Szempontok Anonymus gesztájának helyesírás-történeti feldolgozásához

Considerations for the Study of Anonymous’ Gesta From the Perspective of Historical Orthography Anonymous’ Gesta Hungarorum has been studied by both historians and linguists for a long time. Both disciplines have produced an extensive set of scholarly publications relying on a great variety of approaches that study the gesta and its mysterious author. I examine the Hungarian remnants (and Latin language elements of Hungarian relevance) of the gesta from the perspective of historical linguistics. In this paper I focus on the aspect of historical orthography more specifically. In my study I start out from the dating of the linguistic record at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries which is claimed to be most probable by linguists and it facilitates my work that there are several important linguistic records available from this age that are contemporaries of the gesta and which are clearly authentic and include abundant Hungarian language data. The certificate of confirmation of crusaders of Székesfehérvár from 1193 and the Tihany Survey of 1211 are the primary sources in this respect but the historical-orthographic features of the Funeral Sermon and Prayer may also be used in the comparison. Although the genre differences between charters and the narrative historical work obviously result in a different source value in terms of legal authenticity and thus also “onomastic authenticity”, research in historical linguistics in the broader sense of the term is only slightly influenced by this circumstance (or not at all). Meanwhile, I also compare the orthography in Anonymous’ gesta with the general orthographic attributes of the era(s) that are seen as possible dates for the creation of the gesta (around 1217 and in the 1160s-70s) so as to provide additional linguistic arguments for one or the other possible date. After the articulation of the findings of my research, I finally formulate general lessons learned that are related to the source value of different genres of linguistic records (including gestas) from the Árpád Era in terms of historical orthography, while also shedding light on certain details of contemporary written culture.