#3 The old hungarian runes - Magyar Rovásírás
(#2 and #3 gonna have to switch places but don’t worry #2 will arrive soon but I am preparing something special for it which needs time so decided to just release this one first. Sorry for the confusion.)
Hungarian today is written in the latin alphabet, but ofcourse that doesn't mean our ancestors did not have their own.
So what was it like? Quick facts!
Rovásírás is a runic alphabet system most likely of Old Turkic origins but exact date for when it came to be we sadly just don't know.
It is written from right to left. Usually on wooden sticks.
There are originally no lower or upper case letters, but the first letter of a name was often written a bit larger.
Ligatures are common. (An example of Ligature is the character æ, in which the letters a and e are joined. See examples below with latin letters which are not found normally in hungarian and how they are formed in runes.)
It had regional variations, but the most commonly known today is the Székely-magyar runes. It was in use since atleast by the arrival of the hungarians into the Carpathian Basin in 895 and used by the common folk for centuries even after the christianisation of the Kingdom of Hungary and through the middle ages, surviving for the longest in Erdély (part of modern day Romania).
This writing system had many names over the centuries. The modern Hungarian term for this, rovás, derives from the verb róni (to score) which is derived from old Uralic.
It is only by the 19th century when scientist start to study these runes, which was no easy task as they only had 1 example of the runes in their original form at the time. But this ofcourse did not mean there was no more to find! Major studies continued in the 20th century and much of what we know today has been discovered then ( I wont bore you with all the details, but if youre interested there are english resources you can look up!) and this is also the time it went through a revival phase.
A historical example text from Csíkszentmárton, 1501.
Interpretation in old Hungarian: "ÚRNaK SZÜLeTéSéTÜL FOGVÁN ÍRNaK eZeRÖTSZÁZeGY eSZTeNDŐBE MÁTYáS JÁNOS eSTYTáN KOVÁCS CSINÁLTáK MÁTYáSMeSTeR GeRGeLYMeSTeRCSINÁLTÁK G IJ A aS I LY LY LT A" (The letters actually written in the runic text are written with uppercase in the transcription.)
English translation: "(This) was written in the 1501st year of our Lord. The smiths Mátyás, János (and) István did (this). Master Mátyás (and) Master Gergely did [uninterpretable]"
Numbers
Yes even our own numbers! Very similar to roman numerals. They are not connected to the runic letters, and have never been found evidence of the letters and numbers being used together.
Large numbers can get a bit tricky so here is an example: 2345 will be
Rovás today
Today various traditionkeeper groups practice and teach this ancient writing form. It is also used as secret writing as very few people can read it today. There are also kid's books now in runes for the young generations to learn and have fun with and even competitions are being held. You can even use the runic script for official signatures in Hungary! But the most common way to see them today is on roadsigns where placenames are written in both latin and Rovás, as pictured above.
There is also a Unicode version for digital use.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed learning about our runes. If you got any questions don’t be afraid to ask them right away, my ask box is always open!
Next up: Hopefully I am very soon ready to release #2 Cosmology and Worldview: the World Tree. I am still undecided about which topic I should cover in #4 so if you have anything you would like to know more about don’t be afraid to leave a suggestion!
See ya wonderful people of Tumblr! And as always, keep on being awesome and make your ancestors proud!
