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THE HEBREW LANGUAGE AND COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS...
the consistency of Komáromi Csipkés concerning the common grammatical
foundations of the two languages.
For the sake of completeness the work of a Jesuit, Pereszlényi Pal (1631-1689),
should be noted as well. Pereszlényi taught first Latin and later Hebrew and
Old Testament at the Catholic university of Nagyszombat [presently Trnava,
Slovakia].°° His Grammatica Lingvae Ungaricae was published there in 1682.
This work does not refer to its sources, but previous researches have pointed out
that De institutione grammatica of the Portuguese Jesuit, Emmanuel Alvarez,
and Grammatica Hungarolatina of Albert Szenczi Molnár, formed its basis."
At the start of his book, Pereszlényi glances at two concrete connections with
Hebrew, and a few grammatical parallels, then asserts that "In certain other
respects, too, Hungarian follows the sacred tongue, which is proofthat it draws
its lineage from that primal mother of all languages, at the first genesis of
tongues in Babylon.”
This seems a throw-away comment, since his Grammatica takes the Hebrew
examples as self-evident without further explanation; nor does explore the pos¬
sibilities of this parallel. There is no Hebrew letter in the work, and references
to the pronominal origin of possessive affixes; to the 3" person singular as
The University of Nagyszombat was founded by Cardinal Péter Pazmany (1570-1637), a Jesuit
himself. Later this University was moved to Pest, and nowadays it is called Eötvös Lóránd Uni¬
versity (ELTE).
PERESZLENYI, Pal, Grammatica Lingvae Ungaricae, Tyrnaviae, Typ. Academicis, 1682. Recent
reprint edition with Hungarian translation and notes: PERESZLENYI, Pal, A magyar nyelv gram¬
matikäja. Grammatica Lingvae Ungaricae. Hasonmds kiadas fordítással. C. Vladar, Zsuzsa
(trans.), Budapest, Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, 2006.
On Alverez see C. VLADÁR, Zsuzsa, Bevezetés Pereszlényi Pál nyelvtanának fordításához, in
PERESZLENYI, A magyar nyelv grammatikdja, 11-26. especially 21. On Szenczi Molnár see
SZATHMÁRI, István, Régi nyelvtanaink és egységesülő irodalmi nyelvünk, Budapest, Akadémiai,
1968, 303-323. Aside from Alvarez’s De institutione grammatica, which served as a structural
and analytical pattern for Pereszlenyi, the examples of the Hungarian language were taken
from the Bible translation of another Jesuit, György Käldi (1573-1634), and from the works
of the prominent theologian, Cardinal Péter Pazmany.
“... in alijs quibusdam Sacrae lingvae imitatricem Ungaricam... Quod argumento est hanc ab
illa primarum lingvarum Matre in Babylonica Idiomatum Genesi stemma duxisse.” Pereszlényi,
Grammatica, 2.
“..quam Ungarimiram Hebraeorum brevitatem aemulantes, ex ultimis Pronominum literis, aut
syllabis, substantive affixis, formare solent.” Pereszlényi, Grammatica, 2. “Nota hic, his Pro¬
nominibus possessivis, Enyim, Tied, 6vé, Miénk, Tiétek, 6vék, Ungaros imitate artificium
Hebraeorum, breviter, & una voce complestendi substantive cum Pronominibus possessivis
per omnes personas, & numerous; imo etiam exrendere ad ipsa verba saltem secundae (ut
hic nominatur) Conjugationis. Tradentur haec ars capite saquenti. Quam Ungarorum cum
Hebraeis aemulationem facile advertent, qui Hebraicorum affixorum notitiam habent.” Ibid.,
44-45.
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