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Jan Hunyadi

Jan Hunyadi

John Hunyadi (Latin: Ioannes Corvinus, Hungarian: Hunyadi/Hunyady János, Romanian: Iancu (or Ioan) de Hunedoara) (c. 1387 - 1456) was a Transylvanian statesman and soldier.

Origins

John was born into a Vlach (Romanian) noble family in 1387 (or 1400 according to some sources). John was the son of Vojk (alternatively spelled as Voyk or Vajk in English, Voicu in Romanian, Vajk in Hungarian), who was the son of a Vlach Knyaz from Banate of Severin (Szörény in Hungarian). Vojk took the family name of Hunyadi when he received the estate of Hunyad Castle (now Hunedoara in Romania, called Vajdahunyad in Hungarian) from Sigismund, King of Hungary, in 1409. John's Hungarian mother Elizabeth (Erzsébet in Hungarian) is thought to be from the Morzsinay family. The epithet Corvinus was first used by the biographer of his son Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, but is sometimes also applied to John Hunyadi.

Ascension

John Hunyadi has sometimes been confused with an elder brother John (Romanian: Ioan Corvin de Hunedoara), also Ban of Szörény (Severin). The elder John died fighting for Hungary about 1440, defending Hungarian suzerainty. 1440 While still a youth, the younger John Hunyadi entered the service of King Sigismund, who appreciated his qualities and borrowed money from him; he accompanied that monarch to Frankfurt in his quest for the imperial crown in 1410; took part in the Hussite Wars in 1420, and in 1437 drove the Turks from Semendria. For these services he received numerous estates and a seat in the royal council. In 1438 King Albert II made Hunyadi Ban of Szörény (Severin). Lying south of the defensible southern frontiers of Hungary, the Carpathians and the Drava/Sava/Danube complex, the province was subject to constant harassment by Ottoman forces. On the sudden death of Albert in 1439, Hunyadi, feeling acutely that the situation demanded a warrior-king on the throne of St Stephen, lent the whole weight of his influence to the candidature of the young Polish King Wladislaus III (1440), and thus came into collision with the powerful Cilleis, the chief supporters of Albert's widow Elizabeth and her infant son, Ladislaus V. He took a prominent part in the ensuing civil war and was rewarded by Wladislaus III. with the captaincy of the fortress of Nándorfehérvár(Belgrade) and the governorship of Transylvania, which latter dignity, however, he shared with his rival Mihály Újlaki. The burden of the Turkish War now rested entirely on his shoulders. In 1441 he delivered Serbia by the victory of Semendria. In 1442, not far from Hermannstadt (Sibiu), on which he had been forced to retire, he annihilated an immense Turkish host, and recovered for the Kingdom of Hungary the suzerainty of Wallachia and Moldavia; and in July he vanquished a third Turkish army near the Iron Gates. These victories made Hunyadi's name terrible to the Turks and renowned throughout Christendom, and stimulated him in 1443 to undertake, along with King Wladislaus, the famous expedition known as the "long campaign". Hunyadi, at the head of the vanguard, crossed the Balkans through the Gate of Trajan, captured Nish, defeated three Turkish pashas, and, after taking Sofia, united with the royal army and defeated Murad II at Snaim. The impatience of the king and the severity of the winter then compelled him (February 1444) to return home, but not before he had utterly broken the sultan's power in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania. No sooner had he regained Hungary than he received tempting offers from the pope, represented by the legate Cardinal Cesarini, from George Branković, despot of Serbia, and Gjergj Kastrioti, prince of Albania, to resume the war and realize his favourite idea of driving the Turk from Europe. All the preparations had been made, when Murad's envoys arrived in the royal camp at Szeged and offered a ten years' truce on advantageous terms. Both Hunyadi and Branković counselled their acceptance, and Wladislaus swore on the Gospels to observe them. Two days later Cesarini received the tidings that a fleet of galleys had set off for the Bosporus to prevent Murad (who, crushed by his recent disasters, had retired to Asia Minor) from recrossing into Europe, and the cardinal reminded the king that he had sworn to co-operate by land if the western powers attacked the Turks by sea. He then, by virtue of his legatine powers, absolved the king from his second oath, and in July the Hungarian army recrossed the frontier and advanced towards the Euxine coast in order to march to Constantinople escorted by the galleys. Branković, however, fearful of the sultan's vengeance in case of disaster, privately informed Murad of the advance of the Christian host, and prevented Gjergj Kastrioti from joining it. On reaching Varna, the Hungarians found that the Venetian galleys had failed to prevent the transit of the sultan, who now confronted them with fourfold odds, and on the 10th of November 1444 they were utterly routed, Wladislaus falling on the field and Hunyadi narrowly escaping.

Regency of the Kingdom of Hungary

At the diet which met in February 1445 a provisional government, consisting of five captain-generals, was formed, Hunyadi receiving Transylvania and four counties bordering on the Tisza, called the Partium or Körösvidék to rule. As the anarchy resulting from the division became unmanageable, Hunyadi was elected governor of Hungary on June 5, 1446 in the name of Ladislaus V, and given the powers of a regent. His first act as governor was to proceed against the German king Frederick III, who refused to deliver up the young king. After ravaging Styria, Carinthia and Carniola and threatening Vienna, Hunyadi's difficulties elsewhere compelled him to make a truce with Frederick for two years. Vienna Vienna In 1448 he received a golden chain and the title of prince from Pope Nicholas V, and immediately afterwards resumed the war with the Turks. He lost the two-day battle of Kosovo (October 7 - 10) owing to the treachery of Dan, Hospodar of Wallachia, and of his old enemy Branković, who imprisoned him for a time in the dungeons of the fortress of Semendria (Smederevo), but he was ransomed by his countrymen and, after resolving his differences with his powerful and numerous political enemies in Hungary, led a punitive expedition against the Serbian prince, who was forced to accept most humiliating terms of peace. In 1450 Hunyadi went to Pressburg (Pozsony, Bratislava), the Hungarian capital, to negotiate with Frederick the terms of the surrender of Ladislaus V, but no agreement could be reached, whereupon several of Hunyadi's enemies, notably the Cilleis, accused him of conspiracy to overthrow the king. In order to defuse the increasingly volatile domestic situation, he relinquished his regency and the title Governor. On his return to Hungary at the beginning of 1453, Ladislaus created him count of Beszterce and captain-general of the Kingdom. Meanwhile the Turkish question had again become acute, and it was plain, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, that Mehmed II was rallying his resources in order to subjugate Hungary. His immediate objective was Belgrade; see: Siege of Belgrade. Hunyadi arrived at the end of 1455, after settling differences with his domestic enemies. At his own expense he restocked the supplies and arms of the fortress, leaving in it a strong garrison under the command of his brother-in-law Mihály Szilágyi and his own eldest son László. He proceeded to form a relief army and assembled a fleet of two hundred corvettes. His main ally was the Franciscan friar, John of Capistrano, whose fiery oratory drew a large crusade made up mostly of peasants. Though relatively ill-armed (most were armed with farm equipment--scythes, pitchforks, and the like) they burned with enthusiasm and flocked to Hunyadi and his small corps of seasoned mercenaries and mounted knights. On July 14, 1456 the flotilla of corvettes assembled by Hunyadi destroyed the Ottoman fleet; on July 21 Szilágyi's forces in the Fortress repulsed a fierce assault by the Rumelian army, and Hunyadi pursued the retreating forces into their camp, taking advantage of the Turkish army's confused flight from the city. After fierce but brief fighting, the camp was captured, and Mehmet raised the siege and returned to Constantinople. With his flight began a seventy-year period of relative peace on Hungary's (and christian Europe's) southeastern border. Unfortunately, plague broke out in Hunyadi's camp three weeks after the lifting of the siege, and he died August 11. He was buried inside the (Roman Catholic) Cathedral of Karlsburg (Alba Iulia) next to his elder brother John. John Hunyadi has rightly been regarded as a hero by all of the local nationalities; each in its own way has claimed him as their own. It is commonly said that he fought with his head rather than his arm. Among his more progressive qualities, he was among the first to recognize the insufficiency and unreliability of the feudal levies, instead regularly employing large professional armies. His notable contribution to the development of the science of European warfare included the emphasis on tactics and strategy in place of over-reliance on bravery (or foolhardiness) in battle. Though he remained illiterate until late in life (something which was not as common in those times as one might think), his natural diplomatic, stragegic and tactical intelligence served him well and allowed him to serve his country well. Names in other languages: Croatian: Ivan Hunjadi, German: Johann Hunyadi, Serbian: Sibinjanin Janko, Slovak: Ján Huňadi,Romanian: Iancu de Hunedoara Romanian

References


- J Teleki, The Age of the Hunyadis in Hungary (Hung.), (Pesth, 1852-1857; supplementary volumns by D Cs~inki 1895)
- Gyorgy Fejer, Genus, incunabula et virtus Joannis Corvini de Hunyad (Buda, 1844)
- J de Chassin, Jean de Hunyad (Paris, 1859)
- A Pcr, Life of Hunyadi (Hung.) (Budapest, 1873)
- V Fraknói, Cardinal Carjaval and his Missions to Hungary (Hung) (Budapest, 1889)
- P Frankl, Der Friede von Szegedin und die Geschichte seines Bruches (Leipzig, 1904)
- RN Bain, "The Siege of Belgrade, 1456" (Eng. Hist. Rev., 1892)
- A Bonfini, Rerum ungaricarum libri xlv, editio septima (Leipzig, 1771). Category:Hunyadi Hunyadi János Hunyadi János Hunyadi János Category:Belgrade ja:フニャディ・ヤーノシュ

Hungarian language

The Hungarian language is a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Hungary and in the adjacent states of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Austria, and Slovenia (to all of which Hungary lost territory after World War I). The Hungarian name for the language is magyar . There are about 14.5 million speakers, of whom 10 million live in Hungary. The largest minority concentration is in the now Romanian counties of Transylvania, including Harghita (Hargita), Mureş (Maros), and Covasna (Kovászna), with approximately one and a half million Magyars.

Classification

Hungarian is a member of the Ugric languages, a sub-group of the Finno-Ugric language family, which in turn is a branch of the Uralic languages. Connections between the Ugric and Finnic languages were noticed in the 1670s and established, along with the entire Uralic family, in 1717, although the classification of Hungarian continued to be a matter of political controversy into the 18th and even 19th centuries. Today the Uralic family is considered one of the best demonstrated large language families, along with Indo-European and Austronesian.

Sound correspondences

There are numerous regular sound correspondances between Hungarian and the other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian á corresponds to in certain positions, and Hungarian h corresponds to Khanty , while Hungarian final z corresponds to Khanty final . For example, Hungarian ház "house" vs. Khanty "house", and Hungarian száz "hundred" vs. Khanty "hundred". The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondances are also regular. The relationship is most obvious when comparing all the Ugric languages with all the Finnic languages, for then individual idiosyncracies are averaged out, but here we will just compare Hungarian with Finnish.
- Finnish [p] corresponds to Hungarian [f] (just like Latin [p] in pater corresponds to English [f] in father):
- Finnish [k] corresponds to Hungarian [k] before front vowels
- Finnish [k] corresponds to Hungarian [h] before back vowels (just like Latin [k] in canine corresponds to English [h] in hound)
- Finnish [t] corresponds to Hungarian [t] at the beginning of a word
- Finnish [l] corresponds to Hungarian [l] This is just a sample. Even in the small number of words above, other regular sound correspondances are evident, such as Finnish [nt] and Hungarian [d] in "to know" and "bird/goose".

Geographic distribution

Hungarian is spoken in the following countries: :Source: National census, Ethnologue Hungarian speakers are also found in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, United States, and in other parts of the world, adding an additional million speakers.

Official status

Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, and thus an official language of the European Union. Besides, Hungarian is one of official languages of Vojvodina and an official language of three municipalities in Slovenia (Hodos, Dobranak and Lendva), along with Slovene. Hungarian is officially recognized as a minority or regional language in Austria, Croatia and Slovakia.

Dialects

The dialects of Hungarian identified by Ethnologue are: Alföld, West Danube, Danube-Tisza, King's Pass Hungarian, Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian, Székely and West Hungarian; they are all mutually intelligible.

Phonology

Hungarian has 14 vowel phonemes and 25 consonant phonemes. The vowel phonemes are pairs of long and short vowels. Most of these pairs have similar vowel qualities, but the pairs written with and do not. Consonant length is also distinctive in Hungarian. Most of the consonant phonemes can occur geminate. The sound voiced palatal plosive , written , is unlike any in English. It occurs in the name of the country, "Magyarország" (Hungary), pronounced . Primary stress is always on the first syllable of a word. There is sometimes secondary stress on other syllables, especially in compounds, e.g. "viszontlátásra" (see you later) pronounced . Front-back vowel harmony is an important feature of Hungarian phonology.

Grammar

Hungarian is an agglutinative language. Most grammatical information is given through suffixes. For example: at the table = az asztalnál (space relation), at 5 o'clock = öt órakor (time relation). There is also one grammatical prefix (leg- for superlatives). An unusual feature of Hungarian are the 2 verb conjugations. The "definite" conjugation is used for a transitive verb with a definite object. The "indefinite" conjugation is used for an intransitive verb or for a transitive verb with an indefinite object.

Lexicon

Giving an exact estimate for the total word count is difficult, since it is hard to define what to call "a word" in agglutinating languages, due to the existence of compound words. To have a meaningful definition of compound words, we have to exclude such compounds whose meaning is the mere sum of its elements. The largest dictionaries from Hungarian to another language contain 120,000 words and phrases (but this may include redundant phrases as well, because of translation issues). Hungarian lexicon is usually estimated to comprise 60,000 to 100,000 words. (Independently of specific languages, speakers actively use at most 10,000 to 30,000 words.) Hungarian words are built around so called word-bushes, for example kör-köröz-körös-kering-kerge-kurta (originally related to "circle", "round"). Due to this feature words with similar meaning often arise from the same root. The lexicon of Hungarian contains words borrowed from various Turkic languages, including Turkish, as well as several loan words from German and Slavic. The basic vocabulary shares 1000-1200 words from Uralic languages like Finnish and Estonian (e.g., the numbers egy ~ yksi ~ üks (1), kettő ~ kaksi ~ kaks (2), három ~ kolme ~ kolm (3), négy ~ neljä ~ neli (4); víz ~ vesi ~ vesi (water); kéz ~ käsi ~ käsi (hand); vér ~ veri ~ veri (blood); fej ~ pää ~ pea (head) which have regular sound correspondences, so most linguists classify them as Finno-Ugric languages, a subgroup of the Uralic language family. These 1000-1200 original word roots, however, account for about 80-90% of the words in an average present-day text, due to their wide-ranging compounds, derivations and formations, several dozens of words from a single root. The proportion of the word roots in Hungarian lexicon is as follows: Finno-Ugric 21 %, Slavic 20 %, German 11 %, Turkic 9.5 %, Latin and Greek 6 %, Romance 2.5 %, Other of known origin 1 %, Other of uncertain origin 30%. Except for a few Latin and Greek loan-words, these are undiscernible for native speakers; they were entirely adapted into Hungarian lexicon.

Word formation

Words can be compound (as in German) and derived (with suffixes). There are also compound words using verbs which have their individual meanings, for example egyedülálló single (eg. person), whereas egyedül álló means something which stands alone.

Noteworthy lexical items

Two words for "red"

There are two basic words for "red" in Hungarian. (They are basic in the sense that you can't say one is a sub-type of the other, like "scarlet" is a kind of "red".) Piros is used for lighter or vivid red, and often for inanimate, artificial things, as well as for things seen as cheerful or neutral. Vörös is used for darker red, and often for animate things, as well as for serious or emotionally involved/affected things. Since these attributes don't overlap in every case, their usage is not entirely regular or predictable. – According to Berlin, B and Kay, P (1969) Basic Color Terms, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, Hungarian is unique in having two basic colour words for red.

Kinship terms

In Hungarian there exist separate words for brothers and sisters depending on relative age: (The original word for "elder sister" has become obsolete, and has been replaced by the generic word for "sister".) Besides, separate prefixes exist for up to the 5th ancestors and descendants: On the other hand, no lexical items exist for "son" and "daughter", but the words for "boy" and "girl" are applied with possessive suffixes. Nevertheless, the terms are differentiated with different declension or lexemes:

Writing system

For more information see also Hungarian alphabet. Hungarian is written using a variant of the Latin alphabet, and has a phonemic orthography, i.e. pronunciation can generally be predicted from the written language. In addition to the standard letters of the Latin alphabet, Hungarian uses several additional letters. These include letters with acute accents (á,é,í,ó,ú) which represent long vowels, with umlauts (ö and ü) and their long counterparts ő and ű. Sometimes ô or õ is used for ő and û for ű, due to the limitations of the Latin-1 / ISO-8859-1 codepage, though these are not part of the Hungarian language. Hungarian can be properly represented with the Latin-2 / ISO-8859-2 codepage, but this codepage is not always available. (Hungarian is the only language using both ő and ű.) Of course, Unicode includes them, and they therefore can be used on the Internet. For a complete table of the pronunciation of the Hungarian alphabet, see the X-SAMPA description in the Hungarian Wikipedia (in Hungarian, but the table is obvious), which transliterates Hungarian letters into IPA and X-SAMPA characters. Additionally, the letter pairs <ny>, <ty>, and <gy> represent the palatal consonants , , and (a little like the "dy" sound in British "duke" or American "would you"). Hungarian uses <s> for and <sz> for /s/, which is the reverse of Polish. is and <cs> is . All these digraphs are considered single letters. is also a "single letter digraph", but is pronounced like /j/ (English <y>), and mostly appears in old words. More exotic letters are <dz> and <dzs> . They are hard to find even in a longer text. Two examples are madzag; edzeni (rope; to train) and dzsungel (jungle). Single R's are tapped, like the Spanish "pero"; Double R's and initial R's are trilled, like the Spanish "perro". Hungarian distinguishes between long and short vowels, where the long vowels are written with acutes, and between long consonants and short consonants, where the long consonants are written double. The digraphs, when doubled, become trigraphs: +=, but changing line: :... busz- :szal... Usually a trigraph is a double digraph, but there are a few exceptions: tizennyolc "eighteen" is tizen + nyolc. There are doubling minimal pairs: tol (push) vs. toll (feather). While it seems unusual to English speakers at first, once one learns the new orthography and pronunciations, written Hungarian is nearly totally phonemic.

Name order

The Hungarian language uses the so-called eastern name order, in which the family name comes first and the given name comes last. However, as a rule, names are represented in the western name order when used in foreign languages. Thus for example Edward Teller, the Hungarian-born physicist, is known in Hungary as Teller Ede. On the other hand, western names retain their order when used in Hungarian. Therefore:
- Kiss János, amikor Los Angelesben járt, látta John Travoltát. translates to
- When János Kiss was in Los Angeles, he saw John Travolta. Note: or John Kiss. While common prior to the 20th century, given names are usually not translated into English. See also: Hungarian name.

Examples

When a word has its own stress (rather than clinging on the previous ones), it is practically always placed on the first syllable in Hungarian.
- Hungarian (person, language): magyar
- hello: szia (informal) (sounds almost exactly like American "see ya") But you only say this to people that you know well. When you address a stranger you use the more formal "good day": jó napot (kívánok)
- good-bye: viszontlátásra (formal) (see above), viszlát (semi informal)
- please: kérem (szépen) (This literally means "I ask (it) well". See next for a more common form of the polite request)
- I would like ____, please: Szeretnék ____ (This example illustrates the use of the conditional tense, as a common form of a polite request)
- sorry: bocsánat
- thank you: köszönöm
- that/this: az ez
- how much?: mennyi?
- how much does it cost?: mennyibe kerül?
- yes: igen
- no: nem
- I don't understand: nem értem
- I don't know: nem tudom
- Where's the toilet?: Hol van a vécé? , more polite (and word-for-word) version Hol van a mosdó?
- generic toast: egészségedre!
- juice: gyümölcslé
- water: víz
- wine: bor
- beer: sör
- tea: tea
- milk: tej
- Do you speak English?: Beszél angolul?
- I love you: szeretlek
- Help!: Segítség!

Reactions

Sir John Bowring

Sir John Bowring was a Hungarian-speaking English diplomat. This is what he said about the Hungarian language in 1830:
- The Hungarian language goes far back. It developed in a very particular manner and its structure reaches back to times, when most of the now spoken European languages did not even exist. It is a language which developed steadily and firmly in itself, and in which there is logic and mathematics with the adaptability and malleability of strength and chords. The Englishmen should be proud that his language indicates an epic of human history. One can show forth its origin; and alien layers can be distinguished in it, which gathered together during the contacts with different nations. Whereas the Hungarian language is like a rubble-stone; consisting of only one piece, on which the storms of time left not a scratch. It's not a calendar that adjusts to the changes of the ages. It needs no one, it doesn't borrow, does no buckstering, and doesn't give or take from anyone. This language is the oldest and most glorious monument of a national sovereignty and a mental independence. What scholars cannot solve, they ignore. In philosophy it's the same way as archeology. The floors of the old Egyptian temples, which were made out of only one rock, can't be explained. No one knows where they came from, or from which mountain the wonderous mass was taken. How they were transported and lifted to the top of the temples. The genuineness of the Hungarian language is a phenomenon much more wonderous than this. He who solves it shall be analyzing the Divine secret; in fact the first thesis of this secret: “In the beginning there was Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” But by this time, of course, the modern understanding of Hungarian origins was already well understood.

Marc Martin

The book Járt utat kétszer járj ("Tread twice the trodden path", ISBN 9633675820) was published in 2004, a sultry declaration of love for the Hungarian language, written by a native Frenchman, a translator, Marc Martin. (His name is given on the cover in the Hungarianized form, Martin Márk.) He first met the language through a record of Bluebeard's Castle by Bartók. The back cover dedication was written by Péter Nádas (whose novel A Book of Memories he had translated into French). The "trodden path" refers to his original life, family, neighbourhood, which he wanted to break away from, by being re-born into a new life and a new language.

Controversy over origins

There are various alternative speculations about the origins of the Hungarian language, even fanciful ideas about Hungarian being derived from the Sumerian language, but these are dismissed by linguists owing to a lack of evidence:
- Hungarian has often been claimed to be related to Hunnish, since Hungarian legends and histories show close ties between the two peoples. Some people believe that the Székely, a part of the Hungarians living in Romania, are descended from the Huns. However, the link with Hunnish is uncertain, and it is not even known which languages the Huns spoke.
- For many years (from 1869), it was matter of dispute whether Hungarian was a Finno-Ugric language, or was more closely related to the Turkic languages, a controversy known as the "Ugric-Turkish war". It is only in the discipline of linguistics that the victory of the Finno-Ugrists can be described as more or less complete, due to the evidence of the languages themselves. However, the origin of a language is not necessarily equivalent to the genetic origin of the people which speak it, as for example can be seen with the Turkic-speaking Azeris, who are genetically kin to the Armenians. Regular sound changes that can be shown between corresponding elements of the basic vocabulary of Hungarian and other Uralic languages provide sufficient evidence to conclude that the languages are related. But while the language is clearly Finno-Ugric, the Hungarian people show more genetic similarities to people (such as Germans, Slavs, and Turks) who are closer to them geographically than the Finns, who in turn are more genetically similar to their Scandinavian neighbors than to the Hungarians. Such influences occur whenever people marry their neighbors, and as yet genetics has had little to say about the historical origins of the Hungarian people. The Finns, for example, are a poor example of the Finnic peoples genetically, for they seem to be predominantly Scandinavian in origin. A better genetic comparison for Hungarian would be with other Finnic peoples. Regardless, there are noticeable Turkic influences in the Hungarian language. It appears that the Hungarians took over animal breeding from the Turkic Chuvash, and they were neighbors for many centuries, as a high proportion of words specific to agriculture and livestock are of Chuvash origin. There was also a strong Chuvash influence in burial customs. And all the Ugric languages, not just Hungarian, have Turkic loanwords related to horse riding. As for the Huns, they were a large, loose grouping of tribes, who joined together at different points in their migrations. It may well be that the Huns of Asia met up with the Hungarians in the course of their long migration westward. At any rate, the Huns were defeated in the West in 451. Some then settled in the region that is now Hungary, but long before the migrations that brought the Hungarian people to the area. As Finno-Ugrist scientists say, for this purpose no extra-linguistic (i.e. no empiric) evidence is needed, and the Finno-Ugrian theory is supported by what linguistics knows about related languages in general and could only be refuted if all other established language relationships were refuted at the same time. Other scientists dealing with the origin of Hungarian language (historians, linguists) regard these opinions as simplification.

See also


- Wikibooks - Learn Hungarian
- Hungarian grammar
- Hungarian alphabet
- Hungarian phonology
- Hungarian literature
- Hungarian tongue-twisters
- List of English words of Hungarian origin
- Hungary
- Hungarian people

External links


- [http://www.filolog.com/languageStrangeCake.html Hungarian - A Strange Cake on the Menu - article by Nádasdy Ádám]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=HNG Ethnologue report for Hungarian]
- [http://www.ut.ee/Ural/num.html Numerals of some Uralic languages]
- [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/3093/finnugor.html Uralic page]
- [http://impulzus.sch.bme.hu/info/magyar.shtml Introduction to Hungarian]
- [http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/profiles/profh02.htm Hungarian Profile]
- [http://www.speech.kth.se/~bea/hungarian.pdf "The Hungarian Language: A Short Descriptive Grammar"] by Beáta Megyesi (PDF document)
- [http://www.indiana.edu/~iuihsl/homethisisoldbutgoodone.html The old site of the Indiana University Institute of Hungarian Studies (various resources)]
- [http://miejipang.homestead.com/untitled18.html Let's try to learn Hungarian (Magyar) and Turkish!]
- [http://www.nyariegyetem.hu/regi/hlga/ang1.html Grammar, phonology and syntax plus some history of the language]
- [http://www.rpi.edu/~sofkam/magyar.html Hungarian Language Learning References] on the Hungarian Language Page (short reviews of useful books)
- [http://www.nyariegyetem.hu/ Debrecen Summer School] (with Hungarian Language and Culture Courses)
- [http://www.bbi.hu/main.php?folderID=865&langchanged=eng Balassi Bálint Institute] (Hungarian language teaching)
- [http://users.tpg.com.au/etr/oldhu/halotti.html One of the oldest Hungarian texts - A Halotti Beszéd (The Funeral Oration)]

Linguistic chapters from the Encyclopaedia Humana Hungarica (1–5)


- [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01993/html/index2.html Introduction to the History of the Language; The Pre-Hungarian Period; The Early Hungarian Period; The Old Hungarian Period]
- [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01955/html/index2.html The Linguistic Records of the Early Old Hungarian Period; The Linguistic System of the Age]
- [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01949/html/index2.html The Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language of the Old Hungarian Period]
- [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01919/html/index2.html The Late Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language]
- [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01911/html/index2.html The First Half of the Middle Hungarian Period; Turkish Loan Words]
- (The English translations of volumes 6 to 9 are in preparation.)

Dictionaries


- [http://dict.sztaki.hu/english-hungarian Hungarian-English-Hungarian]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/translation/Hungarian/ Dictionary] with Hungarian - English Translations from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition
- [http://seas3.elte.hu/delg/people/core/lazar/falsefriends.html Hungarian-English False friends] (False friend)
- [http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Hungarian.html Hungarian slang]
- [http://www.japanmagyarszotar.hu/ Hungarian-Japanese-Hungarian online dictionary]

Online Language Courses


- [http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/a/d/adr10/hungarian.html A Hungarian Language Course] by Aaron Rubin
- [http://www.hungarotips.com/hungarian/b/ Online course hungarotips.com]
- [http://www.afs.hu/hungary/study.html Study Hungarian! (AFS.com)]
- [http://www.single-serving.com/Hungarian/ Hungarian Phrase Guides]
- [http://www.magyarora.com/ Magyaróra: New paths to the Hungarian language]
- [http://www.hungarotips.com/hungarian/ Hungarian Language Lessons - Puzzles, Quizzes, Sound Files]

More links for learners


- [http://www.sprachprofi.de.vu/english/h.htm Course, Vocabularies, Phrases, Literature...]
- Category:Agglutinative languages Category:Languages of Austria Category:Languages of Hungary Category:Languages of Romania Category:Languages of Slovakia Category:Languages of Slovenia Category:Languages of Vojvodina Category:Vowel harmony languages ko:헝가리어 ja:ハンガリー語

1387

Events


- June 2 - John Holland, a maternal half-brother of Richard II of England, is created Earl of Huntingdon.
- August 23 - Olaf IV of Norway/ Olaf III of Denmark dies. The vacant thrones come under the Regency of his mother Margaret I of Denmark who would soon become Queen in her own right.
- December 19 - Battle of Radcot Bridge: forces loyal to Richard II defeated by Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby.
- Geoffrey Chaucer begins writing The Canterbury Tales.
- Queen Margaret I of Denmark accession to the throne.

Births


- August 9 - King Henry V of England (died 1422)
- September 8 - King Charles III of Navarre (died 1425)
- Isabella of Valois, Princess of France (died 1410)

Deaths


- July 20 - Robert IV of Artois, Count of Eu (poisoned) (b. 1356)
- July 22 - Franz Ackerman, Flemish statesman (born 1330)
- August 23 - King Olaf IV of Norway/Olaf III of Denmark (born 1370)
- Peter IV of Aragon (born 1319)
- Richard Og Burke, second Clanricarde
- Peter de la Mare, English politician
- King Charles II of Navarre (born 1332) Category:1387 ko:1387년

1456

Events


- July 7 - Joan of Arc acquitted (but she had already been executed).
- July 21 - July 22. Battle of Belgrade. The Hungarians under John Hunyadi rout the Turkish army of Sultan Mehmed II. The noon bell ordered by Pope Callixtus III commemorates the victory throughout the Christian world. (Hence the noon bell is still rung to this day.)
- August 20 - Vladislav II, reigning Prince of Wallachia is killed in battle by Vlad III Dracula who succeeds him.
- Lazar Brankovic becomes king of Serbia.
- The university of Greifswald, later Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald is established, making it the second oldest university in northern Europe (also for a period the oldest in Sweden, and Prussia)
- Luigi de Cadamosto discovers the Cape Verde islands.
- Emperor Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia founds the city of Debre Berhan

Births


- March 1 - King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (died 1516)
- June 11 - Anne Neville, queen of Richard III of England (died 1485)
- June 23 - Margaret of Denmark, queen of James III of Scotland (died 1486)
- Jan Laski, Polish nobleman (died 1531)
- Jan Lubranski, Polish bishop (died 1520)

Deaths


- May 24 - Ambroise de Loré, French military leader (b. 1396)
- August 11 - John Hunyadi, Transylvanian statesman and general
- October 23 - Giovanni da Capistrano, Italian saint (born 1386)
- November 1 - Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, father of King Henry VII of England
- November 25 - Jacques Cœur, French merchant
- Charles I, Duke of Bourbon (born 1401)
- Ulrich III of Celje (born 1406)
- Nicolas Grenon, French composer
- Juan de Mena, Spanish poet (born 1411)
- Vittore Pisano, Italian medallist

1456 Year Equivalents


- Hindu Calendar, (March 14, 1399 - March 13, 1400) 1
- Hindu Calendar, (March 21/22, 1529 - March 20/21, 1530)2
- Islamic Calendar,
- Jewish Calendar, :1:Calculated from AD 78, beginning of the Saka era. :2:Calculated from 58 BC, beginning of the Vikrama era. Category:1456 ko:1456년

Vlach

Vlachs (also called Wlachs, Wallachs, Olahs) is a blanket term covering several distinct modern Latin people descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Groups that have historically been called Vlachs include modern-day Romanians, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians, but since the creation of the Romanian state, the term has mostly been used for those living south of the Danube river (i.e. excluding Romanians). Although most linguists agree that their languages share a common origin, the origins of the Vlachs themselves are disputed, as is the notion that all Vlach groups have the same ethnic origins. According to the dominant theory, they are descended from the Roman colonists and/or the Romanised Dacian, Thracian and Illyrian local populations (see Origin of Romanians for more about the dispute about the origin). Some scholars also include the Greeks among their possible ancestors, especially in regard to the Aromanians. Through history, the term "Vlach" was often used for groups which were not ethnically Vlachs, often pejoratively - for example for any shepherding community, or for Christians by Muslims.

Etymology

Main article: Etymology of Vlach The word Vlach is of Germanic origin, sharing this origin with the words "Welsh" and "Walloons" in other parts of Europe. Slavic people initially used the name Vlachs when referring to Romanic people in general. Later on, the meaning got narrower or just different. For example Italy is called Włochy in Polish, and Olaszország ("olas' country") in Hungarian. The term was originally an exonym, as the Vlachs used various words derived from romanus to refer to themselves (români, rumâni, rumâri, aromâni, arumâni etc). Only the Megleno-Romanians adopted the term Vlashi to describe themselves.

Wallachia

Many Vlachs were shepherds and they always looked for better pastures. This explains the pockets of Vlachs that could be found all over the Balkans and as far north as Poland and as far west the Czech Republic, and Croatia. These regions inhabited by Vlachs were called "Wallachia" or "Vlashka" by the Slavs.
- Ungro-Wallachia, later Wallachia ("Ţara Românească") - between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube
  - Vlaşca - part of southern Wallachia
  - Lower Wallachia ("Oltenia") - west of the Olt river
- Moldo-Wallachia ("Moldavia") - between the Carpathians and the Dnister
- Upper Wallachia - in Epirus
  - Moscopole
- Great Wallachia ("Megale Vlachia") - in Thessaly
- Small Wallachia - in Etolia, Acarnania, Dorida, Locrida
- Old Wallachia ("Stara Vlaška") - in Bosnia
- White Wallachia - in Moesia
- Black Wallachia ("Morlachia") - in Dalmatia
- Sirmium Wallachia - on the Sava river
- Moravian Wallachia ("Valašský") - in the Beskydy Mountains of the Czech Republic

People


- Daco-Romanians known by that name due to their location in the territory of ancient Dacia. They are divided into:
  - Romanians (speaking the Romanian language), who live in:
    - Romania - 20.5 millions
    - Ukraine - 500,000; in southern Bessarabia and northern Bukovina
    - Hungary - 70,000 (0.7% of the total population)
    - Serbia and Montenegro - 34,000 (mainly in Vojvodina) see: Romanians of Serbia
    - Slovakia - 9,000
    - Bulgaria - 1,088 according to the last census
  - Moldovans (speaking Romanian/Moldovan language), who live in:
    - Moldova - 2.8 millions
  - Vlachs of Serbia and Bulgaria (speaking Vlach language, which is virtually identical to Romanian), who live in:
    - Serbia and Montenegro - 40,000
    - Bulgaria - 10,500
- Aromanians (speaking the Aromanian language), live in:
  - Greece, mainly in the Pindus Mountains - 65,000 (The Greek government does not recognise any ethnic divisions, so there are no exact statistics. See Demographics of Greece)
  - Romania - about 50,000, mainly in Dobruja
  - Albania - between 10,000 and 40,000
  - Republic of Macedonia - 9,695 (0.5% of the total population)
- Megleno-Romanians (speaking the Megleno-Romanian language), living in northern Greece - 20,000.
- Istro-Romanians (speaking Istro-Romanian language) living in Croatia, with a population of 1,200.

Culture

Many Vlachs were shepherds in the medieval times, driving their sheep through the mountains of Southeastern Europe. The Vlachs shepherds reached as far as Southern Poland and Moravia in the north (by following the Carpathian range), Dinaric Alps in West and the Pindus mountains in South. In many of those areas, although with time their descendants lost the language, but their legacy can still be found today in the cultural influences: in the customs, folklore and the way of living of the mountain people, as well as in the placenames of Romanian or Aromanian origins that are spread all across the region. Another part of the Vlachs, especially those in the northern parts, in Romania and Moldova, were traditional farmers growing cereals. Linguists believe that the large vocabulary of Latin words related to agriculture shows that there has always been a farming Vlach population, unlike the Albanians, who have many of these words borrowed from Slavic. Just like the language, the cultural links between the Northern Vlachs (Romanians) and Southern Vlachs (Aromanians) were broken by the 10th century, and since then, there were different cultural influences:
- Romanian culture remained virtually uninfluenced by occupating people such as Hungarians and Slavs and developed itself to what it is today. The 19th century saw an important opening toward Western Europe and cultural ties with France.
- Aromanian culture developed initially as a pastoral culture, later to be greatly influenced by the Byzantine and Greek culture.

Religion

The religion of the Vlachs is predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but there are some regions where they are Catholics and Protestants (mainly in Transylvania) and a few are even Muslims (former converts from Greece, living in Turkey since the 1923 exchange of populations).

History

(to be written)
- History of Vlachs
- History of Romanians

See also


- List of Vlachs
- List of Romanians

Further reading


- Koukoudis, Asterios I. - The Vlachs: Metropolis and Diaspora, 2003, ISBN 9607760867

External links


- [http://www.stat.gov.mk/ State statistical office, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia]
- [http://www.vlachs.gr/uk/index-uk.htm Studies on the Vlachs], by Asterios Koukoudis
- [http://www.vlachophiles.net Aromanian Vlachs: The Vanishing Tribes]
- [http://vlahos.xan.duth.gr Panhellenic Confederacy of Vlachs' Cultural Associations] (in Greek) Category:Vlachs Category:Ethnic groups of Europe Category:Albanian society Category:Ethnic groups of Macedonia Category:Ethnic groups of Greece Category:Ethnic groups of Romania Category:Ethnic groups of Serbia

Vlach

Vlachs (also called Wlachs, Wallachs, Olahs) is a blanket term covering several distinct modern Latin people descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Groups that have historically been called Vlachs include modern-day Romanians, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians, but since the creation of the Romanian state, the term has mostly been used for those living south of the Danube river (i.e. excluding Romanians). Although most linguists agree that their languages share a common origin, the origins of the Vlachs themselves are disputed, as is the notion that all Vlach groups have the same ethnic origins. According to the dominant theory, they are descended from the Roman colonists and/or the Romanised Dacian, Thracian and Illyrian local populations (see Origin of Romanians for more about the dispute about the origin). Some scholars also include the Greeks among their possible ancestors, especially in regard to the Aromanians. Through history, the term "Vlach" was often used for groups which were not ethnically Vlachs, often pejoratively - for example for any shepherding community, or for Christians by Muslims.

Etymology

Main article: Etymology of Vlach The word Vlach is of Germanic origin, sharing this origin with the words "Welsh" and "Walloons" in other parts of Europe. Slavic people initially used the name Vlachs when referring to Romanic people in general. Later on, the meaning got narrower or just different. For example Italy is called Włochy in Polish, and Olaszország ("olas' country") in Hungarian. The term was originally an exonym, as the Vlachs used various words derived from romanus to refer to themselves (români, rumâni, rumâri, aromâni, arumâni etc). Only the Megleno-Romanians adopted the term Vlashi to describe themselves.

Wallachia

Many Vlachs were shepherds and they always looked for better pastures. This explains the pockets of Vlachs that could be found all over the Balkans and as far north as Poland and as far west the Czech Republic, and Croatia. These regions inhabited by Vlachs were called "Wallachia" or "Vlashka" by the Slavs.
- Ungro-Wallachia, later Wallachia ("Ţara Românească") - between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube
  - Vlaşca - part of southern Wallachia
  - Lower Wallachia ("Oltenia") - west of the Olt river
- Moldo-Wallachia ("Moldavia") - between the Carpathians and the Dnister
- Upper Wallachia - in Epirus
  - Moscopole
- Great Wallachia ("Megale Vlachia") - in Thessaly
- Small Wallachia - in Etolia, Acarnania, Dorida, Locrida
- Old Wallachia ("Stara Vlaška") - in Bosnia
- White Wallachia - in Moesia
- Black Wallachia ("Morlachia") - in Dalmatia
- Sirmium Wallachia - on the Sava river
- Moravian Wallachia ("Valašský") - in the Beskydy Mountains of the Czech Republic

People


- Daco-Romanians known by that name due to their location in the territory of ancient Dacia. They are divided into:
  - Romanians (speaking the Romanian language), who live in:
    - Romania - 20.5 millions
    - Ukraine - 500,000; in southern Bessarabia and northern Bukovina
    - Hungary - 70,000 (0.7% of the total population)
    - Serbia and Montenegro - 34,000 (mainly in Vojvodina) see: Romanians of Serbia
    - Slovakia - 9,000
    - Bulgaria - 1,088 according to the last census
  - Moldovans (speaking Romanian/Moldovan language), who live in:
    - Moldova - 2.8 millions
  - Vlachs of Serbia and Bulgaria (speaking Vlach language, which is virtually identical to Romanian), who live in:
    - Serbia and Montenegro - 40,000
    - Bulgaria - 10,500
- Aromanians (speaking the Aromanian language), live in:
  - Greece, mainly in the Pindus Mountains - 65,000 (The Greek government does not recognise any ethnic divisions, so there are no exact statistics. See Demographics of Greece)
  - Romania - about 50,000, mainly in Dobruja
  - Albania - between 10,000 and 40,000
  - Republic of Macedonia - 9,695 (0.5% of the total population)
- Megleno-Romanians (speaking the Megleno-Romanian language), living in northern Greece - 20,000.
- Istro-Romanians (speaking Istro-Romanian language) living in Croatia, with a population of 1,200.

Culture

Many Vlachs were shepherds in the medieval times, driving their sheep through the mountains of Southeastern Europe. The Vlachs shepherds reached as far as Southern Poland and Moravia in the north (by following the Carpathian range), Dinaric Alps in West and the Pindus mountains in South. In many of those areas, although with time their descendants lost the language, but their legacy can still be found today in the cultural influences: in the customs, folklore and the way of living of the mountain people, as well as in the placenames of Romanian or Aromanian origins that are spread all across the region. Another part of the Vlachs, especially those in the northern parts, in Romania and Moldova, were traditional farmers growing cereals. Linguists believe that the large vocabulary of Latin words related to agriculture shows that there has always been a farming Vlach population, unlike the Albanians, who have many of these words borrowed from Slavic. Just like the language, the cultural links between the Northern Vlachs (Romanians) and Southern Vlachs (Aromanians) were broken by the 10th century, and since then, there were different cultural influences:
- Romanian culture remained virtually uninfluenced by occupating people such as Hungarians and Slavs and developed itself to what it is today. The 19th century saw an important opening toward Western Europe and cultural ties with France.
- Aromanian culture developed initially as a pastoral culture, later to be greatly influenced by the Byzantine and Greek culture.

Religion

The religion of the Vlachs is predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but there are some regions where they are Catholics and Protestants (mainly in Transylvania) and a few are even Muslims (former converts from Greece, living in Turkey since the 1923 exchange of populations).

History

(to be written)
- History of Vlachs
- History of Romanians

See also


- List of Vlachs
- List of Romanians

Further reading


- Koukoudis, Asterios I. - The Vlachs: Metropolis and Diaspora, 2003, ISBN 9607760867

External links


- [http://www.stat.gov.mk/ State statistical office, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia]
- [http://www.vlachs.gr/uk/index-uk.htm Studies on the Vlachs], by Asterios Koukoudis
- [http://www.vlachophiles.net Aromanian Vlachs: The Vanishing Tribes]
- [http://vlahos.xan.duth.gr Panhellenic Confederacy of Vlachs' Cultural Associations] (in Greek) Category:Vlachs Category:Ethnic groups of Europe Category:Albanian society Category:Ethnic groups of Macedonia Category:Ethnic groups of Greece Category:Ethnic groups of Romania Category:Ethnic groups of Serbia

Knyaz

Kniaz’ or knyaz is a word found in some Eastern European languages. It is usually translated into English either as Prince or Duke, although the correspondence is not exact.

Etymology

The etymology is directly related to the English King, the German König, and the Scandinavian konung. It was probably borrowed into Slavic early from the Proto-Germanic
- Kuningaz, a form also borrowed by Finnish and Estonian (Kuningas). The title is pronounced and written similarly in different Eastern European languages, Bulgarian: княз; Russian/Ukrainian: князь, in fem. княгиня (kniaginia/kniahynia); Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian: knez; Romanian: cneaz, chinez; Hungarian: kenéz. In Western Slavic languages, the word has later come to denote "lord" (as in Sorbian knjez), while in Polish language this early Germanic loanword came to mean priest (ksiądz) as well as duke (książę).

Middle Ages

The meaning was changing during history. Initially it was used to denote the chieftain of a tribe. Later, with the development of feudal statehood it become the title of a ruler of a state among East Slavs (княжество, kniazhestvo, traditionally translated as duchy or principality), i.e. of Kievan Rus'. As the degree of centralization grew, the ruler acquired the title Velikii Kniaz (translated as Grand Prince or Grand duke, see Russian Grand Dukes). He ruled a Velikoe Knyazhestvo (Grand Duchy), while a ruler of its vassal constituent (udel, udelnoe kniazhestvo or volost) was called udelny kniaz or simply kniaz. When Kievan Rus' became fragmented in the 13th century, the title Kniaz continued to be used in Ruthenian states, including Novgorod, Vladimir-Suzdal', Muscovy, Tver, Halych-Volynia, and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Russian title in modern times

As Muscovy gained dominion over much of former Kievan Rus', Velikii Kniaz Ivan IV of Russia in 1547 was crowned as Tsar. Since the mid-18th century, the title Velikii Kniaz has been revived to allude to sons and grandsons (through male lines) of the Russian Emperors. See titles for Tsar's family for details. Kniaz continued as a hereditary title of Russian nobility patrilineally descended from Rurik (e.g., Repnin, Gorchakov) or Gediminas (e.g., Galitzine, Troubetzkoy). Members of Rurikid or Gedyminid families were called princes when they ruled tiny quasi-sovereign medieval pricipalities. After their demesnes were absorbed by Muscovy, they settled at the Moscow court and were authorised to continue with their princely titles. Since 18th-century, the title was occasionally granted by the Tsar, for the first time by Peter the Great to his associate Alexander Menshikov, and then by Catherine the Great to her lover Grigory Potemkin. After 1801, with incorporation of Georgia into the Russian Empire, various titles of numerous local nobles were controversially rendered into Russian as "kniazes". Similarly, many petty Tatar nobles asserted their right to style themselves "kniazes" because they descended from Genghis Khan. Finally, within the Russian Empire of 1809-1917, Finland was called Grand Duchy of Finland (Velikoe Kniazhestvo Finlandskoe).

See also


- List of Grand Dukes of Russia
- List of Grand Duchesses of Russia Category:Slavic titles Category:Slavic culture Category:Belarusian nobility Category:Russian nobility Category:History of Belarus Category:History of Ukraine

Hunyad

Hunyad (today Hunedoara) was the name of a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in Romania in Transylvania. The capital of the county was Deva (Déva in Hungarian).

Geography

Hunyad county shared borders with Romania and the Hungarian counties Krassó-Szörény, Arad, Torda-Aranyos, Alsó-Fehér and Szeben. Its area was 7809 km² around 1910.

History

Hunyad county was formed in the Middle Ages. It was first attested in 1265 as Hungnod by the Papal Quitrent Register. In 1876, when the administrative structure of Transylvania was changed, its territory was modified. In 1918 (confirmed by the Treaty of Trianon 1920), the county became part of Romania. Most of its territory lies in the present Romanian county Hunedoara, a strip in the east is now part of Alba.

Subdivisions

In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of the county Krassó-Szörény were: Category:Counties in the Kingdom of Hungary

Romania

:Romania (formerly also spelled Rumania or Roumania; Romanian: România ) is a country in Europe. It is bordered by Ukraine and Moldova in the northeast; Hungary in the west; Serbia and Bulgaria to the south along the Danube River. Romania has a stretch of sea coast on the Black Sea and the eastern and southern Carpathian mountains run through its centre. Romania has been a member of NATO since 2004, and is also an acceding country to the European Union. The EU Accession Treaty was signed in early 2005, and Romania is due to join the Union on January 1, 2007.

Name

Main article: Etymology of Romania The name of Romania (România) comes from Român (Romanian) which is a derivative of the word Romanus ("Roman") from Latin. The oldest surviving document written in the Romanian language is a 1521 letter which notifies the mayor of Braşov about the imminent attack of the Ottoman Turks. This document is also notable for having the first occurrence of "Rumanian", Wallachia being here named The Rumanian Land - Ţeara Rumânească (Ţeara < Latin Terra = land). In the following centuries, Romanian documents use both forms: Român and Rumân, with the latter being the more common form. It was only in the 19th century, with the rise of nationalism that the form Român was adopted as an official spelling, being chosen over Rumân in order to emphasise the linguistic connection to ancient Rome. Romanians take pride in being the most eastern Romance people, completely surrounded by non-Latin peoples ("an island of Latinity").

History

Main article: History of Romania In 513 BC, south of the Danube, the tribal confederation of the Getae were defeated by Darius during his campaign against the Scythians (Herodotus IV.93). Over half a millennium later, the Getae (also named Daci by Romans) were defeated by the Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan in two campaigns stretching from 101 to 106, and the core of their kingdom was turned into the Roman province of Dacia. The Gothic and Carpic campaigns in the Balkans during 238–256 forced the Roman Empire to reorganize a new Roman province of Dacia south of Danube, inside former Moesia Superior. In 271 the ancient Dacia became the Kingdom of the Goths until the end of the fourth century, when it was included in the Hunnic Empire. The Gepids and the Avars ruled Transylvania until the 8th century, after which the Bulgars included Romania in their Empire until 1000. The Pechenegs, the Cumans and Uzes were also mentioned by historic chronicles on the territory of Romania until the founding of the Vlachian principalities of Wallachia by Basarab I, and Moldavia by Dragoş during the 13th and 14th centuries respectively. In the Middle Ages, Romanians lived in three distinct principalities: Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania. In 1475, Stephen the Great of Moldavia scored a decisive victory over the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui. Wallachia and Moldavia would later come under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire during the 15th and 16th centuries respectively, with internal autonomy under the millet system, and brief periods of independence. Moldova lost its eastern side Bessarabia to the Russian Empire in 1812 (though partially regained it with the Treaty of Paris in 1856), its northern part Bukovina to the Austrian Empire in 1775 and its south-eastern part Bugeac to the Ottoman Empire. Transylvania came under control of the Kingdom of Hungary by the 11th century (from 1301, Hungary and Transylvania became possessions of the Houses of Anjou and Habsburg). The greatest Hungarian ruler—emperor Matthias Corvinus (known in Romanian as Matei Corvin, ruled 1458–1490)—is claimed by the Romanians because of his half-Romanian father, Iancu de Hundoara, and by the Hungarians because of his Hungarian mother. Later, in 1541, Transylvania became a multi-ethnic principality under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire following the Battle of Mohács. At the end of the 18th century, the Austrian Habsburgs incorporated Transylvania into the Austrian Empire. During the time of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918), Romanians in Transylvania experienced heavy oppression in the form of the Magyarization policies of the Hungarian government. The modern state of Romania was formed by the merging of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 under the Moldavian domnitor Alexander John Cuza. He was replaced by Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in 1866. During the Russo-Turkish War, Romania fought on the Russian side; in the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 Romania was recognized as an independent state by the Great Powers. In return for ceding to Russia the two southern districts of Bessarabia which had been regained by Moldavia after the Crimean War in 1852, the Kingdom of Romania acquired Dobruja. In 1881 the principality was raised to a kingdom and Prince Carol I became King Carol I. In spite of its previous alliance with Imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary, Romania entered World War I on the side of the Triple Entente in a move aimed at acquiring Transylvania. By war's end Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire had collapsed, allowing Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania to unite with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918. Union of Transylvania with Romania was ratified in the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. In 1940 during World War II, Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia, Northern Transylvania, and southern Dobrudja were occupied by the Soviet Union, Hungary and Bulgaria respectively (see Romania during World War II). The authoritarian King Carol II abdicated in 1940 and the subsequent year Romania entered the war joining Nazi Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. Because Romania participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union, the country recovered Bessarabia and northern Bukovina under the leadership of general Ion Antonescu. During the Second World War, the Antonescu regime, allied with Nazi Germany, played an active role in the Holocaust, following its policy of oppression and massacre of the Jews, and, to a lesser extent, Roma. According to a report released by the Romanian government in 2004, the Romanian authorities killed at least 280,000 to 380,000 Jews, primarily in the Eastern territories Romania recovered or occuppied from the Soviet Union and in Moldavia (historical region), though some estimates are even higher. In August 1944 the Antonescu regime was toppled, and Romania joined the Red Army against Nazi Germany, but its role in the defeat of Germany was not recognized by the Paris Peace Conference of 1947. With the Red Army forces still stationed in the country and exerting defacto control, communists and their allied parties claimed 80% of the vote in the 1946 Romanian elections, through a combination of vote manipulation, elimination and forced mergers of competing parties, establishing themselves as the dominant force; Western democracies left Romania in the hands of the Soviet Union. In 1947, King Michael I was forced by the communists to abdicate and leave the country. Romania was proclaimed a communist state, under direct military and economic control of the USSR until 1958. During this period, Romania's scarce resources left after WWII were drained by the "SovRom" agreements: mixed Soviet-Romanian companies established in the aftermath of World War II to mask the looting of Romania by the Soviet Union, in addition to excessive war reparations paid to the USSR. During this dark period, hundreds of thousands of people were imprisoned for political reasons, there were thousands of abuses, deaths and incidents of torture against political opponents, bringing gloom over Romania. A short-lived period of relative economic well-being and openness followed in late 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, still regarded by some as a "golden era". This period gradually ended, first politically, and then economically. Some party leaders (such as Ion Iliescu, Corneliu Manescu, or Gheorghe Apostol) who questioned the achievements of the regime during the latter portion of this era, were sent to lower positions, which, in 1989, justified their "dissident" position. From an economic point of view, Romania's foreign debt sharply increased between 1977 and 1981 (from 3 to 10 billion US dollars). Thus, the influence of international financial organisms such as the IMF or the World Bank grew, conflicting with Ceauşescu's autarchic policies. Ceauşescu eventually initiated a project of total reimbursement of the foreign debt (completed in 1989, shortly before his overthrow). To achieve this goal, he imposed policies that impoverished Romanians and exhausted the Romanian economy. He transformed Romania into a police state (see Securitate) and imposed a cult of personality. One positive achievement of the Communist period was the spread of near-universal literacy and the development of a very efficient education system. However, this educational transformation was not coupled with appropriate industrial development and urbanization policies, so that almost half of Romania's population is still rural (47.3%; see Demography of Romania), and mostly poor. Another achievement is the negotiated retreat of Soviet troops from Romania, in 1958. This allowed the country to pursue independent policies, including the condemnation by the Communist Party of Romania of the Soviet-led 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia (Romania was the only country of the Warsaw pact not to take part into the invasion), the continuation of Romanian-Israeli diplomatic relations after the Six-Day War of 1967 (Romania was the only country in the Warsaw pact to do so), the establishment of economic (1963) and diplomatic (1967) relations with the Federal Republic of Germany, and so forth. Close ties between Romania and both Israel and the Arab countries (and the PLO) allowed Romania to play an essential role in the Israel-Egypt and Israel-PLO peace processes. The Communist dictatorship ended 22 December 1989 (see Romanian Revolution of 1989). During the 1989 revolution (the term "revolution" is contested by many), power was taken by an ad hoc group called the National Salvation Front (FSN), which grouped a number of dissidents with other personalities and (then-unknown) persons that participated in the uprising. The FSN assumed the missions of restoring civil order, taking immediate democratic measures, and organizing elections for a new legislative body. Given the slow pace of reconstruction of the social and democratic system after 45 years of Communism (as emphasized by events such as the Ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureş in March 1990), the largest part of the FSN also constituted itself as a political party that participated in (and won by a large majority) the elections of summer 1990. The move was highly contested by the other emerging political parties, because the FSN controlled most media and therefore the election process was biased. The subsequent disintegration of the FSN, which did not have a clear political platform, produced several political parties including the Democratic Party (PD), which for a time retained the FSN name), the Social Democratic Party (PSD, formerly known as the Romanian Party for Social Democracy (PDSR) or the Democratic National Salvation Front-FDSN), and the Alliance for Romania (APR). Throughout several elections, coalitions, and governments, parties that emerged from the FSN governed or participated in the government of Romania from 1990 to 1996, and then from 2000 until today. In 1996, the CDR entered power on a "Contract with Romania" platform which would have required the CDR to resign en masse after 200 days from a mixed coalition government. Some members had signed on to the contract programme, while others had not; once in power, the "Contract" was repudiated. The major CDR parties were electorally eviscerated in 2000, and the Social Democrats returned to power, with Ion Iliescu once again president of Romania and Adrian Năstase, the president of the Social-Democratic Party (PSD), as prime minister. On December 12, 2004, Traian Băsescu was elected president of Romania. He was supported during elections by a coalition, called Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), formed of his Democratic Party and of the National-Liberal Party. The government was formed by a larger coalition which also included the Romanian Humanist Party (now called Conservative Party) and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR. Following the end of the Cold War in 1989, Romania developed closer ties with Western Europe, joined NATO in 2004 and became an acceding country to the European Union, being at an advanced stage to join on January 1, 2007. The Treaty of Accession of Romania has been signed by EU member states' representatives in Luxembourg, Abbaye de Neumünster, on April 25 2005. Ratification of the Romanian and Bulgarian Accession Treaty is ongoing in the parliaments of all member states.

Romanian heads of state (from the Unification of 1859)

Principalty of Romania Kingdom of Romania People's Republic of Romania Socialist Republic of Romania (from 1965, Aug 21) Republic of Romania See also: Kings of Romania, Bessarabia, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania

Politics

Main article: Politics of Romania Romania is a democratic republic. The legislative branch of the Romanian government consists of two chambers, the Senat (Senate), which has 137 members (as of 2005), and the Camera Deputaţilor (Chamber of Deputies), which has 314 members (as of 2004). In addition, 18 seats in the Chamber of Deputies are awarded to the representatives of national minorities. The members of both chambers are elected every four years. The President, the head of the executive branch, is also elected by popular vote, every five years (until 2004, four years). The president appoints a prime minister, who heads the government, the members of which are in turn appointed by the prime minister. The government is subject to a parliamentary vote of approval.

Administrative divisions

Main article: Counties of Romania Romania is divided into 41 judeţe, or counties, and the municipality of Bucharest (Bucureşti) - the capital. See also Administrative divisions of Romania. The counties are (in alphabetical order): Administrative divisions of Romania blue, the Moldavian region red, and Dobrogea yellow]]

Geography

Main article: Geography of Romania A large part of Romania's borders with Serbia and Bulgaria is formed by the Danube. The Danube is joined by the Prut River, which forms the border with Moldova. The Danube flows into the Black Sea forming the Danube Delta which is a reservation of the Biosphere. Romanian sightseeing Because many of Romania's borders are defined by natural, sometimes shifting rivers, and because the Danube Delta is constantly expanding towards the sea, about 2-5 linear metres yearly, Romania's surface area has changed over the past few decades, generally increasing. The number has increased from about 237,500 km² in 1969 to 238,391 km² in 2005. Romanian sightseeing Romania's terrain is distributed roughly equally among between mountainous, hilly and lowland territories. The Carpathian Mountains dominate the centre of Romania surrounding the Transylvanian Plateau, 14 peaks reaching above the altitude of 2,000 m, the highest being Moldoveanu Peak at 2,544 m. In the south, the Carpathians sweeten into hills, towards the Bărăgan Plains. The three highest mountains in Romania are: Major cities are the capital Bucharest, Iaşi, Timişoara, Cluj-Napoca, Constanţa, Craiova, Braşov, and Galaţi. See also:
- List of Romanian Cities
- Rivers of Romania
- Lakes of Romania

Largest cities


Source: [http://www.insse.ro/rpl2002rezgen/5.pdf National Institute of Statistics, 2002 Census] Unofficially, sociologists say that in its 228 km², Bucharest has more than 3.5 million people, coming from every corner of the country.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Romania Economy of Romania] After Romania's Communist regime was overthrown in late 1989, the country experienced a decade of economic instability and decline, led in part by an o