Three years ago, I was studying at Saint-Petersburg State University Faculty of Political Science for the second time. At the end of October, I decided to travel to Kazan and Cheboksary, the capital cities of the republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia in the Volga-Ural region. This is neither the time nor place to tell the story of how I got there, but my four months in Russia, including my week in Kazan and Cheboksary, changed my life. Not only did I strengthen my love for Russia and the multinational Russian people, I developed an enduring respect for the Tatar and Chuvash peoples, their languages and cultures. My interest in the Chuvash has inspired me to write a detailed research paper, yet to be completed, about their history.
In the works of N. Ashmarin, V. Ivanov, N. Poppe, András Róna-Tas, V. Yegorov, and others, special attention is given to cognates between the Chuvash and Hungarian languages, the number of which is about 300. How is it that Hungarian and Chuvash, spoken more than 2,600 kilometers apart, share so many cognates? The answer lies in the early history of the Chuvash and Hungarians. The history of the Hungarians is relevant to Transcarpathian Rusyns, as it is where the history of Carpathian Rus’ and the Eurasian steppe intersect.
Hungarian is the most widely-spoken member of the Finno-Ugric language family, which includes such languages as Finnish, Estonian, and the Mari, Udmurt, Mordvinic, and Komi languages spoken in Russia. Hungarian belongs to the Ugric branch, which separated from the Finno-Permic branch in the 3rd millennium B.C. The languages most closely-related to Hungarian are Khanty and Mansi, suggesting that the ancient homeland of the Hungarians was on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains in southwestern Siberia.
At some point, the Hungarians, known as magyar in Hungarian, adopted pastoral nomadism. Iranian loanwords indicate that the Hungarians had early contacts with Iranian nomads of the Eurasian steppe. The Hungarians moved westward, arriving in the Pontic steppe around the Don and Kuban rivers by the 5th or 6th century. In the following centuries, the Hungarians were reliable allies of the Khazar Khaganate. Hungarian political traditions were likely influenced by the Khazars, such as dual power shared between the gyula and kende, the religious and military leaders, respectively.
In the second half of the 9th century, the Khazar Khaganate was attacked from the east by the Pechenegs. Pecheneg attacks forced the Hungarians to flee west to the steppe between the Prut and Dnieper rivers. This region is known as Etelköz in Hungarian. Under pressure from the Pechenegs and First Bulgarian Empire, Hungarians led by Árpád crossed the Carpathian Mountains and settled in Pannonia in 895. The Hungarians assimilated the local population, converted to Roman Catholicism, and have lived in the Carpathian basin ever since.
Chuvash belongs to the Turkic language family, which includes languages such as Turkish, Tatar, Gagauz, Kazakh, Uzbek, and Uyghur. Most scholars believe that the ancient homeland of the Turks was near the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia, western Mongolia, and northern Xinjiang. Whereas all other modern Turkic languages are descended from Common Turkic, Chuvash is the only surviving member of the Ogur-Bulgar branch of the Turkic language family.
The Bulgars and other Ogur Turkic tribes arrived in the Pontic steppe from Central Asia in the 5th century. In the mid-7th century, Kubrat took advantage of the collapse of the Turkic Khaganate, based in Mongolia, and rebelled against the Avar Khaganate, based in the Carpathian basin. Kubrat established Great Bulgaria on the Pontic steppe between the Dnieper and Kuban rivers, but after Kubrat’s death, Great Bulgaria collapsed under pressure from the rising Khazar Khaganate. Bulgars led by Asparukh fled to the Lower Danube, where they subjugated Slavic tribes and established the First Bulgarian Empire after defeating the Byzantines in 680. The First Bulgarian Empire later converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Bulgars were assimilated by the Slavs, forming the foundation of the Bulgarians we know today
Some Bulgars remained on the steppe and became vassals of the Khazars. In the late-8th century, Bulgars began to migrate from the Pontic steppe to the Middle Volga, where they founded Volga Bulgaria. By the early 10th century, the Volga Bulgars converted to Islam, though Islam was most widespread among the feudal nobility, merchants, and urban population. Volga Bulgaria was initially a vassal of the Khazars, but became fully independent after the Khazar Khaganate was destroyed by Kievan Rus and the Pechenegs in 965. Before it was conquered by the Mongol-Tatars in 1236, Volga Bulgaria was one of the most powerful feudal states in Eastern Europe, and it prospered from trade with Kievan Rus’, the Byzantine Empire, Abbasid Caliphate, and Khwarezmian Empire of Central Asia. As with any ethnic group, the ethnogenesis of the Chuvash was a long and complex process, but linguistic and ethnographic evidence indicates that the Chuvash developed as a synthesis of Finno-Ugric and Volga Bulgar elements.
As the only surviving Ogur-Bulgar language, Chuvash has many phonetic changes which distinguish it from the other Turkic languages. The most notable phonetic change found in Chuvash is from Common Turkic z > Ogur-Bulgar r, for example (Tatar yoldɪz > Chuvash śăltăr “star”). Chuvash also has the phonetic change from š > l (Tat. taš> Chuv. čul“stone”). Among the other changes distinguishing Chuvash from Common Turkic are s > š (Tat. sarɪ “yellow” > Chuv. šură “white”) and y > ś (Tat. yel > Chuv. śul “year”).
Ogur-Bulgar loanwords are the oldest layer of Turkic loanwords in the Hungarian language, and they exhibit many of the same phonetic changes which distinguish Chuvash from the other Turkic languages. For example, Hungarian ökör “ox” is cognate with the Chuvash văkăr, related to the Turkish öküz. Hungarian cognates with Chuvash words exhibiting y > ś feature either gy or sz. Hungarian szél “wind” is cognate with the Chuvash śil, related to Turkish yel and Tatar jil. Chuvash śimĕś “fruit” and śĕrĕ “ring” are not szümölcs and szűrű, but gyümölcs and gyűrű in Hungarian. Compare Hungarian gyümölcsand gyűrű with Turkish yemiş and yüzük (also exhibiting z > r). Among other Chuvash-Hungarian cognates are (yĕkĕr > iker “twin”), (ака/aka > eke “plow”), (śurla > sarló “sickle”), (urpa > árpa “barley”), (śyr > ír “to write”), (purśăn > bársony “velvet”), and (ĕnčĕ > gyöngy “pearl”).
The number of cognates between Hungarian and Chuvash, particularly those relating to agriculture, animal husbandry, and trade, indicate that the ancestors of the Chuvash cohabitated with the Hungarians for a significant period of time. Based on migration patterns and common plant names in Hungarian, Chuvash, and Ossetian, the Magyars and Bulgars cohabitated on the Pontic steppe between the Kuban and Don rivers between the 5th and late-8th centuries.
The study of Chuvash-Hungarian cognates is interesting considering the geographic and linguistic distance between these languages, and it has played an important role in the study of Chuvash and Hungarian history. As a Rusyn, I also find Chuvash-Hungarian cognates interesting because no people has played as important a role in the history of the Transcarpathian Rusyns as the Hungarians. The Hungarians took control of Carpathian Rus’ in the 11th-13th centuries, and Carpathian Rus’ remained part of the Kingdom of Hungary until the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Just as Russian has been a source of loanwords for Chuvash, particularly in the last two centuries, Hungarian has been an important source of loanwords for Rusyn.
Just as words of German and French origin entered Chuvash through Russian, I theorized that words of Ogur-Bulgar origin entered Rusyn through Hungarian. Maria Silvestri recommended that I contact Professor Mihály Káprály of the University of Nyíregyháza in Hungary. I wrote Professor Káprály in Russian, in which I explained my theory and attached a list of 50 Chuvash-Hungarian cognates. Professor Káprály wrote back to me a week later, and together we concluded that there is a small number of Hungarian loanwords of Ogur-Bulgar origin in the Rusyn dialect spoken near Velikie Lazy in Zakarpattia Oblast’, Ukraine.
The Hungarian word ír “to write” is cognate with the Chuvash śyr. The Rusyn word iрка/irka “notebook” comes from the Hungarian ír. The Hungarian bársony “velvet” is cognate with the Chuvash purśăn “silk.” Compare Hungarian bársony to Rusyn баршунь/baršun’. The word for the Lilly of the Valley flower in the dialect around Velikie Lazy is дюндюрик/dyundyurik, from the Hungarian gyöngyvirág. The word gyöngyvirág is derived from the word gyöngy “pearl,” which is cognate with the Chuvash ĕnčĕ.
The Hungarian word iker “twin” is cognate with the Chuvash yĕkĕr. The Rusyn word iкероблак/ikeroblak refers to a type of window with two shutters or panes, from the Hungarian iker “twin” and ablak “window.” The Rusyn words капура/kapura “gate,” капурка/kapurka “small gate of a fence,” and капуркова/kapurkova “the last portion of alcohol served to a guest” are derived from the Hungarian kapu. Hungarian kapu “gate” is cognate with Chuvash hapha, though it may also come from the Ottoman Turkish kapı. Owing to the century and a half of Ottoman rule over southern and central Hungary, Rusyn probably has many more Hungarian loanwords of Ottoman Turkish rather than Ogur-Bulgar origin.
These loanwords symbolize the Bulgar influence on the Hungarians and Hungarian influence on the Rusyns. They represent the way that Carpathian Rus’, through the Hungarians, has indirectly been influenced by the Eurasian steppe. The Hungarians, with their origins in southwestern Siberia, were enriched by their contacts with the Bulgars and forced to flee to the Carpathian basin by their conflicts with the Pechenegs, two peoples from Central Asia. After their conquest of the Carpathian basin, the Hungarians gradually extended their control over Carpathian Rus’. In pursuit of Kipchak tribes which fled to Hungary, the Mongol-Tatars invaded Hungary in 1241. The Mongol-Tatars crossed the Veretsky pass in Carpathian Rus’, the same pass crossed by the Hungarians in 895. With their origins in the Seljuk Empire founded by Oguz tribes from Central Asia, the Ottoman Turks defeated Hungary at the Battle of Mohács in 1526. The Ottoman victory was a major historical event that eventually led the entirety of Hungary, including Carpathian Rus’, to fall under Habsburg control until 1918.
Even in the rugged valleys and mountains of Carpathian Rus’, the Rusyns are not untouched by events beyond their control and beyond their area of settlement. Far from an isolated people, the Rusyns have always been a thread in a complex web of human interactions spanning from the Altai and Central Asia across the Eurasian steppe to the Balkans and Carpathians. To better understand the history of our people, at times it is necessary to view the Rusyns and Carpathian Rus’ in their wider world-historical context. The connections we make and the comparisons we draw may not always be significant, though they can be interesting and intriguing.
Nicholas Rackers is a self-taught Turkologist of Rusyn and German heritage. He graduated from Miami University of Ohio in 2019 with a BA in Political Science and a minor in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. He also studied with the Council for International Educational Exchange at Saint-Petersburg State University in summer 2017 and fall 2018. He currently works at Jewish Family Service, where he often works with Russian-speaking Jews from the former Soviet Union. Aside from writing a research paper about the Chuvash people, Nicholas also publishes a blog, Khans and Kommissars.