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JÓZSEF ZSENGELLÉR The first comparative philological work on Hungarian was the Grammatica Hungarolatina of Janos Sylvester (cca1504—after 1551) from 1539." The author studied theology and sacred languages in Wittenberg, and later became professor of Hebrew and Greek at the University of Vienna in the 1540’s and 1550’s.” In this book Sylvester not only described Latin grammar in comparison with Hungarian, but gave long analyses of the similar and dissimilar features of Hungarian versus Greek and Hebrew. Therefore the printed outline of Grammatica Hungarolatina contained both Greek and Hebrew characters." Sylvester pointed at the similarity of Hungarian and Hebrew usage of consonants and vowels,* particles,!° the differentiation between transitive and intransitive inflections,!* and the pronominal origin of possessive affixes.! Sylvester stated that “this fact clearly brings to light the greatness of our language that without doubt is related to the holy Hebrew.”'? Sylvester seems to be one of the first Christian Hebraists who discussed the relation of Hebrew and vulgar languages on a philological level. Only the Spanish, the Italian, the French and Czech languages were treated like this before.” Grammatica Hungarolatina was written only thirty-three years later than the ground-breaking De Rudimentis Hebraicis of Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522)!°° Though the Grammatica Hungarolatina utilized the results and method of Reuchlin, its main source regarding 1! SYLVESTER, loannes, Grammatica Hungarolatina in usum pueroru reces scripta loanne Sylvestro Pannonio autore, Naeneai/Sarvar, 1539. I use the recent critical edition, SYLVESTER, Ioannes, Grammatica Hungarolatina. Edidit, introduxit et commentariis instruxit Stephanus Bartok, Budapest, 2006, http://mek.oszk.hu/05700/05725/05725.pdf, accessed 4 September 2016. The aim of the book was to teach students familiar in Latin how to learn Hungarian. 2 “Sylvester embodied the Erasmian idea of ‘homo trilinguis”. See Bartok’s preface to his edition of Sylvester’s Grammatica, 7-16. especially 8. 13 Hebrew characters were used in SYLVESTER, Grammatica, 35-38, 50, 54, 62, 69, 75 and 82-83. 4 SYLVESTER, Grammatica, 35: “Cum Latinus sermo unum tantum S habeat, noster tria, idque iuxta Hebraeae linguae proprietatem.... Primum genus Hebrae — schin dextrum, secundum — samek, tertium — schin sinistrum vocant.” Ibid., 40: “Vocales omnes in nostra lingua, ut in Hebraea, duplicis sunt et potestatis et figurae dempta | littera.” 15 Ibid., 36. 16 Ibid., 69: “Quaeres manifestissime ostendit magnam nostrae linguae cum sacra illa Hebraea esse affinitatem. Ut autem id cunctis sit manifestum, nostram linguam cum Hebraea quoque coniungemus.” 85. " Tbid., p. 61: “Ut in Hebraea lingua, ita in Hungarica sciat puer pronominum aliud esse affixum, alium separatum.” “... quae res manifestissime ostendit, magnam nostrae linguae cum sacra illa, nimirum hebraea, ess affinitatem.” SYLVESTER, Grammatica, 45. 5 TELEGDI, Zsigmond, A magyar nyelvtaniras kezdetei és a héber grammatika, MTA Judaisztikai Kutatócsoport Értesítő 3 (1990), 13. 20 REUCHLIN, Johannes, De rudimentis hebraicis libri III. Pforzheim, 1506, (repr.) Hildesheim — New York, 1974. * 66°
