Course title: Early Hungarian – Turkic Contacts
Credits: 6
Code: BBNIN01200
Type of course (lecture/seminar) and hours per week/semester: seminar, 2 hours per week
Method of assessment (exam/practical grade): practical grade
Suggested semester: any
Prerequisites (if any): none
Course description:
From the very beginning of the Hungarian language history there were Turkic peoples living in the
neighbourhood. Hungarians kept migrating westwards in the wake of Bulghar Turks. They spent
several centuries in the vicinity of each other creating a culture that was familiar for both peoples. In
the course of the semester we get acquianted with the following topics:
A methodological introduction
Chronology
Sources
Classification of Uralic and Altaic languages. Early and Modern Turkic languages
Stages of the migration of Hungarians prior to the Conquest
Parts of culture influenced by Turks (beliefs, religion, lore, music, crafts, social structure, etc.)
The neighbours, Iranians, Early Turkic peoples in Europe, Slavs and Germans
Ogurs, Onogurs and Bulgars in Western Eurasia
Loan-words (Iranian, Turkic, Slavic, German) Methods of reconstruction
Common characteristics of Turkic and Hungarian languages
Etymologies of Old Turkic loanwords in Ancient Hungarian
Research history of Turkic – Hungarian contacts
Three layers of Turkic loanwords in Hungarian
Required and recommended reading:
Agyagási, K. (2002): Some Middle Bulgarian Loan Words in the Volga Kipchak Languages. AOH
55:1-3. pp. 25-28.
Berta, Á. (2001): Álmos and táltos. Shaman 9:2. pp. 99-117.
Berta, Á. - Róna-Tas, A. (2002): Old Turkic Loan Words in Hungarian. Overview and Samples. AOH
55:1-3.pp. 43-67.
Csáki, É. (2002): Traces of the Pear-Tree Cult in the Caucasus. AOH 55:4. pp. 345-352.
Csáki, É. (2007): +nAn as ablative case suffix in Hungarian and Turkic languages. In: Csepregi M. –
Masonen, V. (eds): Grammatika és kontextus. Új szempontok az uráli nyelvek kutatásában.
(Urálisztikai tanulmányok 17.) Bp. pp. 55-66. ISBN 978-963-463-938-1, ISSN 1238-6747
Erdal, M. (1991): Old Turkic word formation. Vols. 1-2. Wiesbaden.
Golden, P. (1992): An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Ethnogenesis and StateFormation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East. (Turcologica 9)
Wiesbaden.
Harmatta, J. (1952): The dissolution of the Hun Empire. Acta Archaeologica 2:4. pp. 277-304.
Johanson, L. (2004): On the Turkic origin of Hungarian igen ‘yes’. AOH 57:1 pp. 93-104.
Krámsky, J. (1990): Phonetics and Phonology. In: Hazai, Gy. (ed.) Handbuch der türkischen
Sprachwissenschaft T.1. (Bibliotheca Orientalis Hungarica XXXI) Bp. pp. 302-334.
Róna-Tas A. (1994): Deverbal verb-formatting sufixes. Journal of Turkology 1:1. pp.
Róna-Tas, A. (1999): Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages. An Introduction to Early
Hungarian History. Budapest.
Róna-Tas, A. (2005): Turkic – Alanian – Hungarian contacts. AOH 58:2. pp. 205-213.
Róna-Tas, A. – Berta, Á. (2011): West Old Turkic. Turkic Loanwords in Hungarian I-II. (Turcologica
84). Wiesbaden.
Lecturers participating in teaching: Csáki Éva