Early Modern English pronunciation — The evidence from Hungarian

Abstract

György Komáromi Csipkés was a Hungarian Calvinist theologian, translator of the Bible, a prolific writer in ecclesiastical topics, and a man of many other talents, including his aptitude for writing grammars (in Latin). After his grammar on Hebrew (Schola Hebraica, 1654) and Hungarian (Hungaria Illustrata, 1655), he wrote a grammar book titled Anglicvm Spicilegium on English in 1664, being the first Hungarian author to do so. The book is also the first grammar book in Hungary that contains a relatively well-written and complex chapter on (then contemporary) Early Modern English (EMoE) pronunciation, if not phonology (‘well-written’ must be taken with some reservation though), something that cannot be said about the rest of his book (see below). Komáromi spent nine months in England in 1652 (mentioned specifically in the introduction) following his stay in Utrecht, where he pursued his doctoral studies in oriental languages. After his studies in England, he returned to Utrecht where he completed his doctoral degree, returning eventually to Hungary in 1653. The book was written some ten years after his return to Hungary, ultimately published in 1664 in Debrecen. As was usual, the grammar was written in Latin. The only extant copy of the book is found in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (in the Ráth György collection), digitized in 2021. The book was translated into Hungarian by C. Vladár in 2021. No English translation of the book exists. The impetus to this article, as well as the translation of the grammar into Hungarian, was provided by Balogh (2022), who analyses the work from a number of aspects and positions it in a wider Hungarian (and not only Hungarian) context. After publication, the book lay forgotten; the next known mention of the book is by Károly Szabó in 1885 in the second volume of his series of Old Hungarian Libraries. The grammar cannot have had a wide audience to enjoy it, as interest in English ran low at that time (the lingua franca of learning was