Organization: Youngstown State University
Date: Tuesday, 14 Apr 1992 13:02:06 EDT
From: <00030929@ysub.ysu.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Transylvanian runic script?

Jo'napot!

  Good grief!  Never did I realize there was so much interest in non-Nordic
runes!
  I have received about half a dozen requests for information in the past day
or so.  I will try to answer as quickly as possible, so bear with me, please.
  And if anyone else out there can post information, please do so.  I don't
think I'll be able to answer all of the questions, because I have never made a
study of runes, per se. Any help from others would be most appreciated.

  One request especially I have little knowledge on.  Do any of you know of
ancient Polish runes?  Also, that person asked about runes for the sibilants;
any information at hand?  The spur was reference to an ancient (medieval?) axe
head found in Poland with runes on it.

  For those of you interested in the Magyar/Hungarian runes, my sources are
closer to hand.  The following are taken from:  Guide to Hungarian Studies
                                                Elemer Bako
                                                Hoover Institution Press,
                                                  Stanford University
                                                1973 Stanford CA     vol. 1
                                                ISBN 0-8179-2521-X
                                                LC 79-152422

(If anyone knows where I can purchase a copy of this work, please let me know.
I tried to get it through a good book store, and they cannot get it new for me;
even a used copy would work, but they don't have that either)

(page 107)
"6th Century  The culture of the Turcs, whose civilization was largely
              absorbed by the "Ugro"-Hungarians, was described by the
              historian Menandros.  A runic alphabet of the Turcs was
              adopted.  Some forms of it, slightly changed, have been
              preserved, mainly in the Sze'kely regions of Transylvania."


(page 166)  "71.  Ne'meth, Gyula.  A MAGYAR ROVA'SI'RA'S.  [The Hungarian
             cuneiform writing].  Budapest.  Magyar Tudoma'nyos Akade'mia,
             1934."

(page 167)  "76.  Sebestye'n, Gyula.  A MAGYAR ROVA'SI'RA'S HITELES EMLE'KEI.
             [Authentical relics of the Hungarian cuneiform writing]. Budapest,
             Magyar Tudoma'nyos Akade'mia, 1915.  IV., 173 p., XVIII t.
             54 illus., (incl. facsims) 18 plates.

                Bibl. footnotes. The first documentary and critical study on
             the subject; facsimilies of the relics of the old Hungarian
             cuneiform writing appear in the tables of the appendix."

(page iv)   (referring to the Calendar of Bologna):
            "The page produced here (numbered 675 in the Marsigli manuscript)
             is from the Library of Congress copy of Sebestye'n's work."

There are works in English which have both the runes and a guide to pronuncia-
tion of them, but they are not immediately at hand.  I will try to get a full
reference citation as soon as possible.

Again, if anyone else has info on non-Nordic runes, I'm sure that others on the
Net would like to see it.

Vajk