Alternative theories of Hungarian language origins
The Hungarian language is a member of the Uralic language family. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences and scientific support worldwide accept this conclusion. However, there is a history of other theories from before and after the Uralic connection was established, and some fringe theories continue to deny the connection.
Rationale
Opponents of the Finno-Ugric theory put forward alternative theories in response to two principal problems:- According to one view, the relations between languages cannot be identified with ethnological history. The original Uralic and Finno-Ugric homelands are only the places of origin of the languages; however, within the framework of the Finno-Ugric theory, a Uralic origin of the Hungarians as an ethnic group is also asserted. According to the alternative theories, the vast majority of the constituent Hungarian ethnicities have no Uralic connection whatsoever—genetically, archaeologically or linguistically. Therefore, the development of the Finno-Ugric language family can only be explained by language exchange, overlaying, or a transit language.
- The second main argument is that, although Hungarian does have similarities in structure and vocabulary with Finno-Ugric languages, it has equally significant and fundamental similarities to other language groups, such as the Turkic languages. The alternative theories claim that the connections between Finno-Ugric languages do not pre-date these other relationships; or even that Finno-Ugric peoples took up a linguistic stratum from the Hungarians into their own languages, and that it's on this basis that these languages are now classified as Finno-Ugric.
Alternative theories
"...the Hungarian language is Ugric in its origin, but because the nations later contact and historical transformation it is equally Ugric and Turkic in character..."
"...a magyar nyelv eredetében ugor, de a nemzet későbbi érintkezése és történeti átalakulásánál fogva egyformán ugor és török jellemű..." in: Vámbéry Ármin: Magyar és török-tatár szóegyezések. p. 120.
The "Ugric–Turkic War"
"The fight, which my fanatical opponents, regrettably, brought over also to the field of personal remarks, lasted quite a long time, but the old Latin proverb was proven once again: Philologi certant, tamen sub judice lis.""A küzdelem, melyet fanatikus ellenfeleim, sajnos, átvittek a személyeskedés terére is, eltartott jó sokáig, de ezúttal is bevált a régi diák közmondás: Philologi certant, tamen sub judice lis." in: Vámbéry Ármin: Küzdelmeim. Ch. IX. p. 130.
Vámbéry's work was criticized by Finno-Ugrist in "Jelentés Vámbéry Ármin magyar-török szóegyezéséről.", published in 1871. Budenz criticised Vámbéry and his work in an aggressive, derogatory style, and questioned Vámbéry's honesty and credibility.
The historian Henrik Marczali, linguist Károly Pozder, linguist József Thúry, anthropologist Aurél Török, and many other scientist supported Vámbéry.
The Finno-Ugrist widened the front of the "Ugric-Turk War" with his book "Magyarország ethnographiája.", published in 1876. In this book he stresses the very strong connection between language and nation, tries to prove that the Huns were Finno-Ugric, questions the credibility and origin of the Gestas, concludes that the Huns, Bulgars and Avars were Ugric, mentions, that the Jews are more prolific than other peoples, so the quickly growing number of them presents a real menace for the nation, and stresses what an important and eminent role the Germans played in the development of Hungarian culture and economy.
In his work titled "Vámbéry Ármin: A magyarok eredete. Ethnologiai tanulmány.", and published in 1882, Vámbéry went a step further, and presented a newer version of his theory, in which he claimed that Hungarian nation and language are basically Turkic in origin, and the Finno-Ugric element in them is a result of later contact and intermingling.
"...I see a compound people in Hungarians, in which not the Finno-Ugric, but the Turkic-Tatar component gives the true core..."
"...a magyarban vegyülék népet látok, a melyben nem finn-ugor, hanem török-tatár elem képezi a tulajdonképeni magvat..." in: Vámbéry Ármin: A magyarok eredete. Ethnologiai tanulmány. Preface. p. VI.
Vámbéry's work was criticized heavily by his Finno-Ugrist opponents. This critique gave rise to the ever-circling myth of the "fish-smelling kinship" and its variants. No one of the authors has ever given the written source/base of this accusation against the Turanist scientists. In fact, Turanist scientists did not write such things about the Finno-Ugric peoples, and Vámbéry and his followers mentioned these kin of Hungarians with due respect. In reality it was coined by the Finno-Ugrist Ferdinánd Barna, in his work "Vámbéry Ármin A magyarok eredete czímű műve néhány főbb állításának bírálata." published in 1884. In this work Barna called the Finno-Ugric peoples "a petty, fish fat eating people spending their woeful lives with fish- and easel-catching", and tried to give this colorful description of his into Vámbéry's mouth.
Vámbéry held to his scientific theory about the mixed origin of Hungarian language and people till his death. He considered Hungarian a contact language, more precisely a mixed language, having not just one but two genetic ancestors. His strongest evidences were the large corpus of ancient Turkish words in Hungarian word-stock, and the strong typological similarity of Hungarian and Turkic languages. His Finno-Ugrist opponents strongly rejected not only the fact of such mixing and dual ancestry, but even the theoretical possibility of it. But, in the context of linguistics the use of a strictly binary family tree model proved unfruitful and problematic over the years. We have seen the Uralic tree disintegrate and flatten into a “comb”, and the place of Samoyedic languages and Yukaghir languages within/in relation to the other members is still very problematic. Some scientists questioned seriously even the existence of Uralic as valid language family, and attention turned towards the complex areal relations and interactions of Eurasian languages. In the light of these developments linguists have started to pay due credit to Vámbéry and his work.
In connection with Vámbéry's work and the ensuing Ugric-Turkic War it is worth recalling the thoughts of linguist Maarten Mous:
„Mixed languages pose a challenge to historical linguistics because these languages defy classification. One attitude towards mixed languages has been that they simply do not exist, and that the claims for mixed languages are instances of a naive use of the term. The inhibition to accept the existence of mixed languages is linked to the fact that it was inconceivable how they could emerge, and moreover their mere existence posited a threat to the validity of the comparative method and to genetic linguistics.”
Regardless of faction, both alternative theories debate the direction of linguistic "borrowing," and the model of language evolution. According to alternative theories, the Ugric language family received common word sets with the help of a traffic language, and the base of this traffic language would have been Hungarian. The alternative theories claim that the important language characteristics the Finno-Ugric theory relies upon only developed much later. The diminutives in are one of several such cases. The Uralic and Finnish languages have simple diminutives, but both variants can be found in the Hungarian language. However, the Slavic diminutive -ca, and even traces of the diminutives of other languages, like –d and –ny, are also present.
Several different attributes of the Hungarian language can be connected with other languages as well.
Kabardian-Hungarian language relation
Linguist Gábor Bálint de Szentkatolna was the first to systematize and represent this the theory of a Kabardian-Hungarian language group. While on his travels to the Caucasus, Szentkatolna noticed that Hungarian appeared to be related to Kabardian. In his book A honfoglalás revíziója, the linguist tries to prove the relation not only from lingual side, but form historical and cultural aspects as well. According to his theory, the Huns did not fully merge with the other nomadic people migrating to Europe, with some of them staying in the Caucasus region, and others returning to the Carpathian Basin. According to his theories, the Huns had two descendant, the Khazars and the Avars. He did not consider the Kabardians—Biblical word concords
Studies the Hungarian names in the Bible.Tamana-research
Studies the similarities and concords of geographical names found in the Carpathian Basin and all over the world.Hungarian-Sumerian hypothesis
Suggests a linguistic relation between the Hungarian and Sumerian languages and even a common origin between both peoples.Etruscan-Hungarian language relation
Another theory that received attention was the Etruscan-Hungarian theory, based on the research of Italian linguist Mario Alinei. Rather speaking about an Etruscan-Hungarian language relation, Alinei claims that Etruscan belongs to the Finno-Ugric family, and concludes that its closest relative is the Hungarian. Alinei's proposal has been rejected by Etruscan experts such as Giulio M. Facchetti, Finno-Ugric experts such as Angela Marcantonio, and by Hungarian historical linguists such as Bela Brogyanyi.| Hungarian alphabet with Latin transcription | a | á | b | c | cs | d | dz | dzs | e | é | f | g | gy | h |
| Hungarian articulation | a | á | bé | cé | csé | dé | dzé | dzsé | e | é | ef | gé | gyé | há |
| Etruscan variant | ay | – | bee | cee/kay | csuh | dee | dzuh | – | ee | – | ef | gee | – | haa |
| Etruscan alphabet | – | / | – | – | – | |||||||||
| Runic script | ||||||||||||||
| Hungarian alphabet with Latin transcription | i | í | j | k | ak | l | ly | m | n | ny | o | p | q | r |
| Hungarian articulation | i | í | jé | ká | ak | el | lyé | em | en | eny | o | pé | ku | er |
| Etruscan variant | ai | – | jay | kay/cee | – | el | – | em | en | – | ow | pe | que | ar |
| Etruscan alphabet | – | / | – | – | – | |||||||||
| Runic script | – | |||||||||||||
| Hungarian alphabet with Latin transcription | s | sz | t | ty | u | v | w | x | y | z | zs | - | - | - |
| Hungarian articulation | es | esz | té | tyé | u | vé | vé | iksz | ipszilon | zé | zs | - | - | - |
| Etruscan variant | suh | esz | tee | tyuh | yu | vee | wee | eksz | zed | wai | - | - | - | |
| Etruscan alphabet | - | - | - | |||||||||||
| Runic script | - | - | - |
Hungarian root theory
The root theory is a system of internal reconstruction of Hungarian, which furthermore proposes that the integrated word bushes of the Hungarian language would not exist with the assumed scale of post combinations. The system was first proposed by Gergely Czuczor and János Fogarasi in their six-volume dictionary of Hungarian, published between 1861 and 1874. The integrated word bush system runs through the language organically. Later supporters of the root theory claim that official Hungarian linguistics denies this simple fact, ignores the method of inner reconstruction and ignores the Czuczor-Fogarasi dictionary. The methodology, however, is considered unscientific by a wide range of academics.The fragments of these bush systems are further alleged to be found also in other languages in partly or in ruins, but none of them as whole as in Hungarian. Loan words, taken from other languages either took root, and were pulled into the same meaning-circle as the corresponding root, were only used in a specific field, or were spilled out from the language. These bush systems—as the result of loaning larger amounts of words, and the fading meaning of the word roots, are broken in the majority of the languages. Because of the logical buildup of the word bushes, the Hungarian language either developed together with an artificial language, or–respecting the iconic pictures, hiding in the roots–it developed as human mind advanced. According to this theory, the clearest form of ancient language was preserved in the language that we call Hungarian today. They assume that ancient Hungarians were the transmitters, rather than the receivers, of this knowledge and its words, or they least adopted it extremely successfully. Therefore, this theory requires proto-Hungarians to have lived in and around the Carpathian Basin longer than is normally accepted.
Criticism of the alternative theories
Criticism from the national identity
According some critics, such as Károly Rédei fe., the alternative theories feast on the "utopian national identity." Official linguistics uses the term "utopian linguist" for scientists denying the Finno-Ugric relation of the Hungarian language. Rédei claims that the introduction of Hungarian's Finno-Ugric origin was met with disapproval because of the theory's clear anti-national message and political purpose.Criticism of the methodology
Among the deniers of the theory, there are several widely used historical linguistic methods. For example, many of alternative theorists work with the modern version of Hungarian, and take the similarities to other languages as solid proofs, ignoring the lack or presence of the systematic sound correspondence.A comparative science was born in the 19th century who declared that we should inspect the differences, rather than the similarities, when comparing two languages. The resemblance of two words is no proof on language relation, simply because the reason of similarity can be loanwords, or even a coincidence. Semasiology and phonetics both change in language, which is why linguists and skeptics suspect loanwords, and not relation, when observing too much correspondence. However, some differences can only be explained with the common origin of the examined word set.
Supporters of alternative theories disregard the accidental existence of the more hundred similarities, claiming that identical phonetics and correspondent meaning at the same time are no coincidences. A main principle of these theories is that language families were born through aerial language equalization, though the possibility of loanwords supports the theory, rather than refutes it.
Supporters of the alternative theories claim that systematic sound correspondences can not be witnessed in all languages, so they can not be generalized. For this reason, no one objected when theorists made far reaching conclusions by comparing the word roots of the more than four thousand years of an extinct Eblaite language to today's Hebrew and Arabic. They pair up the name "Ebla" itself with the Arabic "ablā". They claim that both the Indo-European and Finno-Ugric language families were used a common word set.
Difficulties in using certain theories
According to the Finno-Ugric theory, the words relatable with Finno-Ugric languages are more basic, belong to a more primitive meaning circle, than the words stemming from Turkic languages. The mere 500 Finno-Ugric words from the Hungarian language can only form a fragment of a basic word set, and the majority lend themselves to a Turkic or other no-Finno-Ugric origin. By itself, the theory of the basic word set is unable to show relation even within Indo-European languages. Hence, the basic word set theory cannot be viewed without a degree of cautiousness. The methods used to show relation to the Turk-Hungarian language relation, are almost the same comparative methods as used by Finnugrists; however, those methods are widely questioned today.Deniers of the word bush their point that the theory is not scientifically provable. Critics point out that the most scenic and flawlessly working form of the "word bush system" excludes desultory relating, and is the essentially a three letter root system that can be found in the Semitic, and in wider sense in the Afroasiatic language family, and not in Hungarian. They go on to say that the root system is not a special, new, or newly founded linguistic attribute, but a "linguistic constant", what can be found in almost every language. Continuing, critics point out that it is impossible to not exclude the possibility of the import of the root system, because the Hungarian language does have root composing trends, but in an even more ancient form. It is the variant that was built on two consonants. For example, the word bush constructed on the k.r sonant frame. Some of its elements are three letter roots, but the semantic role of the consonants is in all of the elements. It is possible to find Akkadian related words and words with Akkadian origin in all the Finno-Ugric and Indo-European languages. The same Akkadian words can be found in today's semitic languages.
The arguments of the alternative theories do not hold up with current scientific methodology, which is why some linguists, and even the few who oppose Finno-Ugric theory neglect them.
Further information
- Varga Csaba: Az angol szókincs magyar szemmel, 2007
- Varga Csaba: Ógörög:Régies csángó nyelv, 2006
- , Budapest, Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2010.
- , Budapest, Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2012.
- Gostony, C-G. : Dictionnaire d'etymologie sumérienne et grammaire comparée. Paris.
- Sára Péter : Ősi szavaink nyomában iráni és turáni tájakon. Közös gyökerű szavaink. Budapest.
- Timaru-Karst Sándor : Kelta magyarok, magyar kelták. Budapest.