries to force it. It is not an
isolated phenomenon, but an organic part of, and important participant in, the
development of writing.
The Hungarian word könyv (book) is one of
the most important words in the history of writing; a tool and a witness of the
development of writing in the course of millennia. It originated in the language of
“prehistoric” states that pioneered the use of writing. Its relatives are the
Korean word kwen (book), the Chinese küen and Uigur küin (scroll), Armenian knik
(tablet), Sumerian kunukku (seal),
and Assyrian kuniku (tablet,
certificate).
According to Du
Yaxiong, the Chinese word kuin means
“to roll up; a scroll; a book.” This sign was read as kiuan before the Han dynasty (221 BC-220 AD), which was changed to kui between 220 and
The Czuczor-Fogarasi Dictionary already relates the
Hungarian word “könyv” to the verbs köngyöl,
göngyöl (to roll up). The Hungarian
words göngyöl (to roll up), kunkori (curly, curvy), kampó (hook) and their widely
distributed derivatives in other languages, as well as Professor Du's data warn
us, that the stem must be of great age, and its origins cannot be discovered
without wide-ranging comparative analysis.
The Latin word cuneus (wedge) refers to the essence of
Sumerian and Assyrian words, the cuneiform script. Therefore the Chinese küen is in all probability the adoption
of a steppe (Haral, Andronovo, Hunnish?) word meaning “book,” since cuneiform
script was not used in China (but a script with a method of scoring or
engraving was used, and the word’s earlier form may refer to that). As the
stems
A relative of the Hungarian word betû is bitig (writing) of the Uigur Turks
(descendants of Huns). From a similar stem has developed the Turkish bic (cut) and bicaq (knife), and the Hungarian bicsak and bicska
(pocket-knife). In Old-Osmanic biti, bitig (letter, written text) have cultic
meaning (what is written, God's will etc.). Petü,
the current
The Hungarian word betû
is a compound for “Bél atya” (father Bél, the son-god in the divine triad, the
progenitor of Hungarians) and is genetically connected to the Greek béta and the Semitic béth. The interpretation of the Semitic béth as “house” seems to be a subsequent
etymological explanation.
According to Kézai's chronicle, the Hungarian word ispán
(steward) meant “captain” in Hunnish, i.e. a leader whose daily routines could
have involved reading and writing. This word still exists in Chinese in the
form of tsuispaan meaning “publisher”
(Szõcs/1997/12).
Among the relatives of the Hungarian word ír
(write) there is the Ostiak ierita
“to draw a line, to write,” the Vogul ter
“medicine,” the Chuvash-Turk sjyr “to
write” Siberian-Turkish ir “to carve,
engrave into wood,” irk “prediction,”
irük “gap, crack,” the Manchurian niru,
the Mongolian jiru “draw or paint a
line,” etc. Szabédi László compares it to the Latin word iuro “take an oath” and argues that “writing was originally a sacral activity, the most efficient form of an
oath” (Szabédi/1974/329).The Latin equivalent of the Hungarian word írás is iuris “law” referring to the earliest laws of divine origin.
The Hungarian word írdal
means “to make surface cuts in meat,” irdatlan
means “awfully big.” Megírás
(writing) of a wooden object means decorating it with delicate engraving. The nagyírásos (“big writing”) embroidery of
Kalotaszeg represents symbols that can be related to runes (Fig. 10). The words
képíró “painter of peasant
furniture,” tojásírás “egg-painting”
and íróka “potter's drawing tool”
have a bearing on depicting world models by means of the prototypes of runes
(Figs. 8, 14, 15), while (gyógy)ír
“balm” is connected to the magic symbols drawn by medicine-men.
The word-family of ír
(write) is fairly ancient containing írt
(to eradicate), arat (to harvest), írtás (clearing), árok (ditch), ér (vein) erezet (network of veins) among others. Kenyér írje is “a doughy, unraised layer
in bread”; iralo means “medicine
man.” Etymologically ír is connected
to the Hungarian úr (uru)[1]
attribute of God and the stem of Hermes’s name who is said to have invented
writing.
The Finnish word jalki
“trace,” the Lapp jalo “light sign in
the sky,” the Latin ales “prediction
sign” are all related to the Hungarian word jel “sign,” just like the
Hungarian él “edge,” éles “sharp” (referring to the
connection between edge and the mark it can cause), the Hungarian élõ attribute of God (jel “sign” = jó él “good edge”), and Helios's name. The word structure jeles nap “marked day, feast, holiday”
seems to refer to the connection between signs and feasts, the symbols used in
rituals. It can be connected to the Hungarian word jegy “feature” originally meaning jó ég “good sky,” bélyeg,
bilog “stamp, mark, brand,” Bél ég
and the Greek phileg, pleg “burn,
scorch, roast” (perhaps a reference to bilog,
the brand burned into the hide of animals?).
The Hungarian word levél can mean “letter,
leaf, page, written document, newspaper, paste rolled out thin.” It originates
in times when messages were written on leaves. Words referring to the usual
movement of leaves belong to the same word family with lebeg (drift), levegõ
(air), lobog (flame), lobban (flare). Its relatives are the
Finnish leve “small leaf, small
card,” Vogul lapta “page, leaf.”
According to TESz the basic ancient word originates in Ugrian or Finno-Ugrian
times. The word meaning plant leaf was first used as a sign of “page, written
letter” in Old-Greek and Latin. These two languages provided a pattern for
other European languages to use the word originally meaning leaf as a polysemic
expression.
The fact that ancient Latin was influenced by Hungarian
in “the Ugrian, or perhaps Finno-Ugrian” period is proved by the Latin words liber “book” and folium “leaf, page,” which are similar to the Hungarian words libeg (drift) and falevél (leaf) (the first syllable of folium could be equivalent with the Hungarian word fa “tree” on the basis of fascis “bundle of sticks, fasces”).
Szabédi László assumes that the Old-Latin-Finno-Ugrian
unity broke up in the 18th century BC somewhere between the Alps and the
Northern coast of the Black Sea (Szabédi/1974/72).That was an era of
transition, when the first waves of Hungarians have already reached the steppe,
and the latest time when the Hungarian words of Székely script were adopted by
the neighboring countries.
The Hungarian word rajz (drawing) is related
to the Greek graphó and the Latin graphis. The first originally meant “score,
scratch, bruise, engrave,” but later its meaning changed to “draw, paint,
write.” It is related to the English word carve
and to the German word reissen
“prune, cut, score, scratch.” This latter is phonetically the closest to the
Hungarian word and has so little in common with the above Indo-European forms
that it is likely to be of Hunnish origin.
The Hungarian word rovás
belongs to the same word family with ró
(cut, incise), ródal (chop, hack with
an axe), rév (ferry crossing across a
river - i.e. across a cut), révül
(connected to dipping in the river), rovatal
(a structure built - összerótt - of
wood, a catafalque), and rovátka (score-mark, small cut). Rovás can mean runic numbers, runic
script, and for example in the Székelys’ usage it even means “marking sheep-ear
with a cut.” Three different meanings are given by the Czuczor-Fogarasi
dictionary: carving words or numbers into wood; chopping wood (in the Székelys’
usage); taking account of, imposing, paying off, working off taxes, debt, or a
serf’s labor-obligation.
Therefore rovás,
ravás can mean either a tally-stick or tax; rovó, ravó, or rolló means a person writing runic script, or may
also mean a tax-collector.
Rovás
has become an international term. The Croatians, Slovaks, Slovenes and Vends
use the same form. It is called rovas
in Old-Check, rabus in Bulgarian, ravas in Russian, rebus, ravas in Vlach, rábisch, rábusch, rasch in
Southern German, and the German runa
may come from this word as well. In Modern Greek its equivalent is ravas, meaning “character.” Finnish rako “split, gap, slot,” Estonian ragu and Cheremis ru- “cut down” leave no doubt that rovás (runic numbers or characters), are original, unaffected
products of Hungarian culture, brought from the east to a new homeland, where
it had not been known before.
The Hungarian word szám “number” is
connected to the stem of the following words: száz (hundred), szõke
(blond), szent (saint), Solt, szultán (sultan) (cf. Obi-Ugrian sanki “great god”).[2]
The Sumerian words sid “number, sum”
and sad, sat “totality” are also related.
Hungarian linguists consider szám as a word of Chuvash origin on the basis of
It is not obligatory any more to derive Hungarian
terminology for writing from Turkish, and not only because the latest researches
seem to agree, that our runic script is not of Turkish origin. Indo-European,
Ural-Altay and Chinese parallels lead to the conclusion, that these languages
borrowed a great part of their terminology of writing from the ancestor of the
Hungarian language, at the time when the signs still possessed magic, sacral
properties, and were engraved in wood. It is more than a mere supposition, as
it is supported by two existing relics: the sign montages meaning “Usten” and
“Jima,” which are also illustrate the more important migrations and the
distribution of writing.
Fig. 30 Parallels of the Énlaka ligature “egy Isten”
(only God)
(Hittite rock drawing; rock drawing from ancient
Khwarism; Hunnish strap-end; Mongolian rock drawing; a part of the Nagyszentmiklós
treasure; the representation of Saint Stephen on the Coronation Robe; general
layout of pictures on the Coronation Robe; Énlaka ligature)
[1] Urhida was first mentioned as
Hurhida.
[2] The runic number of "tíz"
(ten), "száz" (hundred) and "ezer" (thousand) are identical
to the runic characters "b" (Bél, belsõ), "ty" (atya) and
the Sumerian sign dingir (star, god),
respectively, i.e. the Hungarian signs of runic numbers are also of religious
importance.
Contents
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History of the scientific views on the origins of Székely runic script | 10. |
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