(A székely-magyar rovásírás)
(The English translation of the Hungarian http://www.inforum.hu/rovas/ )
written by:
Törökszentmiklós, 1997.
Externet Internet & Inforum Invest
The Székely-Hungarian Rovás Script
(A székely-magyar rovásírás)
(The English translation of the Hungarian http://www.inforum.hu/rovas/ )
written by:
Törökszentmiklós, 1997.
Externet Internet & Inforum Invest
Short Historical Compendium of the Hungarian Rovás Script
The most debated point in the History of Hungarian Culture is, if our forefathers did have their own writing, or not. Every year it is more certain, that our forefathers arrived into Carpathian Basin as a literate nation. The Hungarians acquired the main elements of the Rovás writing, before the Home-settlement, in their Eastern dwelling places. The shapes of the letters have been influenced mainly by the fact, that the characters have been carved (note: ró means cut, score, hence the name Rovás roughly means carving), the row flowed from right to left, the vowels have been written only rarely, mostly in cases, when they represented long vowels. This points to affinities with Semitic writing system. The Old-Turks spread their rule till the Black Sea, here came into existence the Western Turkic, later the Khazar Kaganate. Nobody is questioning the literacy of Khazars. Our ancestors lived for a long time in these regions, therefore they had ample opportunities to acquire this peculiar way of writing. The Figures 1. and 2. are showing two runic inscriptions of the Turks.
1. Figure 2. Figure
About the origins of the Hungarian Rovás, a lot reveals the fact, that both our words "ír" (write) and "betű" (letter) are of Turkic origin. We hope that the future archaeological diggings in Etelköz (nowadays Ukraina) will prove, that our ancestors did not forget too soon, the letters brought from Khazaria.
As it is known, in the Later Avar Age, in the Carpathian Basin, it was used a unique Rovás writing, which alphabet is called Nagyszentmiklós-Szarvasi, after the two most important relics. We know also, that this writing belongs to the Eastern European writing family, with growing number of findings, on the territory of the former Khazar Empire. Even amongst the artifacts of the Hungarian settlers, they found an object with a short inscription written by this Eastern European writing (Homokmégy-Halom). Despite of all this, still are missing few links, which would connect the Hungarian Rovás to the Late Avar and other Eastern European relics. Hopefully, these missing links will be found soon. They shall be searched perhaps amongst those brick-signs, which can be seen on the walls of the churches from 11-th and 12-th Century.
"I consider impossible - said Németh Gyula -, that the use of writing, as so important part of the culture, once it existed at one Hungarian tribe, would not be existing at others too. The Székely writing therefore, according to my opinion, was a generally used writing of the pagan Hungarians, which was destroyed by the Christianity, but survived in isolation at persons living in self-sufficient organizations." Because it survived the longest in the Land of Székelys, this is why they mention our writing, as Székely Rovás writing.
In our writing, four letters "A", "E", "O" and "F" for sure, yet two letters "H" and "L" probably can be traced back to the Greek alphabet via Slavic intermediation. The fact, that the signs for "F" and "H" came from another alphabet into Hungarian, points to a language, which originally did not have "F" and "H". These were the Slavic and Hungarian too. In old times fehér was fejér, Székesfehérvár however was Fejérvár. Signs for "A", "E" and "O" vowels probably were borrowed for the reason, that in the original writing the writing-system of vowels may have been different, or had such vowels, which were very different from the borrowed ones.
It is conspicuous, that in Hungarian writing, the signs for "S" and "L" are connected. It appears, as if the "S" came from Greek lambda, and the sign for "L" were created from "S" by addition of two strokes (more accurately: diacritical signs). The sign for "R" is more simple, and the sign for "Z" has added stroke to "R". The sign for "NY" is clearly composed from signs of "N" and "J". This everything points to the internal history of the writing system.
The Hungarian Rovás significantly changed during the 10-th and 15-th Century. First it came into contact with Slavic, then with Latin script. The troubles of our script started with the adoption of Christianity. The Latin language and script came into foreground only later. The old pagan writing symbols started to be persecuted, on this way the Rovás script was repressed, it started to decline. We know about such directions from Vatican, which stipulated, that instead of the old Hungarian letters used by Magyars, Székelys and Huns, and instead of writing from right to left, it is allowed to use only Latin letters, the priests may not teach the pagan writing, under the threat of punishment, and the inscriptions written by pagan letters must be expressively destroyed.
The Rovás lived on as secret writing, even more, it developed, because of Latin influence, it formed the so called ligatures, contracted signs. Such is for example the abbreviation of Latin word saint (szent): st, which is formed by concatenation of "S" and "T" letters. The list is complemented by "ND", "CK"... etc.
New prosperity came with the beginning of Renaissance and Humanism, when the noble courts used it readily as cryptography and other amusing activities. It is possible, that at this time, they completed the set of letters, which is now making difficult, to recreate the older forms of the signs and the accurate orthography. By the the end of the Renaissance, the ever strengthening Church and the conservative leadership, slowly fully eclipsed the writing system of our ancestors. It survived the longest in the Land of Székelys, till the 17-th Century. The above description is the "official" history of the Rovás, but there are some scholars, who claim, that the development of the Hungarian Rovás is possible to trace back, not only till Turks, but straight back till antiquity. This possibility is not without reason, what Forrai Sándor even proves in Magyar Fórum of 6-th June 1996. The following lines are quoted from him.
"The dissertations issued in press, radio and television, by the occasion of 1100 years of Hungarian conquest of the Homeland, do not present our ancient history according to reality. They speak only about a conquest, as if before Árpád, here lived no Hungarian speaking, or related people, and they also qualify our chronicles as legends, whereas according to the chronicles, the Magyars of Árpád came back into the Carpathian Basin upon call. It is time, to end the lies of the Bach-Age, which served exclusively the interests of Austria: that the Magyars of Árpád were uneducated, illiterate nomads, who ate meat, made tender under their saddle, and as they even did not know about fire. They flooded the West with this and similar lies, they taught this in our schools, from generation to generation. The truth however is, that the Hungarians have such an ancient writing, which signs are in tight connection with many ancient writings. But, when the Rovás relics started to emerge one after the other, in the Carpathian Basin, and mainly on the territory of Erdély (Transylvania), they discovered, that we deal only with borrowing of Turkic runic script, and we did not even have our own writing. Hunfalvy Pál, at that time Chief Librarian of the Academy, straightly qualified the relics found so far, as "forgeries". Opposite to this, my treatise about the Hungarian Rovás, was issued by the Antológia Kiadó in year 1994, under title: The Ancient Hungarian Rovás Script from the Antiquity till Our Days (Az ősi magyar rovásírás az ókortól napjainkig). In this work I showed, that the history of writing has two cradles, the Carpathian Basin, and the Middle East, with center in Mesopotamia.
In history of writing, the culture of ancient writing of Carpathian Basin plays an important role, especially with the Transylvanian, Tatárlakaian and Tordosian ancient writing. In Transylvanian Tatárlaka, in year 1961, N. Vlassa archaeologist from Kolozsvár (Romanian Cluj), on the bottom of a pit full of ashes, found 26 clay-figurines, 2 stone figures, one bracelet made of sea-shells, two clay-tablets with drawings and
3. Figure
one disk with pictograms (3. Figure). Vlassa noticed, that the signs remarkably resemble the Sumerian pictography from the end of the 4-th Millennium BCE. The findings stirred sensation all over the world, because according to C14 radio-carbon examination, the writings were 6500 years old, and were about 1000 years older, than the so far oldest Sumerian writing, which was found in the allegedly oldest Mesopotamian city of Uruk. According to examinations, the disk was made from a local sandy clay, and it was burnt after incision of the signs. Over here, János Makkay archaeologist, dealt with this question in a separate study.
The disk is divided into four quarters, by a horizontal, and a vertical line. Pictographs are visible in each fields. The disk with the diagonal lines, is resembling one variant of the Hungarian Rovás sign for letter F, which is nothing else, than the ancient pictographic sign for the "rotating sun". It is conspicuous, that from 10 signs of the disk divided into four parts, 6 resemble in their form, the Hungarian Rovás signs. These are: Z, Ny, Gy, B, above them in laying position P, and one form of Ly of our circular Rovás. All these signs can be found amongst Sumerian pictograms. The double cross, the Hungarian Gy, in our small coat-of-arm, is the name-monogram of the gyula (leading dignitary). In Sumerian coat-of-arm, it is a pictographic sign of a sceptre, a wooden staff of the ruler, meaning Pa. It is not accidental, that the depiction of both coat-of-arms, that is, their message, is identical.
The other significant proof of ancient literacy of the Carpathian Basin, are the inscribed clay-disks and sherds, found by the first Hungarian female-archaeologist Zsófia Torma, in year 1857, 20 km from Tatárlaka, in precincts of Tordos. On approximately 11,000 peaces of sherds and tile-pieces, nearly 4500 years old, different pictures and writing-like signs are visible, amongst them, cuneiform, pictographic, and mainly linear, or lined writings. Amongst the later, similarly to the signs of Tatárlaka, there can be seen Rovás-like and Numeral-rovás like signs, about which more than 10 are coincident in form, with signs of Hungarian Rovás. Traces of similar writings, as the Tordos, archaeologists found also in area of Balkans, like in Karanovo, Sitovo, Vinca, Gardisnica. These findings are direct continuation of Tordos culture of writing. Many famous historians of writing dealt with these findings, unambiguously establishing the link with Crete-Mesopotamia.
The second cradle of development of writing, is the ancient Middle-East, with Mesopotamia as center. The Hungarian Rovás writing is part of the writing system, which developed from Sumer pictography of Mesopotamia, and Egyptian pictography. The scene of many stories in Bible, is the Garden of Eden, Nineveh, founded by Nimrod, the great hunter. The Sumerians were the first, who from pictography, created ideography, for notation of continuous thoughts. They expressed the different abstract notions, verbs, feelings, by complex pictograms or ideograms. Because the Sumerian language was also agglutinative, like the Hungarian, therefore the suffixes, and formatives they expressed by adequate syllable-signs, which also consisted the adequate vowels too. From this developed the cuneiform writing, then the alphabetical writing, from which, the standing double-cross, only at Hungarians too, has the sound-value D, from the pictogram of fish became the sign of H, which has also at Hungarians sound-value of H, the meaning in Sumerian is "ha", which is identical to our word fish (note: fish in Hungarian is hal).
The Sumerian writing spread equally towards East and West. On the West, Egyptian pictography developed 4,800 years ago, on the influence of Sumer, taking over its internal structure, with the difference, that from the signs of syllables, there were missing the adequate vowels, so they are only signs of consonant-groups. In the beginning, the Egyptian pictography was only the writing of priests, usually they carved the object-like signs, the so called hieroglyphs, or sacred carvings, into stone. The names of kings, occurring in the text, were embedded into frame, or cartouche (4. Figure).
4. Figure
One hieroglyphic inscription in temple of city Karnak, according to Campbell, the English explorer, is following: During the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose the 3-rd, on the territory of his empire, they lived Maghars too, they fought together with Hettites, and surely mention the cities Arad, Árpád and Maghar. According to Campbell, under Maghars we shall understood Magyars, probably Szabir Magyars. This time could be around 1,500 BCE, when the Phoenicians developed the Rovás writing, the first alphabetical writing, from the Egyptian pictography, primarily from the group-signs of consonants. Tivadar Galánthay, orientalist, in year 1914 showed in tabulation the development of runic writings from the Egyptian, with special attention towards the close relationship of the Hungarian Rovás, with the Egyptian and Phoenician runic writings. Considering, that from all runic scripts, the Hungarian Rovás has the closest affinities towards the Phoenician writing (50%), is proving, that by the means of Szabir Magyars, we have been present also at the original source.
Few examples of the connection between Egyptian and Hungarian Rovás writing. B is a stick, broken in two halves, and placed in a cross, is the pictogram of a judgement, in Hungarian, breaking a stick above somebody, means pass down the judgement. The stick of the ruler, sceptre, is one of the J signs of our Rovás. The hair-braid is one of the H signs. The upright irrigation-canal is the CS sign of our Rovás. To walk, hurry is S sign of our Rovás. The circle with a dot, RÉ, the Sun-God, is one sign for LY of our Rovás. The sign I is also same in Hungarian.
5. Figure
In my book, I show in separate Table, the connection of the Hungarian Rovás, with ancient writing systems. Due to its size, it is not possible to present it here, therefore I give only a few brief statistical data: the number of signs coinciding with Hungarian, in Phoenician are 24, in Etruscan 21, in Egyptian 19, in Sumerian 18, in Turkic 17. The Hungarian Rovás writing could develop such an unique system of signs, from basic Phoenician signs, by means of logical grouping of auxiliary strokes, in which every sound has its own sign (6. Figure). I show the evolvement of this, from vertical sign of S, and from the variant of bent sign N (5. Figure).
6. Figure
Finally, I refer to the fact, that we preserved our ancient writing, till our days, which proof we can see on Rovás writing exhibitions, presented in many places in the country, where numerous notes in guest-books are written by Rovás." (Sándor Forrai)
The main Relics of Hungarian Rovás
The Golden Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós
In year 1799, in Nagyszentmiklós of Torontál shire, a serf of the local squire, during ditching, came across a golden treasure trove, of unprecedented value. From 23 vessels, on one is visible an inscription in Turkic language, written in Greek alphabet, on 14 pieces there are inscriptions with Rovás letters, and 8 left without inscriptions.
Many already tried to decipher the Rovás writing, according to Dezső Csallány, the Rovás inscriptions are originated from Kök-Turkic alphabet, and for many signs, it is possible to demonstrate the kinship, with the Székely Rovás writing.
Two conclusions of György Győrffy are: the golden treasure of Nagyszentmiklós is the last legacy of the nomadic Turkic state, and the language of our Rovás inscription, we must seek, in the dialects spoken in Hungary at the time of the Árpád-dynasty kings.
This inscription is visible on the 5-th vessel of the treasure. The reading and decipherment, according to Dezső Csallány is: Sunád-ok zaok = gift part of the Csanád tribe.
The Inscription from Constantinople
The scene of the inscription relic was the House of Envoys in Istanbul. Sultan Selim the 2-nd, detained the envoys of King Ulászló for seven years in Istanbul, and one member of the envoy, Tamás Székely, incised with Rovás writing, on the outer wall of the stable of the House of Envoys, the message about their fate. The House of Envoys burnt down in year 1865, at that occasion the inscription was destroyed too, but luckily already in year 1553, here walked János Dernschwam, and he copied, and salvaged the text from perishing.
7. Figure
The inscription is as follows:
"Ezer ötczáz tizenöt esztendőben írták eszt. László király öt követét váratták itt. Bilaji Barlabás ketö esztendejik it valt. Nem tön császár. Keteli Székel Tamás írta inet Szelimb török császár itet bé száz lóval." The English translation is: They wrote this in year Thousand Five Hundred Fifteen. They delayed here five deputies of King László. Bilaji Barlabás was here for two years. Emperor Nem tön. Keteli Székel Tamás wrote, he was locked in by Selimb Turkish Emperor with Hundred horses (7. Figure is the first part of the inscription).
The Alphabet from Nicolsburg
We can only guess, how did the Székely alphabet come into the castle of Nicolsburg, belonging to Austrian Empire (today Bohemia), into the library belonging to princes of Dietrichstein. The princely library came into Switzerland in year 1930, and there was the lot sold out. On the auction in Hezern, the cradle-book, which contained the Székely alphabet on the back protection pellicle, was bought by the Széchenyi State Library. On the handwritten pellicle (8. Figure), it can be read, that, here are following the letters of the Székelys, which are cut or incised into wood, in Latin language "Litterae Siculorum quas sculpunt vel cidunt in lignis", consisted by 47 signs.
8. Figure
The Calendar of Marsigli
Neither of this was preserved the original, only the copy of Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (1658-1730), the Italian military engineer, saved it for the posterity. Marsigli, as the officer of the imperial corps, took part in re-taking Buda, then in year 1690, he was commanded into Erdély (Transylvania). There, he came into contact with a 1.5 m long wooden staff, or table, which contained the name-days and religious holidays connected to dates, carved into four sides of the lath. He copied the signs onto 9 pages, and with the help of an old man, even deciphered them. Later, Marsigli left to Bologna, where they found the "calendar". The original writing arised perhaps around year 1450.
The Inscription in Church of Énlaka
This Rovás inscription from year 1688 (9. Figure), was discovered by the portrayer of the Land of Székelys, Balázs Orbán, already in the last Century. The inscription can be found, on a plank in the ceiling, of the Unitarian church, in small district of Udvarhely. The decipherment of the text is: Csak egy az Isten, Georgyius Musnai (Only one is the God, Georgyius Musnai).
9. Figure
The Tile-inscription of Székelyderzs
The signs on a tile, found in the Unitarian church, were carved in by the manufacturer, before firing. The inscription may have been made around year 1430, and its decipherment is: Miklós kántor (Cantor Nicholas).
In Gelence
The following inscription was carved to the fresco in the Catholic church: Pál pap (Priest Paul).
In the following Székely villages, also have been found Rovás inscriptions. The decipherments were published in the journal História in years 1996 and 97:
Bonyha is located on the lower flow of the river Kis-Küküllő, even today is a large parish. The stone inscribed by Rovás, came to light at the reconstruction of the southern wall of the church, in year 1965. Albert Benczédi pastor, recognized the extraordinary significance of the runic signs, for this reason, the stones emerged from the depth of ground, he let to be built in, into the second buttress, counting from the tower. Even today, it is on well visible place, about 180-200 cm from the ground surface.
What time might the stone get into the ground? Fact is, that in year 1794, the southern wall of the church was demolished, and was moved more to the south, so the Rovás signs, could not get on the stone after 1794. And they could not be incised in year 1794 either, since, in that case it would not be built into the 2 m deep foundation. We know that much, that the construction of the original church, was already finished in year 1327. Bonyha is listed on the papal tithe in year 1332.
According to our view, the signs might got on the stone already then, that means in the 14-th Century, but even later date, for example the 15-th Century, is not excluded as the time of their origin. Even Dezső Csallány, is placing the date of their origin, to this time. The professional science is still indebted with an acceptable reading of this inscription. Ourselves raised a thought, that we deal perhaps with an inscription of some other language (that means not Hungarian). Anyway, on the left side of the inscription, it is possible to identify the letters SZ (incidentally R), P, PT, and the legged S - according to them, there is a connection with the Székely Rovás. The two signs in the upper-right corner, have equivalents in the Mesopotamian pictograms, but we must think even on the notation of the delta in Greek alphabet.
a) The first inscription can be found in the "recess" of the loop-hole, on the first floor of the church, on the left surface of the window-aperture. It consists four Rovás signs, which reads from right to left. The reading of signs is BALG, that is BALoG. It is a family-name. The time of origin is early 1580. Both, the reading and dating, appear to be accurate. On the same place, there can be seen many inscriptions in Latin and Hungarian language, from the same period (that means they are dated).
b) In the same window-aperture, beneath the previous inscription, there can be found another Rovás relic.
The reading is also from right to left. The decipherment is: B. T. PALR, that is PALéR (pallér, in English foreman-builder). That means, the master-mason immortalized his name, or his profession, with this group of letters.
c) In autumn 1995, we published another Rovás inscription from Berekeresztúr. This time we found an irregular sign-group, in the northern second-floor window-recess of the tower. The signs were carved onto a square shaped stone-block, with some very sharp tool. Apart of the already known letters, there are several unknown signs, the contracted letters (ligatures) are bearing witness, about the peculiarity of the linearly placed voices. Again, there is a possibility, similarly as with the inscription of Bonyha, that perhaps ..."it does not even contain a Hungarian text (sentence)". Or perhaps, it suggests, that in Erdély, they did not write only with one type of Rovás alphabet? Even that is possible. Otherwise, on the stone, we distinguished 15 signs. We think, that they might have been carved in old, very old times, that is, at the time of construction of the tower, the stone was only secondarily reused. The church itself was built in year 1385.
It contains three carved Rovás sings: two are positioned in the top sun-dial, and they mean A (Á) and T letters, one however - the letter P - is next to the sun-dial. The last was placed by the carver on the neck of the powder-horn in perpendicular position.
The signs within the sun-dial perhaps mean a monogram, the letter P perhaps was the name of the object: the Kibédians called this implement for centuries, as porszaru, portartó (powder-horn, powder-container).
At the bottom of the wooden cup, three signs are visible, at the side of the handle. The deciphering is - progressing from right to left: VSB, that is VaS B. We think, it consists a family name and a first name beginning with letter B (Béla, Balázs etc.).
- The "inscribed" stone of the Presbyterian church in Erdőszentgyörgy, which is built in to the north-westerly buttress. According to the professional literature, "...the tower may be built, during the restoration works, in the thirties of 18-th Century". We publish the drawing of signs, according to Ferenczi. The sign-group does not has decipherment yet.
Erdőszentgyörgy at the end of 1860-ies
Two Rovás signs of the wooden flask from Makfalva. The two signs have sound-values T and R, and they were preserved on a flask (wooden bottle), made around middle of 19-th Century. The "face" of the T sign looks to right, that means for sure, it required reading from left. Most likely they represent a monogram. Apart from this, from Makfalva is known another very significant Rovás relic, this time a handwritten one, originating from year 1624.
A plank, containing carved Rovás signs, from Vadasd, which serves as a door-frame on a stable. We managed to decipher two Hungarian (that is, written by Latin alphabet) monograms. According to memories of present owner, Lajos Madaras, the letters CS and K are representing the name Császár Károly, who was his father's servant. The letters T J, however is the abbreviation of his friend, Tóth Jancsi. The stable of today was built in year 1920. The late servants often used to say, that the incised (rovott) signs, represent an "ancient writing", "ancient Rovás writing", that means, they may still remember the original "Székely writing" alphabet-system. They "wrote" their monograms across those signs. It seems probable, that the plank belonged to the previous stable, which was built before 1920, and it came to its present location only secondarily. We put the time of origin of those Rovás signs, to middle or second half of 19-th Century.
The inscription of Homoródkarácsonyfalu. During restoration works of a local church turned out, that the already earlier known Rovás inscription, but not reassuringly explained till our days, found on a fragment of orders of arches, is much older, than so far supposed. Namely, the inscribed stone
The Rovás inscription of the church in Homoródkarácsonyfalu
was built in, with "upside down" letters, to the late-Gothic tower, and could be dated to year 1496. Clearly, the researchers dated the script, to this time. Now however turned out, that the fragment of orders of arches, was a part of a demolished Roman-time portal, and only came into the tower, at the time of church reconstruction. As a consequence, the Rovás inscription could be carved in around 13-th Century.
Similar in age could be the inscription, which came to light in year 1994, at the site of a demolished Middle-Age church, near Vargyas. The letters were carved into the edge of a baptizing basin of archaic form, from 13-14-th Century. The probable reading of the inscription is: MiHáLyJ:iRTánKöVeT (Matthew wrote the stone).
Between years 1993 and 1995 came to light a monumental outer inscription of the Presbyterian church in Székelydálya. The row stretching in length of 9 meter and consisting letters of 9-12 cm hight, was carved into the Middle-Aged coat-of-plaster of the church nave. The decipherment of the inscription, damaged on many places, will be the task of the future. Its discovery is admonishing the restorers, that the Middle-Aged plasters can hide interesting things, even if they do not contain paintings. The time of origin of the inscription can be put to 1400 perhaps, namely at that time happened the renovation of the building, and the adornment of the inside and outside walls of the nave by wall-paintings.
Rovás inscriptions on the Presbyterian church in Székelydálya
In Maros shire - in two localities - we also keep in evidence mixed Rovás inscriptions. The one from Csejd is from year 1681, in the Bodroki proper name, the letter D was carved by Székely (Magyar) Rovás writing, into the lintel. Today, it can be found at the entrance of the Presbyterian church.
Mixed Rovás inscriptions can be found in Berekeresztúr too. Our first drawing contains the inscription Hic Fuit (in Latin: here was), the last letter is identical to Rovás T. On the second drawing, the second and fourth letters, have sound-values I and M, on the third drawing the second letter has also I sound-value. On the last two inscriptions, the strong Rovás character of the letters are stressed. Their reading is: Hic fui, or Hic fuit. The date of origin of the first three inscriptions is exactly known: 1619. The last two inscriptions' are similarly, beginning of 17-th Century.
The church in Berekeresztúr
Our dissertation we can not finish, without some general remarks.
We are confident, that the professional research in the future, will pay more attention, to the world of material implements. "We have to collect everything" - let's say, what is actually Hungarian "köly"? With words of Sándor Kányádi. We consciously know: people, which keeps forgetting its past, or falsify it, can not lay claim for coming centuries.
János Ráduly, Elek Benkő
Rovás Numerals
The Hungarians had their own system of Rovás signs, not only for writing, but for numbers too.
Till the end of last century, in Hungary the horse-herds, cattle-herds, shepherds and swine-herds took into account their live-stock, by means of Rovás-sticks (tallies, scoring-sticks). In the wooden staff was burnt in the owner's brand, then they carved in the number of animals, driven out to pasture. On the tally, the herdsman's numbers followed each other, from right to left. The carters also often used tallies, because it relieved the account of the load.
Tallies have been used worldwide, mainly for memorizing purposes, and for keeping evidence of lent/borrowed valuables. The adequate signs have been carved into the tally, then the staff was split lengthwise, one part was received by the creditor, the other by the debtor. The staff excluded any later changes by either side, and prevented any disputes between the parts.
The notation of numerals goes back till the most ancient times, when humans used only their fingers for counting. The first four numerals were represented by the fingers of a hand, the number five however originally looked like an open hand: IIIV, from this finally only the V remained.
Number ten-X however came into existence, by putting together two thumbs crosswise, which originally looked like: IIIIXIIII.
The Rovás writing was generally known in circle of Hungarians, it lived deeply in the consciousness of the people, which seems to be confirmed by numerous old proverbs. The following sayings perhaps refer to Rovás writing.
"Rovásra hazudik" - He/she is lying on tally. It means, somebody is an irresponsible lier. In old times, certainly some "laws", regulating the public life, were fixed by Rovás writing.
"Sok van a rovásán" - He/she has a lot on his/her tally, meaning, the person, who was addressed like this, had lots of debts, negligence and bad deeds. The origin of this saying can be traced back to debts written on the tally, but not yet payed off.
"Botra beszél" - Speaks on tally. This strange expression is used for a quarrelsome, pricking person, speaking wicked things. Perhaps it reflects the times, when they did not write yet on paper, but scored in tallies.
"Nem iszom én senki rovására" - I do not drink on anybody's tally. It means, I do not drink on other's expense, that is, I do not add my debt onto other's tally. - Folks song.
Note of the translator: I found some more proverbs related to Rovás: "Rovásod van" - You have a tally. Said as a threat, meaning: I will still check your debt, or I will count with you.
"Rovást kap" - Receive a Rovás, said for a school pupil, who got rebuked by a teacher.
"Lerótták a rovást" - They satisfied the tally, meaning: they punished somebody, or retaliated somebody's debt by beating.
"Mutogatja a rovást, pedig nem is tartozom" - He/she is showing the tally, although I am not indebted. Humorous saying, meaning: he is laughing, showing all his teeth. Perhaps the meaning was: being in possession of somebody's tally, was a good/happy circumstance.
"Elvesztette a rovást" - Lost her tally, said for a pregnant woman, who badly calculated the date of a childbirth. (Source: Magyar szólások és közmondások - Hungarian Sayings and Proverbs, Gondolat, Budapest, 1985.)
The above listed examples and the multitude of relics, is proving, that yes indeed, we have our own ancient writing, and we did not arrive to the Carpathian Basin as some barbarian horde. Since long generations we used it, and succeeded to preserve across the Middle-Ages. We shall do everything, that the last bastion of our ancient culture, do not fall down, we shall not let, that exactly in the 20-th Century, the Magyar Rovás sink into oblivion.
I leave with the words of János Fadrusz.
"I see the future with prophetic eyes... What an outlook! I see, times are coming, when our children in schools will learn the alphabet of our ancestors. Our enthusiastic master-builders will reconstruct the Hungarian building-style, and on the faces of public buildings, we will read in Rovás their purpose... The foreigner will see the very-own handwriting of our ancestors. And every Hungarian will proudly, with throbbing heart, show the scored inscriptions, and explain to the foreigners, that our ancestors wrote, during millennia, with the very same letters! And it was ours, we kept it alive, and will keep it from now forever, as ours, Hungarian..."
Few Geographical Names related to Rovás Script, without claim to completeness
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1. Bologna (Italy) 2. Nicolsburg (Bohemia) 3. Constantinople (Turkey) 4. Nagyszentmiklós (former Torontál shire) 5. Margit-sziget 6. Szarvas 7. Homokmégy-Halom (Duna-Tisza-space) 8. Felsőszemeréd (beside Léva) 9. Tordos (former Hunyad shire) 10.Tatárlaka (former Hunyad shire) 11. Bögöz 12. Énlaka 13. Dálnok 14. Gelence 15. Székelyderzs |
16. Székelydálya 17. Homoródkarácsonyfalva 18. Vargyas 19. Kilyén 20. Csíkszentmiklós 21. Bonyha 22. Berekeresztúr 23. Kibéd 24. Szolokma 25. Erdőszentgyörgy 26. Makfalva 27. Vadasd 28. Csejd 29. Csíkszentmárton 30. Csíkszentmihály |
Rovás Characters proposed by us:
According to given sources, text selected, written, edited by
Acknowledgement:
- EXTERNET Internet Provider for generous assistance,
- Inforum Invest for a granted subsidy for material preparations,
- Special thanks to Mr György Kucsera manager for his personal help.
Source Bibliography:
- Ruffy Péter: Bujdosó nyelvemlékeink, Móra Ferenc Könyvkiadó, 1977.
- Kéki Béla: Az írás története, Gondolat Könyvkiadó, 1971.
- Magyar Fórum hetilap,
- Magyar Út Alapítvány,
- Sebestyén Gyula: A magyar rovásírás hiteles emlékei, Akadémia, 1915.
- Varga Domokos: A mogyeriektől Mohácsig, Tankönyvkiadó Budapest, 1992.
- Csorba Csaba: Árpád jöve magyar néppel, Helikon Könyvkiadó, 1996.,
- História történelmi folyóirat, 1996. és 1997.,
- A honfoglaló magyarság,
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