Chieftain Huba by unknown artist
"The languages spoken by the Eurasian nomad peoples are as elusive as the names that these peoples bear. The Magyars speak an Eastern Finnish language today, but in the tenth century they were bilingual. Constantine Porphyrogenitus informs us that they had become bilingual after they had absorbed the Kavars. There are more than 200 loan words in Magyar from Old Chuvash, the Turkish language which was spoken by the Volga Bulgars, who were the Magyars' neighbors when these were living to the west of the River Don. However, the Magyars ceased to be bilingual long ago. Their Finnish language has been their exclusive national language since the earliest date at which their Western neighbors became cognizant of it. The Magyars have preserved their original Finnish language in spite of their having planted themselves in the midst of Slavonic-speaking and Roumanian-speaking and German-speaking populations".
-Arnold Toynbee, Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his World, page 428
Source:
Quote:
Arnold Toynbee, Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his World
Comments
Post a Comment