Hussite Bible

The Hussite Bible (Hungarian: Huszita Biblia; sometimes also "The Bible of the Franciscans") is the oldest known Hungarian, but also Finno-Ugric Bible tranlation, dated to the 1420s-1430s.

History

The Hussite Bible is the only written vestige of Hussitism in Hungary. The book – or at least the most of it – was translated by Tamás Pécsi and Bálint Újlaki. Both Pécsi and Újlaki had attended the University of Prague in Bohemia between 1399 and 1411, where they got to know the concepts of Jan Hus, a reformist Christian theologian. Concluded from the calendar found in the Codex of Munich, the two Fransiscan priests may already had began the work in 1416, and they finished it at latest in 1441. Pécsi had had to escape soon from Hungary due to the Inquisition, thus he and many of his followers moved to Moldavia. They had been unsuccessful: the translation was confiscated.

The original manuscript is not known, most likely it perished. Most text of the Hussite Bible was revealed from partial copies. The principally importants of them are the Codex of Munich, the Codex of Wien, and the Apor Codex. Some other, shorter parts had been transcribed to other Hungarian dialects as well; these can be found in other 15th century Hungarian codices.

Features

Vocabulary

The translation's language is highly archaic, with many terms unknown in Modern Hungarian. Also, it contains several rare Old Hungarian words, thus provides an interesting insight to the Hungarian language at the time. These include (with Modern Hungarian equivalent and English translation in parentheses): monnál (mintegy, or so), midenem (nemde, is it right?), csajva (cserebogár, cockchafer), gördőlet (mennydörgés, thunder), etc.

In some respects, the Hussite Bible's translators were the first reformers of Hungarian: they coined several new terms, which today sound constrained. Some examples: császárlat (imperium), czímerlet (titulus), ezerlő (tribunus), negyedlő (tetrarcha), and so on.

Orthography

The Bible's orhography was influenced by 15th century Czech spelling. Pécsi and Újlaki adopted the system of writing special sound with diacritic marks. (i. e, writing IPA: [ɲ] with ń, or IPA: [ɛ:] with è, etc.)

Copies

Codex of Munich

Apor Codex

References

József Molnár - Györgyi Simon: Magyar nyelvemlékek. 3rd edition, Budapest, 1980. ISBN 9631747387

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