Hungarian (‘Magyar’ in Hungarian) belongs to the Ugric branch of the Uralian language family. It is an agglutinating language that uses the Latin alphabet with some extensions (44 letters in total). Today, it is mostly spoken in modern Hungary and neighboring countries (Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine).
Hungarians arrived as nomadic tribes from Asia to the Carpathian basin in the ninth century. In the tenth century, after the rulers decided for conversion to Christianity, the medieval Hungarian kingdom adopted Latin literacy for administrative and religious purposes; thus, the first Hungarian words were scattered in documents written in Latin.
For example, this is the case for the founding document of the abbey of Tihany from 1055 (hyperlink: https://tihanyiapatsag.hu/downloads/alapito_okirat.pdf) containing 58 Hungarian words. Another example of Hungarian elements in Latin works can be found in the codex of Gyulafehérvár (Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia Batthyaneum, R. III. 8, the first half of the fourteenth century), a sermon collection in which the rhymed divisions and distinctions that served as mnemotechnical aid for the preacher were translated into Hungarian. There existed also Latin-Hungarian word lists, the most extensive of which (Schlägl, Prämonstratenser Stiftbibliothek, Cpl. 88) contained 2140 Hungarian words.
From the Middle Ages (from before the end of the fifteenth century) only a few Hungarian texts had survived. However, they were preceded by an extensive Latin textual production. The first landmark literary works of the new kingdom, such as the instructions of King Stephen to his son or the chronicles of the Árpád dynasty, were written in Latin.
The few texts in Hungarian all share the following traits: they are anonymous, their topic is religious, and they are translations from Latin.
The first text written entirely in Hungarian dates from approximately 1200. It is a prose text, a translation from a Latin funeral oration (Halotti Beszéd) and a prayer (Könyörgés), with a total of 32 lines. It is contained in an otherwise entirely Latin codex, the so-called Pray-codex (Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, MNy 1, the Hungarian text on f. 136r), which also preserved the Latin originals. It exemplifies two translation techniques: free adaptation (for the sermon), and literal rendering (for prayer).
You can listen to it here:
The first surviving poetic text is a translation from a Latin planctus to Mary (Ómagyar Mária Siralom) from around 1300. It was part of a Dominican sermon collection in Latin (Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, MNy 79, Hungarian text on f. 134v).
You can listen to the musical interpretation here:
The oldest Hungarian codex dates from around 1440 and it contains the Life of Saint Francis of Assisi (Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, MNy 67). The codex, and thus the text, is incomplete, and the circumstances of its production are still debated. It is a compilation translation from multiple Latin versions of the saints’ life, possibly for a female monastic audience. It is already a copy of a previous version; therefore, its language probably reflects an earlier stage of the Hungarian language.
From the earliest Hungarian Bible translations, fragments survived in three fifteenth century manuscripts. The oldest Lord prayer was found in the Munich codex (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. Hung. 1):
Mi atyánk, ki vagy mennyekben, szenteltessék te neved. Jőjön te országod. Legyen te akaratod, miként mennyen es azonként földön. Mi testi kenyerönk felett való kenyeret adjad mü nekönk ma. És bocsássad mü nekönk mü vétetönket, miként es mü bocsátonk nekönk vétetteknek. És ne vigy münket késértetbe. De szabadoch münket gonosztól. Ámen.
From around 1492-1492 dates the so-called Festetics codex (Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, MNy 73) a beautifully illuminated prayer book containing also some psalm-translations, including Petrarch’s Penitential Psalms. The book was made for Benigna Magyar, the wife of Pál Kinizsi, general of King Matthias Corvinus.
It would be challenging to argue for any influence of the Hungarian textual production: it was the production of a linguistically isolated group. These texts had no chance or reason for circulation on a continent with Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages. Instances of cultural contact between Hungarians and the rest of Europe had occurred mostly via Latin.
Early Hungarian linguistic records: Magyar nyelvemlékek
Hungarian sermons: Magyar prédikációirodalom
https://sermones.elte.hu/exemplumadatbazis/
Ancient Hungarian poetry from the beginnings to 1600: Répertoire de la poésie hongroise ancienne (RPHA). A régi magyar vers leltára a kezdetektől 1600-ig.
https://f-book.com/rpha/v7/search.php
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