THE FIRST HALF OF THE MIDDLE HUNGARIAN PERIOD
TURKISH LOAN WORDS

THE FIRST HALF OF THE
MIDDLE HUNGARIAN PERIOD

From the point of view of Hungarian linguistic history the first half of the Middle Hungarian period started after the disastrous defeat of Mohács and finished when Turkish rule ended (1526-1699). The most important change in the language was unification, the development of literary language regardless of regional dialects. The first step in this process was the appearance of regional variants (mainly the western and north-western variants became dominant). The gap separating them later narrowed, and they mingled - creating a unified Hungarian language variant. There were minor changes in the system of the language as well: new elements appeared, old elements disappeared, and the number of these either increased or decreased, but these changes did not bring about important changes regarding the whole system of the Hungarian language, they just made it more refined. In the Middle Hungarian period the language became much richer and more colourful and flexible. The best evidence for this was that it became the poetic tool of excellent Hungarian poets such as Bálint Balassi, János Rimay, Miklós Zrínyi, and István Gyöngyösi. Prose was also developed by outstanding writers, for example Péter Bornemisza and Péter Pázmány. The political situation (the country was divided into three parts) broke the tradition, whereby the royal court had played a major role in the proliferation of culture. Instead of this a new audience was formed in noble castles (the Perényis, the Zrínyis, the Batthyányis, the Rákóczis, the Báthoris, the Thurzós and the Eszterházis), who supported culture. From what had at an earlier time been scriptoriums (codex copying workshops) - in Óbuda, the Island of Rabbits and elsewhere - monks and nuns fled, so the cultural, text copying and linguistic role of monasteries, which had been so significant in the Old Hungarian period, came to a temporary halt. The spread of the Reformation started a new text creating process, which also had a great impact on linguistic development.

The language of schools was Latin in this period (there were hardly any schools for the common people, and the development of public education was very slow). Thus Latin became the basic language for literate people. It was quite usual for Latin words and sentences to be used in Hungarian texts, and Latin words were ascribed Hungarian endings. The Latin text was sometimes typographically separated. The language of science and administration was Latin, so we can appreciate the efforts when the authors of the first grammar books tried to create a scientific terminology (for example, János Sylvester: consonantes = mássalzengők [consonants], imperativus = parancsoló [imperative].

As far as the development of Hungarian language usage was concerned the Reformation played an important role in the 16th century. Reformers talked and argued for the reform of religion in the mother tongue. Bible translations and collections of sermons were made for the same reason, and the language of theological disputes was also Hungarian (for example, between the Catholic Miklós Telegdi and the Protestant Péter Bornemisza). Among Bible translations Gáspár Károlyi's work is worth mentioning (The Holy Bible, Vizsoly, 1590). It was also called the Vizsoly Bible, which was the first Hungarian complete Protestant Bible translation. The text became the model of Old Testament style for centuries, and it was also popularised by the songs of the Reformation. It had a great impact on the development of Hungarian literary language. This complete Bible was so successful that Károlyi's text was reedited several times - with minor changes and modifications - during the following centuries. Its Catholic counterpart, the Jesuit György Káldi's work, was published in Vienna in 1626. It also had some revised editions. Regarding the development of the Hungarian language it was a great success, when the leading figure of the so-called Counter-Reformation, Péter Pázmány created a linguistic model. The singing of the contemporary event of history is also connected to the mother tongue (for example, Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos).

The language was dealt with in a deliberate manner for the first time during the 16-17th centuries in Hungary, when the first dictionaries and grammar books appeared. Patriotic feelings implied a feeling of being in connection to the mother tongue, so the cultivation and systematisation of it became an important issue. Written texts were created in great numbers, which lead to the development of a lot of new genres in Hungarian fiction and scientific literature. New secular genres were chronicles in verse, school dramas, historical songs, occasional songs; new ecclesiastical genres were Bible translations, religious didactic prose (polemical essays, praying works), religious songs, Bible stories, and dispute dramas. From the point of view of linguistics, correspondence in the mother tongue was a very important issue in the Middle Hungarian period. Missile letters had two main forms: the humanist letter, which satisfied literary requirements as well, and personal letters, which served the purpose of keeping in touch with family members. These personal letters were very close to contemporary living language, so it is worth examining them.

Book printing

A technological innovation, the appearance of book printing played a highly significant role in the spread of the mother tongue in the country. Starting with the 1530s several printing houses began to function in different parts of Hungary (János Sylvester's, or Tamás Nádasdy's press in Újsziget, near Sárvár; the Hoffgreff printing house in Kolozsvár, which was taken over by Gáspár Heltai; Gál Huszár's press in Debrecen; the Klöss press in Bártfa, and the Brewer press in Lőcse).

The development of book printing had a great impact on the spread of culture and the Hungarian language, and it made cheap printed books available to a wide range of people. Books became travelling companions to educated people, and the permanent residents of castles. Book printing encouraged the spread of literacy among simple people. In contrast to previous manuscript forms, writers had to satisfy the demand for more authentic and richer ways of recording texts.

Codex copiers had had a very different attitude towards the original manuscripts than did printers (type setters, correctors). In the 16-17th centuries they were able to intervene in the language of printed works, some of them - for example, Heltai - adjusted the original text of the author to their own language usage. So certain linguistic inconsistencies and mixed text styles can be attributed to the printers. The changes influenced the linguistic phenomena in various ways. But they definitely played a major role in creating a demand for a unified Hungarian literary language. So book printing was very important from the point of view of linguistic unity. It raised literacy to high standards and made the recording of text more accurate. Since the rapid spread of works was in the interest of both the author and the printer, the use of local dialects was avoided wherever possible, and this process contributed to the unification of the language and encouraged people to pay attention to their language in Hungary.

Hungarian grammar books and dictionaries

The series of secular textual memories of the 16th century started with two works printed in Krakow: the first was Hegendorf's Rudimenta grammatices Donati, and the second was Heyden Sebald's Tverilium Colloquiorum Formulae. These were multilingual books (besides the Hungarian parts, there were sections in Latin, German and Polish); used as grammar books in schools, the Hungarian example sentences and explanations of which originate from János Sylvester. Sylvester's own, independent work is Grammatica Hungarolatina, which is a Latin-Hungarian grammar in Latin with Hungarian examples. His goal was to summarise the grammar of the Latin language, but the Hungarian equivalents or differences following the Latin rules, and the comments on these reflect several special features of the Hungarian language. Numerous spelling, phonetic, morphological (articles, possessive suffixes, definite inflection [objective]), vocabulary and stylistic rules were mentioned here first (with his encouragement several Bible translators felt the necessity to write essays on preaching). He applied the described rules consistently in his works, so grammar could play an important role. His significance was that he considered the Hungarian language - which was thought to be a barbaric one - suitable for fitting into a grammatical structure, just as Latin, Greek or Hebrew did. In the introduction to his grammar he drew the following conclusion: 'if we can use our language, this treasure - which was hidden from us until now, but which we discovered and brought into the light - we will soon become wealthy (as I hope and desire)'.

The first printed grammatical work written solely in Hungarian was a book on spelling rules, Mátyás Dévai Bíró's Orthographia Vngarica (Krakow, 1549). The first edition from 1535 was unfortunately lost, so we can only learn about these rules from the second edition. As a source of the history of the language, this work is more than just a collection of spelling rules. In the framework of orthographic rules Dévai mentioned a lot of phonetic and morphological features of the language. Based on his knowledge of old and contemporary spelling, German and Polish orthographic literature he compiled the first set of spelling rules, which described every important bit of Hungarian spelling. For example, he differentiated between the forming and marking of sounds a and á. Another example of the consonants showed how exactly he knew the old and contemporary markings. He did not favour the marking of the sound cs as cz, ch or c, and he was against using the old mark for L (Hussite marking). For marking the sound cs, Dévai himself used cz at the beginning of the word, but in the middle and at the ends he used (. His most special markings were the assimilated sounds of az/ez (for example, ak kerest'enecnec, al lelki, eh haszonra). His aim - as he was a pioneer in the development of the language - was to spread literacy.

The first 17th-century Hungarian grammar was written by Albert Szenczi Molnár, and was called Novae Grammaticae Ungaricae (Hanau, 1610). When compiling his work he probably did not know Sylvester's work, although he had the same aim, namely to prove the fact that the Hungarian language was on the same level as other European languages. He also wanted to make Hungarian available for foreigners who wished to learn it, so he presented not only spelling rules, but also a complete grammatical system, the basis of which was Latin grammar. For example, he describes the system of inflection in two chapters, first together with the Latin declination classes, then with the Hungarian suffixes of Latin prepositions. Compared to previous grammars his most important innovation was that his work contained syntax as well, the old syntactical rules being mentioned here in detail for the first time. He talked about agreement, and discovered that no subject was used after the third person plural. His role in the development of spelling is worth mentioning. He summarised all the principles about spelling, and fixed the marking of u and. He decreased the variations in marking, and the so-called Protestant spelling spread throughout his works. This system - as Heltai's heritage - fixed the marking of long vowel sounds, the writing of palatal consonants (which is the same as we use today) and the marking of sound sz. Szenci was the first who used the language consciously in his works - having surveyed its contemporary condition (vocabulary and grammatical system). His books had a tremendous impact on people. He followed the é dialect instead of the í one, and used the ë instead of the ö one. Thus he created a more unified dialect free from local extremes.

István Geleji Katona was the first to write on language development in the broader sense of the word. He developed Transylvanian culture, studying and spreading contemporary Hungarian language and spelling. He dealt with Hungarian spelling, composition and style, probably under the influence of contemporary German linguistic societies. He wrote about the peculiarities of the Hungarian language in two works: in his introduction to a collection of songs called The Old Gradual and in his Magyar Grammatikatska, which was added to a book containing his theological essays called The Secret of Secrets. Geleji formed his conclusions about the Hungarian language based on his literary work. In the introduction to The Old Graduale he drew attention to the following features: in contrast to the theory used in spelling up to that time, people should use the theory of word analysis. His comment on marking sounds was quite significant. He separated the letters i, y, j. In connection with marking sounds his comment on runic writing was very interesting: he claimed that old letters should be used for marking the respective sounds. This is in contrast with the word analysing method, and we do not know whether he knew these old letters, but it is a very important piece of information from the point of view of cultural history. In the field of morphology he lacked the separation of active and passive verbs, and the fact that words of possession were used in the singular, no matter how many are being referred to.

Geleji's other work about the language was the Magyar Grammatikatska [Little Hungarian Grammar]. The most significant part of this was that he defined the basic principles of spelling with the development of phonetic signs used for the basic sounds (for example, he excluded c when referring to the sound k). He also supported the word analysing method in spelling, and in connection with this topic he dealt with the spelling of assimilation and compound words, which had been a neglected field up to that time. His comment on the spelling of compound words is also worth noting, according to which 'he connected the elements of the compound word with the help of a short line', for example, Anya-szent-egy-ház [the Church]. In harmony with the rules today, he suggested the usage of Hungarian spelling in the case of loan words, for example, Farao, Profeta. He had some stylistic remark in his work about the suitability of the words used in a special context, as he attributed great value to emotions in vocabulary, and under Szenczi's influence he drew attention to the richness of suffixes in the Hungarian language. Geleji played an important role in developing the vocabulary, especially in the field of technical terms, so could be considered the forerunner of language reform. He bravely declared that forming new words is acceptable, and he really introduced a lot of common words in literature, and formed even more technical terms (terminus technicus), which are still in use today, for example, intézet [institution], emberiség [humankind], and élőbeszéd [living speech]. Thus he played a major role in the development of Hungarian literary language. However, the Magyar Grammatikatska is not a systematic grammar, it is rather a collection of suggestions concerning spelling and vocabulary, it is the first book on the cultivation of the language. He had a great impact on people and as a result gained numerous followers as well as opponents. He did not isolate himself when talking about his views concerning the language.

One of his opponents was Pál Medgyesi, who wrote a book on preaching and rhetorics in 1650. We can consider it the first Hungarian systematic rhetoric, where he made a distinction, for example, between speeches for common people and speeches for noble audiences.

The most outstanding follower of Geleji was János Apáczai Csere, who wanted to form secular technical terms within the world of science. He used Magyar Grammatikatska a lot, it is also possible that he had personal discussions with Geleji about the forming of technical terms. János Apáczai Csere studied from great humanists, and recognised that the language is a system which can be formed and the vocabulary be developed in three major ways: 1. by rewriting words in the mother tongue which were less frequently used, 2. by creating new words, 3. by using words taken from foreign languages. He used the second method a lot, the basic principles of which he studied from Geleji. He adopted several expressions from him, for example, quantitas [quantity]; he acquired new ways of forming words, for example, passive structures and shorter forms, and he tried to use Geleji's rule, i.e. that one Hungarian word should be used for expressing a notion which was expressed with a single foreign word. Apáczai's Encyclopaedia was highly significant, not only from the point of view of word forming, but also because of the fact that he emphasised that only the mother tongue is suitable for understanding the world and one another. (This principle was previously explained by Comenius, but he preferred Latin in his school books, and the vulgar parts were only interpretations of the Latin texts.) Unfortunately, Apáczai did not have a great impact on the language or science.

György Komáromi Csipkés's Hungaria Illustrata (1655) was the next Hungarian grammar book. Although he concentrated on spelling and morphology in his work, he discovered numerous minor points in connection with the structure of the Hungarian language. He re-evaluated the contemporary linguistic phenomena from the point of view of grammatical accuracy and style. It is very important that in the process of forming the rules the author was driven by the function of the language and not Latin grammar. He recognised the importance of establishing a unified spelling system, and he developed the phonetic spelling; for example, he approved the usage of long vowels: á, é. By describing morphological rules in detail, he fixed certain phenomena which had previously existed in variations. To unify the spelling of words which existed in numerous forms he used only one form consistently. For example, he corrected previous observations about the comparative and superlative of adjectives, in regard to declination he declared that there is only one type of declination in Hungarian. He recognised the morphological and functional differences between general (subjective) and definite (objective) forms of declination. In the course of his linguistic observations he also dealt with the question of how suitable the Hungarian language was for study. This can be linked with the author's knowledge of languages (Greek, Hebrew, eastern languages), so he often compared Hungarian - especially phonetic features - with other languages. He also published two books on Hebrew grammar and one on English grammar, so teaching languages must have been an important issue for him. György Komáromi Csipkés - as a scientist - probably had quite a reputation at the time, since he was entrusted with publishing a new Protestant Bible in Debrecen. Because of the chaotic situation this Bible was not published during his lifetime, but rather posthumously in Leyden in 1719.

Pál Pereszlényi's Grammatica Lingvae Ungaricae (1682) is the second almost complete summary of the grammar of the Hungarian language. The aim of the author was to create a grammar book which would help in the teaching of the language. He took his examples from the works of Péter Pázmány and György Káldi, proving his commitment to the Jesuits and his linguistic ideals. The significance of Pereszlényi's grammar is that we can find comments on syntax as well (in this respect his predecessor was Albert Szenczi Molnár), and he recorded several contemporary phenomena backed up by lots of examples. He dealt with possessive forms, and he realised that one element had en ending in the dative case (-nak/-nek ending) and the possessive word had a third person possessive ending. Very systematically - without precedents - he described the cases when the -nak/-nek ending could be omitted in the possessive. He set out a rule - similar to the one used today - about relative pronouns. While observing linguistic features, Pereszlényi discovered a very important thing: vowel harmony. He described it as the key to the Hungarian language. His long chapter on verbs and conjugation is probably the most valuable and most independent part of his work. It is interesting and new that Pereszlényi categorised conjugation according to the different forms and endings, just as it is done today. There were four categories (subjective, objective, passive and ik-type). It is also very interesting what Pereszlényi thought about tenses: the narrative past was really used for describing the historical past at that time. If we compare Pereszlényi's work with previous grammars, we can see that he stuck to Latin examples, he used more of them than his predecessors, but he paid more attention to examining stylistic elements (he respected the different styles of authors and the different stylistic elements of different genres). Even though his work developed from the Jesuit educational system, and his work remained the leading book on Catholic spelling, he adopted a lot of things from the works of Albert Szenczi Molnár, István Geleji Katona and György Komáromi Csipkés. In many cases he used these authors' norms, which showed that the Hungarian language was slowly moving towards standardisation and adjustment.

Printed word lists, dictionaries and phrase-books

In this period the publishing of printed word lists became a business, and the range of users also widened. While earlier they were only used in school, by the 16-17th centuries they were being made for private use, and their function changed as well: they were not used for learning the Latin language any more, but became the tools of studying the mother tongue, they also functioned as a means of high-quality literacy, that is stylistics. Besides these functions they helped the verbal communication of people who spoke different languages. Multi-lingual word lists and dictionaries became very popular. From among the ones which contained Hungarian János Sylvester's word list in four languages was published in Krakow in 1531. This is known only from bibliographical records, the original one has never turned up. A Dutch scientist's, Murmellius' Latin-German word list was also very popular, and its 1533 Krakow edition contained Hungarian material as well. In 1538 in Vienna Gábor Pesti's work in six languages was published, which was known mainly abroad. Balázs Szikszai Fabricius compiled a Latin-Hungarian word list in 1590. The Italian Calepinus' dictionary, which was finally published in eleven languages, appeared in the 16th century (Lyon, 1585: it included thousands of Hungarian words and phrases). In Veranics's dictionary in five languages (Venice, 1595) there are only 5,400 Hungarian words, but this can be considered the predecessor of Hungarian etymological dictionaries, since at the end it listed the loan words in the Hungarian language which - according to the author - might have been of Slav origin. The most significant dictionary of the 17th century was Albert Szenczi Molnár's work called Dictionarivm Latinovngaricvm and Dictionarivm Vngaricolatinvm (Nürnberg, 1604): this was the first dictionary, where Hungarian was the source language. In the 16th century phrase-books - made after European models and using them as sources - became popular, which collected bigger phraseological units. The first one in Hungary was János Baranyai Decsi's work, which was published in 1598 in Bártfa and contained 5,000 phrases.

The development of literary language

The sign of the birth of a non-dialectal ideal language was the appearance of the above-mentioned grammar books and dictionaries. The period itself was also ideal for dealing with the mother tongue: the Reformation encouraged people to read religious literature in the mother tongue, and humanism placed an emphasis on the conscious study of the language. As we have already seen, in the first half of the 16th century certain Hungarian writers used their own dialects, for example, Sylvester tried to bring the í dialect to literary rank, Gábor Pesti followed the tradition of chancelleries, Heltai used a special dialect in his works and Dévai tried to make up a transitional spelling. All these experiments led to the fact that clerks tried to use a special dialect in written communication, which was different from all the existing ones. Although they intended to stick to the rules, they tried to avoid dialectal features, but their sense of adjustment was not yet stable. By the 17th century there were two separate systems. The north-eastern dialect was the í-type, and it used the tött, vött type past tense. The western dialect used the ö-type forms and the suffix ít was used like ét.

Not only scientists but also the cultivators of literature played an important role in bringing the mother tongue to a literary rank. In this period several new genres were born (many of them were based on translation), which reflected the flexibility and richness of the Hungarian language and helped in the development of more punctual, more colourful expressions. In the dedication part of János Sylvester's translation of the New Testament he used nice Hungarian distichs to prove that the language was suitable for classical poetry and only a few European languages could compete with it. In the preface of Gábor Pesti's Aesop's Fables (1536) the author declared that the cultivation of the mother tongue is a duty that everyone must fulfil. These experiments prove that humanist intellectuals felt it was their task to deal with the mother tongue. Hungarian writers played a major role in the development of stylistics and style (on both theoretical - e.g.: Rimay - and practical levels - e.g.: Pázmány). Only a few of them can be examined, since the majority of authors created their own, specific style, making the Hungarian language richer and more valued.

The two outstanding poets of the period were Bálint Balassi and Miklós Zrínyi. Balassi's main merit from the point of view of the language was his talent in creating poetic pictures and images. He himself mentioned it in the prologue of the Fine Hungarian Comedy. He wanted to prove that the Hungarian language is as rich as any other European one. Balassi's text reviser, János Rimay also pointed out the importance of enriching the language through poetry. In his rhetoric Rimay preferred the method of paraphrasing, though he was not happy about the fact that in Hungary knowledge of the secrets of rhetoric was rare on the ground. He believed that the way to rise above common speech was to learn rhetoric, the characteristic features of which are: the richness of vocabulary, the enrichment of simple adjectival structures and the multiplication of synonyms in the case of verbal predicates.

The significance of Miklós Zrínyi's work was the conscious use of the Hungarian language. In his works he wrote about the fact that he used a kind of unnatural language on purpose. His prosaic works followed classical rhetorical patterns. His Epic poem and his lyrical works still show some dialectical features, although we can find some tools of archaisation in them, for example, when he imitated the vala rhymes of historical songs or the usage of the past tense. In his works he considered the limits of the Hungarian language as an insufficiency. From the point of view of language development this was a warning and inspiration to form a standardised Hungarian literary language and form of spelling.

István Gyöngyösi was the most outstanding thinker of stylistics and poetry in the 17th century. He was the founder of light court style poetry. Due to his popularity he had a great impact on the usage and forms of the language in the 18th century. In the preface of his epic poem entitled János Kemény's Memory he wrote about the differences between common speech and the speech used in poetry. He mentioned the freedom of the poet to manipulate the language, word formation and the usage of words and forms of the local dialect carefully chosen from the point of view of style.

In connection with the prosaic style two persons must be mentioned, Péter Bornemisza and Péter Pázmány, who looked to different churches. Bornemisza re-established preaching literature. In his stories (especially in Devilish Ghosts) he used the poetic tools of dramatic concentration and emphasis, and he was the one who best used real life experiences as a technique for reasoning. In his Electra translation he tried to reflect living speech.

Péter Pázmány raised several ecclesiastic genres to the level of the literary language (for example, polemical essays, preaching, gracious prose). His polemical essays were the most excellent pieces of Hungarian prose: he made his writing even more colourful by the use of satire, mockery and humour, and he was very talented in the use of turns of style parody. His merit in the development of the language was that he could turn living speech into a rhetoric art. He was very good at using proportional, articulate and well-balanced periods. A very effective element of his style was straight-forward, harsh naturalism; he used the linguistic treasure from the images of the Bible as well as dramatic turns. In his works we can read about his views on the language (Preaching). He concentrated on the moral impact of the language, and pointed out the role of language in culture: 'The aim of the language is to spread wise sciences'. It is also worth mentioning Pázmány's views on translation. This was a huge problem in the period as the new genres came from foreign languages, so the translators had to struggle with the differences in the structure of the languages. It was very important when Pázmány emphasised the fact that the translation must sound as if it was from the mouth of a Hungarian native speaker.

The structure of the language in this period

The most significant changes in the Hungarian language took place in the Ancient Hungarian period. The Old Hungarian period was also very important - although less significant, as there were only peripheral changes in the system, which concerned minor details rather than grammatical rules. However, the structure of the language in the Middle Hungarian period became richer - in regard to both vocabulary and the grammatical structure.

Dialects

As was mentioned before, the most important development of the age was the establishment of a standardised literary language. We can define the dialects compared to this linguistic norm. These dialects had their impact on literary language, especially in the vocabulary. The most evident method of the categorisation of dialects is the examination of phonetic features, which were typical for a given region, and they were not adopted by the standard language (for example, ó > uo, ao in the region beyond the river Tisza).

Phonetic structure

In this period there were only a few changes in the general phonetic structure which took place not only in the majority of dialects but also in literary language. One of them was when the long open e turned into é (kez > kéz), which was completed by the second half the 17th century, except for some dialects. So the long open e phoneme ceased to exist. The structure of phoneme was broadened by one single element, dzs. It was adopted from Osman-Turkish loan words: findzsa, dzsida. A more general feature in the Middle Hungarian period was the change in the load on phonemes. This process concerned the phoneme ly: partly it became j, partly l, for example, Kiraj (1696), mihalt, heltelen (1585). The ly > l change could be strongly detected in the Transdanubian region, especially in its southern and western parts, and later it became a dialectal characteristic feature, and the j pronunciation spread to most parts of Hungary. The affricanisation in the suffix -ózik/-ozik (1645: Rugodzik) increased the frequency of phoneme dz.

Vocabulary

The acceleration of the change in the way of life in the 16-17th centuries also enriched the vocabulary of the Hungarian language in spite of the historical vicissitudes. This process was helped by the development in literature, the spread of book printing, which increased the number of readers, and the developing literary language. The strong literary influence contributed to the forming of new expressions of full delicate tones. So the forming of expressive, onomatopoetic words became quite intensive in the period.

Word formation contributed to the richness of the Hungarian language with several new elements from the Mohács disaster in 1526 to the reoccupation of Buda in 1686. Words referring to concrete objects were formed: szegély [edge], kendő [kerchief], kenőcs [ointment], tekercs [roll], küldemény [parcel]. A lot of words were formed which referred to abstract ideas: lehetőség [possibility], karcsúság [slimness], aggodalom [worry], lelemény [creative thought]. From among new noun forming suffixes the diminutive suffix -i is worthy of note, which became popular very soon (for names like Mari, Feri, Pali). The suffix -né, used for referring to the marital status of women [= Mrs], had already appeared in the Old Hungarian period, but became general only in this age (Kápolnai Ferencné [Mrs Ferenc Kápolnai]). New noun forming suffixes were -aj/-ej, which was added to fictive onomatopoetic roots: kacaj [laugh], dörej [thunderbolt]. The most vivid verb forming frequentative suffixes were -dogál/-degél/-dögél, -doz/-dez/-döz, -gat/-get. From among motif suffixes -amodik, -int, -ít were active. There were changes in the function of certain suffixes: -at/-et, which had referred to the process of the action previously, but now signified the result of the action. The previous role of -at/-et was taken over by -ás/-és; this suffix also signified the place of the action in the Middle Hungarian period (lakás [living in an apartment], szállás [accommodation]). But the majority of suffixes functioned in the same way as before.

Compound words were made up to refer to new notions, it was a more efficient method than word formation. In this period there were a lot of new compound words: e.g., könyvnyomtató [book printer]. Many of these new words do not exist in modern Hungarian any more, e.g, hajnyomtató [hair presser = hair band], igazlátó [judge], szembelétel [trial, interview]. There were reduplicated forms in the language: dirib-darab [pieces], terefere [chat].

Conscious word forming was the characteristic feature of the language reform (later), but there were individual initiations in this period as well. János Sylvester, for example, formed a lot of technical terms: köznév[common name], tulajdonnév [proper name], vádoló [accusative]. He also used new names of months: instead of februaris or böjtelő hó [the month before the fast] he used lágyhó [smooth month], instead of október or mindszent hava [the month of all saints] he used borvető hó [wine month]. Geleji Katona also encouraged word formation in theory. A lot of his words have been forgotten since then, but some of them have survived szerzemény [acquisition], hozomány [dowry], emberiség [humankind]. János Apáczai Csere also created several scientific terms: középpont [origo], súrlódás [friction], kiterjedtség [expansion], számláló [numerator], nevező [denominator].

In the 16-17th centuries the polite form of addressing people was formed in the language; in connection with this, new pronouns were used; for example, maga [self > you] became a personal pronoun. This process might have started when the second person pronoun was supplemented with very polite titles: te Kegyelmed [your grace], ti Nagyságtok [you greatness]. These were the forms used for theeing each other. However, owing to longer forms of address the second person pronoun (te tegyed, ti jóságotok) were changed into third person pronouns (te Kegyelmed tegye, ti Nagyságtok jósága).

One of the ways of enriching the vocabulary is to attribute new meaning to words - especially the main forms of speech (verbs and nouns). In the 16th century jámbor [good man] meant 'honest, sincere', but Geleji Katona explained that it was used for 'fool, ugly'. The word agyafúrt [cunning] had several meanings until today: 'one with a broken skull' > 'crazy' > 'stubborn' > 'cunning, shrewd'(1616). One explanation for the change in meaning is that homonyms are created when the name of an object is transferred to an other object; there are two parallel forms in the language, then one of the meanings becomes dominant. So the word bolt [arched ceiling, a room for trade] got its meaning in the same way in the 16-17th centuries. In the Middle Ages bolt referred to workshops on the side of bigger buildings, so it was frequently used for places of trade or selling. In the 16th century compound words like kalmárbolt [merchant's shop], patikaszerszámosbolt [apothek tools shop] were quite popular, while in the 17th century it was very rare with this meaning (búzásbolt [seed store]).

Another way of enriching the vocabulary was borrowing words from foreign languages. The language of science, politics and culture was still Latin, and its usage was so widespread that several Latin words were built into the Hungarian language as loan words. The words of Protestant church organisation (kollégium [college], kurátor [curator], presbyter [presbyter]), and school (ceruza [pencil], kotta [musical notes], professzor [professor] ) and the life of the state ( apellálni [to appeal], citálni [to cite], dieta [parliament]) were adopted during the 16-17th centuries. German loan words were used in every field of life: porcelán [porcelain], kugli [pinball], kalap [hat], cukor [sugar], prés [press], drót [wire], mundér [uniform], and kvartély [accommodation]. Slav loan words were associated with farming (szecska [chaff], repce [rape], hombár [garner]), illnesses (csömör [surfeit], zsába [neuralgia]). Italian loan words were connected to cooking: saláta [salad], mazsola [raisin], torta [cake]. Turkish loan words were used in state administration and for military ranks (we can meet them in Balassi's and Zrínyi's works), but some of these are used as historical terms only: vilajet [vilayet], szandzsak [sandjak], bég [governer]. Besides words which slowly disappeared from the language, there are some old ones used in connection with eating, for example, kávé [coffee], ibrik [cup], findzsa, (tea-cup), and items of clothing (pamut [cotton], papucs [slipper]).

The grammatical structure

In conjugation the following main changes took place in the usage of general (subjective) and definite (objective) forms: in the Old Hungarian period the second person forms of certain verbs (ending in -t) in the imperative were used as taníts [teach], láss [see]. In the second half of the 16th century even Péter Bornemisza used this form like this: ne keseríts [do not make {her} sad]. However, in the 17th century this phenomenon disappeared from the language, and the regular tanítsd [teach], lásd [see], tanítsad [teach], lássad [see] came back into use. There was an inconsistency in using other forms of definite conjugation: next to a definite subject we could often find a general verb. Although the regular form - which is used in modern Hungarian as well - was more frequently used, this does not constitute a change in the rules, it was only a vacillation. In many cases the definite conjugation might have been a tool for expressing different styles, as Zrínyi used the archaic technique in his epic poem, The Disaster of Sziget, which tried to copy the atmosphere of historic songs with the modification of grammatical rules.

The -ik type conjugation was also modified. The forms of paradigm with -ik and without -ik were mixed, and it can be traced in contemporary grammar books. For example, Pál Kövesdi (1686) thought it was all the same which form we use (the -ik or the one without -ik), sometimes he preferred the one without -ik. The group of verbs ending in -ik itself became changeable: some verbs ending in -ik (lépik [step], köpik [spit]) lost their endings, while the ones without the -ik ending (buv [hide], hazud [lie], foly [flow]) took on an -ik ending, and even more, some verbs had two forms in the third person singular, for example, omol [come down], romol [go bad], omlik, romlik (Pál Pereszlényi, 1682).

Regarding tenses, the different functions of past tenses became unified. First the function of vár vala [was/were waiting] type past continuous became weaker. Although Tinódi's numerous rhyming vala-s referred to incompleted actions, it replaced the narrative past in several cases. The vártam vala or vártam volt [I waited] type (it was another kind of past tense) slowly took over the role of the narrative past. The functional differences between vára : várt also became insignificant. Both versions appeared with the same function. According to the Latin conjugation system grammar books still made a distinction between the past tenses, although they did not identify them with Latin verb forms. So the system of past tenses became simpler. As a result of this process the most frequently used form of the past tense became the -t, but the várá type was also in use. There were changes in the usage of the future tense as well. The future tense expressed with a time suffix became rare (várand), instead of this form the analytic fog type was used (várni fog), or the simple present.

All these changes in conjugation were encouraged by the fact that the system of prepositions also began to develop. New prepositions were formed as some adverbs changed their function: agyon [all/over], neki [against], keresztül [through], szét [apart]. The function of some prepositions became different, for example, the function of the -nd type future was taken over by a prepositional present tense: látandom - (majd meglátom) [I will see]; while the perfective role of the preposition to express past continuous and past perfect tenses became an easier and more flexible tool than relevant verb forms (thus the perfect forms could be expressed in the conditional: meglátta volna) Prepositional verb forms from this period were, for example, megbotoz [beat with a stick], felcifráz [decorate], lemond [resign], leborotvál [shave off].

There were changes in the morphological structure of verb forms: conditional forms such as várnája, kérnéjék (conditional with definite conjugation) were pushed back, simpler verb forms (várná [he/she would wait for it], kérnék [they would ask it] became more popular. However, in the case of other elements, paradigms or long forms remained in use besides the short forms: láttak, kértek - láttanak, kértenek.

The usage of Latin moods (the usage of the conditional mood in certain subordinate clauses) in the literary language was still in practice in the period, but the Hungarian usage of the language became more widespread.

The system of adverbial suffixes and postfixes was also characterised by richer, finer forms at that time. Számra [for me], számára [for him/her], szemben [opposite], folytán [during] became postfixes in the 16th century. The meaning of alatt [under] widened and became more abstract. The postfix képpen (> képp) [as, in a ...way] turned into an inflectional ending. In Transylvanian linguistic sources the so-called family ending of place -nott (where?), -nól (where from?), -ni (where to?), which followed proper names or nouns referring to jobs, appeared in this period.

Nominal qualifying adjectives became rare by this time. Certain nominal adjectives turned into adjectives.

From among infinitive predicates the ones which referred to perception were in use, for example, Heltai: 'It's easy to understand how evil drunkenness is'. Besides its original adverbial function the infinitive was also used as a subject or object, following other nouns (or participial) patterns, it played the role of a verb, too.

During the 17th century the ván/-vén type adverbial participles were pushed back. Their function changed: they turned into time and casual complements, while the va/-ve type forms turned into adverbs of manner and state. Mondvám, mondvád type participles with personal endings were also pushed back (for the lack of a function). The -val/-vel type and the rare atta/-ette type adverbial participles were out of use by the end of the period, and were preserved only in the Saxon dialect.

It was an important change in the Middle Hungarian period that instead of participle forms detailed, analytic subordinate clauses were used.

In the 17th century periods adjectives and adverbial forms became very popular. The greatest Hungarian writers, such as Pázmány and Zrínyi followed this baroque style. This fact had an impact on the usage of compound sentences. The baroque style enriched the language, including harmonious and multi-level co-ordination and several new conjunctions. Conjunctions such as szinte [as if], szintén [too], separator részint ... részint [on the one hand ... on the other hand], the contrastive ellenben [but, however], the concluding tehát [so, thus], and the explaining ugyanis [since, as] were created or widespread at that time. The number of conjunctions in subordinate clauses also grew, for example, in time clauses meddig, ameddig [until, till] were used and in conditional sentences if became the fixed conjunction, mert [because] - which meant 'that' previously as it was the translation of the Latin quia - was used as the conjunction of casual and final clauses.

TURKISH LOAN WORDS

Osman-Turkish loan words in the Hungarian language - ignoring the changes that took place in the Hungarian language when adopting them or later - reflect the 16-17th-century Osman-Turkish language. This Turkish language was under the strong influence of the Arabic and Persian languages, and its vocabulary was full of Arabic and Persian elements. The phonetic characteristic features of loan words in the Hungarian language were influenced by the fact that the transmitters of these words were the Turks of the Balkans (closest to Hungary) and not the Turks originating from the centre of the Empire. This means that the 'hinterland' of the occupied territories of Hungary was not Anatolia, but the closer part of the Balkan Peninsula. The armed forces, the administrational staff and the craftsmen and tradesmen who supplied them, came from there. So the deliverers of Turkish loan words were the Turks settled in the countries of the Balkans and the native Slav people, who became Turks.

Southern Slav delivery

The Turks in Anatolia did not have enough power to conquer south-east Europe, which had previously been under the authority of the Turkish sultan. After conquering the Balkan Peninsula, the Slav people of the Balkans played a major role in further conquests. The majority of the Muslim army which occupied Hungary was of Slav origin: Bosnians, Croatians, Serbs. The most important element of their army, the yanichars, were usually the children of Christian parents living in the Balkans - as a result of the recruitment method. These Slav soldiers from the Balkans spoke Turkish as well as their Slav mother tongue. Besides soldiers, whose mother tongue was Slav, the Slav population of the Balkans who fled from the Turks and settled in the southern part of Transdanubia and the Great Plain, also played an important role in transmitting the language. The fleeing people from the Balkans sometimes reached Buda or Esztergom. Owing to this fact the Hungarian people were exposed to Turkish words from Turks and Slavs at the same time, so the loan words were built into the language from two sources: Turkish and Slav. Words which were used in two variants - for example, szpahi - szpahia, pite - pita - reflected this situation very well.

Rumanian mediation

Transylvania had a direct connection with Constantinople and the Turks. The majority of loan words appearing in Transylvanian sources was directly taken from the Turkish language, but the possibility of Rumanian mediation cannot be excluded. Thus Rumanian forms might have played an important role as well. For example, kantár 'scales', kilim 'carpet, blanket' and muszuly 'type of textile'.

Western mediation

In the history of the relationship between East and West the expansion of the Osman Empire into south-east Europe and to the Mediterranean played a very significant role. As a result of this Turkish words used in the army, government, diplomacy, trade and religion (such as aga, basha, begh, sandjak, sultan, kaftan, coffee, mufti and minaret) found their way into European languages.

There is only one double loan word, where the Turkish and the Western form might have been the same, and this is Osman - Ottoman. The variant Osman was directly from the Turkish language, Ottoman was taken from European languages.

Words of turkish origin

Warfare

The occupied territory in Hungary was a critical border region of the Osman Empire, and warfare raged continuously there. It is not surprising that people borrowed a lot of words used in warfare. They knew Turkish expressions referring to ranks, weapons and several words in connection with war. The Turkish army consisted of infantry, cavalry, artillery, a fleet on the Danube and various supplementary units.

Infantry included yanichars, secondary troops consisted of azaps (azabs), who sometimes outnumbered the yanichars. Originally seymens also belonged to the yanichar force, and later mercenary soldiers were also referred to in this way. The expression haramia originally meant a soldier of the infantry.

The first line of the cavalry consisted of gönöllüs (voluntary soldiers, in Hungarian gyömli-s). A separate, smaller group of cavalry was called the group of beslis or beslias (five). A similar special group was that of the delis, that is 'the crazy ones', who were responsible for very dangerous action. The troops of martaloc-s consisted of Christian mercenary soldiers. The largest and most important element of the cavalry included the units of spahis and zaimons, who were paid in estates, called timár.

The artillery had an important role in besieging fortresses. Canon men, bomb throwers and miners also belonged to this group. It is surprising that the names referring to these units were not used in the contemporaneous Hungarian language. The words szatyma - which still exist in certain dialects meaning 'hail-shot' - and kazán - which originally meant the cauldron for making salpetre necessary for gunpowder - referred to the usage of fire-arms.

At the head of the Danubian fleet was the 'Danubian kapudan', and units of smaller fleets were lead by the kapudan. The crew consisted of people living near the Lower-Danube, called azabs. There are several names in the sources for types of ships, however, only the name tombász is used today in some dialects. The word kátrány [tar] is the memory of Turkish shipping, which originally referred to the material used for preserving the wood of the ship.

Special units were those of sappers, gunsmiths, tent builders, wagon makers and cooks, but the names for these appeared only in very few sources. The only exception is the word szahora, which meant the irregular soldier who built bridges and roads or carried weapons. Messengers, who forwarded orders, were called csausz-s. They worked not only in the army, but also in field of state administration.

Smaller military units of the Turkish army were called bölük and oda, they usually consisted of ten people, headed by the bölük basha or the oda basha. The leaders of yanichar units were called csorbacsi. The head of bigger units incorporating soldiers performing the same service was the aga or basha. The deputy of the aga was the kethüda - in Hungarian the kihaya. The ranks basha and kihaya were also used in state administration. The head of yanichar units sent to towns was called szerdár, but the same word referred to the leader or commander of the army. The szeraszker or cseribasha was one of the military leaders of the timar army, but szeraszker also meant commander-in-chief. All these words died out from the language by now, but the expression dandár survived, which means rearüguar or supplementary force.

From among names of contemporaneous Turkish weapons the ones referring to the offensive of attacking weapons of the cavalry and infantry have survived, such as dzsida [a type of spear], handzsár [short sword], fringia [made of fine steel] and dömöcki [from Damascus] sabre or sword.

The word boncsok and sandjak was rather widespread, but not as military symbols. Boncsok meant a decoration (made of pearls) for horses, which was put around the neck, and its secondary meaning was that of a military symbol with the tail of the horse. Sandjak, which originally meant banner, had another meaning: a state administrational unit.

It is striking that the Turkish names of tents, which played a significant role in the period, appeared in sources only insignificant numbers. The reason for this might have been the following: the word sátor [tent] originating from the times before the Conquest could easily substitute the Turkish word cadir [tent]. The Hungarian word csárda [tsarda] originally referred to a military building, and its source was the Turkish csardak. The accommodation of a moving army was the konak, from which the word konok [stobborn] might have developed.

Dögönyeg was an implement of punishment, a stick or a leaded whip. Kalafa was a type of pillory, in which the legs of the punished person were beaten with a stick. The cuffs on the hands, legs or neck of the convict were called csincsér. The words korbács [whip], referring to a leather whip with a short handle, and pajzán [playful, frolicsome], which originally meant galley-slave and changed its meaning several times, became widespread in this period.

State administration

The biggest military and state administrational unit of the empire was the vilayet. This contained several districts, livas, and those included smaller units called nahijes or kazas (judicial districts). The head of a province was the begler begh, who had the same power as the pasha. In Hungarian instead of the begler begh the word pasha or basha was used, so the begler beghs of Buda were often called the pasha of Buda or basha of Buda. The deputy of the governor was the kajmakám or kihája, his representative in the Empire was the kapikihája, his messenger was the csausz. The leader of the chancellor in the province was called rézefendi, and the inspector of stables was the imrehor.

The Turkish equivalent of the middle unit of state administration (liva) was the sandjak, with the sandjak begh at the lead. The deputy of the sandjak begh was the alaj ebgh, who was the leader of the spahis as well as of the sandjaks. As the higher rank officers were often replaced in the Turkish Empire and it was easy to lose one's post, the word referring to a person deprived of his office was mazur or mazul, and it was widely used in the occupied regions, too. Matters of everyday life were settled by lower-rank clerks, inspectors, the emins and the basis - in Hungarian the emings and the bashas.

Estate and financial matters of the province were recorded in the tax book called defter, the head of which was the defterdar. The greatest burden upon the population of the occupied regions (raja) was the harács tax collected from the non-Muslim inhabitants. When settling their problems they had to give baksis. In the course of paying taxes to the Turks and trading with them Hungarian people became familiar with Turkish money and their system of measurement. The value of their money was not the same everywhere, it depended on the region and the age. The values of measures also depended on the material. The basis of the Turkish monetary system was the small silver money, the akcsa (ospora). Even smaller and less valuable was the mangur made of copper. Small change was called para, it was a small metal plate.

The local representative of Turkish jurisdiction was the "Turkish judge", the kadhi, who was also the most important local person in state administration. He was responsible for estates and taxation problems besides other less important duties. The head of jurisdiction was the highest judge, the kadiasker. Higher rank kadhis, law experts were the mollas. Besides the kadhis there were the muftis, whose role was that of a counsellor.

In the bureaucratic administration system of the Turks there were several types of documents in the period. The best-known ones were the atname [letter of contract at an international level, diploma of inaugurating a sultan], the berat [letter of appointing a sultan, deed of gift], the ferman [the sultan's or other high-rank official's written order signed by the sultan], the bujurdi [high-rank officials' written order], and the teskere [a deed of gift for service estates or other estates]. The legal decisions issued by the kadhi was the hücset, and the written resolution of the mufti was called fetva.

The Islamic religion

In Muslim religious practice people uttered the name Allah or Mohammed several times a day in everyday life and in war-cries. From among the names of fasts and celebrations bajram and ramazam were generally known. The Muslim man who made a pilgrimage to Mecca was called a hadji. Religion was practised in the mosques, the leading priests of which was the imam. The teacher of the church school near the mosques was the hodja. The time of the afternoon prayer was called ikindi.

Monks, (in their Persian-Turkish names dervishes) played a very important role in Turkish religious and intellectual life. In contrast to Muslim Turks, Christian or Jewish people were called gyaur or csifut, and those who converted to Islam were the potors.

Dressing

The Eastern way of dress - which was more colourful and varied than the European way - had a great impact on Hungarian people, who took easily to eastern pomp. Some of the textile or leather products needed for clothing was imported, and some of it was produced in Hungarian workshops by Turkish, Bosnian or Serb craftsmen, then later Hungarian masters. The most important textile was the thick aba or aba cloth, which was often used by the army. A similar thick cloth was the csuha, but in Hungarian sources it referred to the apron made from it. A thinner linen was the bagazia, the muszuly and the futa. Even thinner materials were the bulya and the karman-patyolat. The word pamut referred to the source, cotton.

Turkish seamstresses and embroiders, the bulyas played an important role in the spread of beautiful Turkish embroidery. Kerchiefs woven with gold threads or decorated with embroidery were the teszteménys. The famous colourful woven Turkish carpets, blankets and pillows became very popular, especially in Transylvania. These were the kilim-carpets, sofa-rugs and pillows and the kelevet-carpets and pillows.

The impact of Turkish clothing was the greatest in upper clothing. The most popular item of all was the Turkish dolmány [dolman], which was a tight, decorated coat. Among poorer people the csuha - an apron made from thick cloth - was the most popular item of clothing. The Turkish kaftan was introduced into Hungary through diplomacy, which was slightly modified. The predecessor of the zubbony [a kind of jacket] was brought into the country in this period, but then it was just a gown, a kabátka [short coat]. The pocket - which was a separate item of clothing originally - was added to the breast part of the upper clothes in this age. The kalpag [a kind of hat] - which had a fur lining - became very popular together with the dolman, and they quickly became necessary items in Hungarian clothing. However, turbans were never worn by Hungarian men.

The ancient Turkish leather art developed under the strong influence of Persian art, and reached its highest level during the 16-17th centuries. At first Turkish leather products reached Hungary through trade or as plunder, but later they were made in local workshops as well. The masters of leather products were Turks from the Balkans or the Rac-s. This is why there are so many loan words in Hungarian which came through Slav transmission.

The mementoes from the developed Turkish leather industry are the words bagaria and szattyán [names of leather types]. The names of Turkish shoemakers and tanners were preserved in the word tabak or tabakos, and the names of tanning workshops were preserved in the name Tabán, which refers to a certain part of a city. Two special types of shoes originate from the Turks, the long boots and the slippers. Although csizma [boots] slipped into the language through Slav mediation (csizmadia), it is most likely that the fashion of these eastern boots can be traced back to the Turkish age. The glue of shoe/boot makers was the csiriz.

Eating

Another field where Turkish influence was quite significant was eating. Some food, which we consider typical Hungarian food, for example, stuffing made of rice and meat, stew-type meat dishes, dried noodles, were adopted from the Turks, partly directly, partly with Balkan Slav mediation. Tarhonya and pite are such Turkish noodles. The name of the latter is of Greek origin, but it became popular in the age of Turkish occupation. The dried bread called peszmet was once the food of sailors. From among meat dishes the pasztormány was a dried, smoked meat, or the beef-cattle it was made of. The word kaszab [butcher] was also used as family name, and it still exists in Hungarian as a verb.

Because of the lack of ingredients for Turkish fruit drinks - orange, lemon and other eastern fruits - only the serbet was known, although it was usually imported. Coffee, however, became very popular. As a valuable imported product, it was at first available only for people in high-society. However, it spread so fast that neither its high price nor measures of prohibition could hold back its popularity.

During the Turkish occupation different plants entered the country. The most important one was tobacco. The German word tabak and the Hungarian dohány of Turkish origin appeared at the same time in the Hungarian language, but the habit of smoking was undoubtedly spread by the Turks, as growing tobacco also started under Slav and Turkish influence. Smoking was rejected by both the state and the church, without success.

From among fruits some preserved the Turkish origin in the name: kajszibarack and kálmánkörte [apricot and pear]. The original form of the latter was kármánkörte, and the first part karaman comes from Turkish folk language. Presumably spices and other herbs also reached the country, but their Turkish names were not adopted, only the first part refer to their origin (for example, Turkish wheat, Turkish peas, Turkish beans, Turkish pepper, Turkish hazelnut, Turkish millet).

It is also surprising that there are no Turkish names for flowers. The name of the most typical Turkish flower, tulip is of Turkish-Persian origin and it is the same as the word for turban, but it came to Hungary through European mediation. The other typical Turkish flower, carnation, became popular under the name Turkish carnation.

Besides the two important luxury products, coffee and tobacco, Hungarians became familiar with the drug called maszlag through Turkish mediation. the Turkish name for opium became well-known through Miklós Zrínyi's work, in which he called it áfium. The word mámoros [intoxicated] was used in connection with smoking, alcoholic drinks and drugs.

Turkish baking and cooking utensils were usually made of copper. The typical utensil for cooking in the open air, the stew-pot (in the name of which there is the Turkish word for copper), was also made of copper. Baking plates were copper plates, but in finer versions they were made of silver or gold. The same is true for ibrik. Findzsa - which was adopted together with coffee - was made of porcelain. Wheat, cereals and rice were kept in sacks, or harár in Turkish. The hombár, a chest made of planks, was used for storing or carrying grain. The szofra, a suitcase for carrying food for a journey, was used as a tablecloth, when it was open. The Turkish name for chests or baskets used for storing and carrying clothes, food or money was szepet.