From the late 18th century in the multi-ethnic Kingdom of Hungary, new language-based national identities came to dominate over those that had previously been constructed on legal, territorial, or historical basis. While the Hungarian language struggled to emancipate itself, the roles and functions of Latin (the official language until 1844) were changing dramatically. Latin held a different significance for varying segments of society, from being the essential part of an individual identity to representing an obstacle to “national survival”; from guaranteeing harmony between the different linguistic communities to hindering change, social and political justice. This pioneering volume aims to highlight the ways language debates about Latin and Hungarian contributed to the creation of new identities and ideologies in Central Europe.
Contributors include Gábor Almási, Per Pippin Aspaas, Piroska Balogh, Henrik Hönich, László Kontler, István Margócsy, Alexander Maxwell, Ambrus Miskolczy, Levente Nagy, Nenad Ristović, Andrea Seidler, Teodora Shek Brnardić, Zvjezdana Sikirić Assouline, and Lav Šubarić
Gábor Almási, Ph.D. (1972), Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, is external researcher at Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies. His interests range from Renaissance studies to pre-modern nationalism. He is the author of Uses of Humanism (Brill, 2009).
Lav Šubarić, Ph.D. (1971), University of Innsbruck, is key researcher at Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies. His interests include manuscript studies, Medieval Latin and Neo-Latin studies. He has co-authored Tyrolis Latina. Geschichte der Lateinischen Literatur in Tirol (Böhlau, 2012).
"Latin at the Crossroads of Identity is highly recommendable and is a valuable volume not only for linguists, as some may deduce from just the name of the ancient Roman language in its title, but also for historians, sociologists, and a wider audience interested in topics related to Central Europe and all-European culture [...] a volume that thoroughly explores the complex and dynamic relation between language and national identity within the Hungarian Kingdom of the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."
Ferdinand Siarl in Hungarian Cultural Studies. e-Journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association
"The book will act as a useful corrective to the traditional view on the importance of Latin as contained to early modernity only, while on the other hand, it constitutes a much needed introduction to central European Latinitas. Hopefully, other scholars not only will incorporate the presented information in their own publications and research, but will also probe into some issues and problems signaled on the volume’s pages."
Tomasz Kamusella (University of St Andrews) in Colloquia Humanistica (2017-6).
List of Illustrations
Map of Hungary c. 1790
Introduction
Gábor Almási and Lav Šubarić
The Politics of Language
When Language Became Ideology: Hungary in the Eighteenth Century
István Margócsy
Which Language and Which Nation? Mother Tongue and Political Languages. Insights from a Pamphlet Published in 1790
Henrik Hönich
‘Hungarus Consciousness’ in the Age of Early Nationalism
Ambrus Miskolczy
Before and after 1773: Central European Jesuits, the Politics of Language and Discourses of Identity in the Late Eighteenth Century Habsburg Monarchy
Per Pippin Aspaas and László Kontler
Dilemmas of Latin in Education and Media
The Enlightenment’s Choice of Latin: the Ratio educationis of 1777 in the Kingdom of Hungary
Teodora Shek Brnardić
The Long Road of Hungarian Media to Multilingualism: on the Replacement of Latin in the Kingdom of Hungary in the Course of the Eighteenth Century
Andrea Seidler
The Language Question and the Paradoxes of Latin Journalism in Eighteenth-century Hungary
Piroska Balogh
The Other Hungarians
From the Aftermath of 1784 to the Illyrian Turn: The Slow Demise of the Official Latin in Croatia
Lav Šubarić
The Latin Speeches in the Croatian Parliament: Collective and Personal Identities
Zvjezdana Sikirić Assouline
Latin as the Panslavonic Language, 1790−1848
Alexander Maxwell
Latin and Vernacular Relations in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: the Serbian Case
Nenad Ristović
Romans, Romanians and Latin-speaking Hungarians. The Latin Language in Hungarian-Romanian Intellectual Discourse (Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries)
Levente Nagy
List of Contributors
Index
Teachers, researchers, and students in European (especially Central and East European) history. Specialists in nationalism, Neo-Latin studies, linguistics, and history of ideas.