The history of the Hungarian language

The Hungarian language is approximately 3,000 years old. However, over the centuries, it has changed a lot. Read this article to discover the history of the Hungarian language!

Language Family

The Hungarian (magyar) language is a member of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family. In addition, Hungarian belongs to the Ugric branch of Finno-Ugric. Although Hungarian is spoken mainly in Hungary, people living in for example Slovakia, Romania, Austria, Croatia and Slovenia use it, too.

The history of the Hungarian language consists of different phases:

• Early Hungarian period: from around 1000 BC – 896 AD
• Old Hungarian period: 896 – 1526
• Middle Hungarian period: 1526 – 1772
• Modern Hungarian period: from 1772 to the present

The Pre-Hungarian Period

Before Hungarian became an independent language, there was a so-called Pre-Hungarian period. The earliest words used for fishing and hunting show Finno-Ugric origin, writes mek.oszk.hu. The words for horse, halter, saddle and dog also originate from this era. Furthermore, family relations must have been important as already in this period, Hungarians used words for mother, daughter, etc.

• Read also: Could this Hungarian king be Sir Lancelot?

The Early Hungarian Period

Starting with the separation from the Ugric language community, this period ended with the conquest of the Carpathian Basin. For this period, the enrichment of vocabulary is characteristic. Hungarian ancestors are likely to have met ancient Turkic, ancient Iranian and other languages. This is proven by Turkish (nyak, nyár, homok, harang) (neck, summer, sand, bell), Iranian (tehén, tej, tíz) (cow, milk, ten) and words of unknown origin (ápol, gyámol, csen, gyanú) (care, guardian, lure, suspicion), writes arcanum.com.

• Read also: Famous Hungarian mythologies

The Old Hungarian Period

This period begins with the conquest of the Carpathian Basin and ends in 1526. After the conquest, the Hungarians met the Germans quite early. The relations with the Germans were the result of court relations, marriages, conscripted knights, and converting priests. Thus, some of the early German foreign words refer to military and court life. These include words like páncél (armour), ostrom (siege), or tánc (dance). The first coherent longer textual memory, the Sermon on the Dead, was created at the end of the 1100s: a sermon delivered at a funeral.

Middle Hungarian Period

The Middle Hungarian Period lasted until the Age of Enlightenment. Not only the rapid spread of printing but also the Reformation happened during this era. As for the Hungarian language, the most well-known of the phonetic changes is the ly->j transformation, writes arcanum.com. Word formations also played a big role in the development of the Hungarian language. Many words were formed by subtraction or they were re-formed.

• Read also: The most beautiful Hungarian words

Modern Hungarian Period

Every Hungarian is familiar with Kazinczy, who became famous for his activity in the language renewal movement in 1805. The most spectacular result of the language renewal was in the field of creating new words. Old, already forgotten words (dísz, év, hon, iker, kegy, szobor, terem, verseny) (decoration, year, home, twin, favor, statue, hall, competition) were revived, some of which were given new meanings.

Of course, the renewal of the Hungarian language is not over yet, the language still changes a lot. These new trends, however, will one day become history, too!

Source: arcanum.com, mek.oszk.hu