Today I bring you a different kind of source than usual. Let’s talk about the Establishing Charter of the Abbey of Tihany.
The document is dated to 1055, when King András I donated large tracks of land to the Abbey of Tihany, and the charter is meant to list out these donations. If you recall, this abbey was particularly important to András, as he would be buried here after his confrontation with his brother, Béla. The document itself is an impressive trove of information about the area surrounding the abbey, and the perfect example of the kind of documentation churches took of their holdings, while the Hungarian nobility, at least for the time being, foregone this opportunity.
That is not what makes the Establishing Charter so interesting, however. It is its language. Or rather, parts of its language.
If you recall, last season, when discussing the migration and settlement of the Hungarian peoples, I bemoaned endlessly about us having no real linguistic evidence from the protagonists of our story. Well, the Establishing Charter is the first written document that contains Hungarian words – 58 of them to be precise – and even a snippet of a sentence as well, giving us a rare glimpse into where the language that so many find so difficult to learn stood in the 11th century.
The curious part is that the longest string of Hungarian words, “feheruuaru rea meneh hodu utu rea” is something a modern Hungarian speaker would be able to understand, especially in its spoken form.The sentence itself means “onto the military road leading to Fehérvár.” Comparatively, in modern Hungarian, this sentence would look like this: Fehérvárra menő havi útra.” The most interesting difference is that the Hungarian language at this time uses a postposition (rea) instead of the suffixes (-ra, -re), which would evolve with time, and make Hungarian vocabulary so unique. Another unique thing is the “U” at the end of every noun, which fell out of use since then.
If you wish to learn more about King András, who is laid to rest in the Abbey of Tihany, follow the link below and listen to Episode 13, The Sons of Vazul on any app you get your podcasts on!