hulit1-2, Exercise 1: The Funeral Sermon

Model answer (check the details):

Why it is important: it is the oldest surviving continuous text in Hungarian, dated to around 1192 to 1195, so it shows the language as it was written about eight centuries ago. It proves that Hungarian could be written as a full text with grammar and vocabulary, not just as isolated words in Latin documents. It is short and religious, but its age and its language make it a foundation for the history of the literature and the language.

Why so little earlier writing survives:
1. Latin was the language of the Church, the court and the law, so little was written in Hungarian.
2. Manuscripts were lost to wars, fires and neglect, and the Mongol invasion of 1241 to 1242 damaged the kingdom (check how heavily).
3. Oral songs and tales were passed on by speech and left little record.

What survives is a small, chance-shaped part of what existed.