From the history of the publication of early Hungarian texts in the 19th century

Gábor Döbrentei and Early Hungarian Linguistic Records

Abstract

The pursuit of independence that was characteristic of the reform age in Hungary foregrounded the issue of language. The Hungarian Learned Society, founded in 1830, gave institutional support to the cultivation of Hungarian: it defined it first and most important task as cultivation of the national language. In 1832 it was decided that latent old manuscripts should be collected so that obsolete Hungarian words and constructions can be rescued and revealed. It was decided that manuscripts hidden in Hungarian libraries should be found, original documents should be collected and published in sourcebooks in order to make a thorough exploration of the history of Hungary possible. The collected documents were first published in a series of volumes entitled Early Hungarian Linguistic Records. Gábor Döbrentei was appointed compiler and editor of the series in 1934. Volume One was published in 1838, Volume Two in 1840, and Volume Three in 1842. The last two volumes were completed and published in 1888 by György Volf. The way those early texts were presented, the principles of text processing are still pertinent today, even though errors do occur in the texts. The appreciation of Gábor Döbrentei (1785–1851), former secretary general of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, literary organizer, translator, and writer, is equivocal within the history of Hungarian literature. His most renowned accomplishment is his share of the collection of early Hungarian documents; but he was also active as a language reformer: he coined a large number of new words and had an important role in the Hungarianization of geographical names of the hilly area around Buda.