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>>> Item number 187, dated 96/03/23 16:38:05 -- ALL

Date:         Sat, 23 Mar 1996 16:38:05 -0600
From:         lijpn@pegasus.acs.ttu.edu
Subject:      Query: Hungarian greeting

Karen Hobbs <KarenHob@aol.com> forwards this etymological query. I've often wondered about it myself. Is the Hungarian word a medieval or later loan word from Austrian speech?--Editor

I have received the following from a US Army Major stationed with the peace-keeping troops in Hungary. Is there a Habsburg subscriber who might be able to answer his question about the informal greeting mentioned below?

Karen Hobbs

Next Monday I begin studying Hungarian here with the University of Maryland. The University of Maryland is one of three colleges offering courses here in Hungary on US installations. I am really looking forward to it!

I also discovered something interesting. Here in Hungary there is an informal greeting that is pronounced "sair-voos". [spelled szervusz--Ed.] That is very similar to the pronunciation of the Southern German and Austrian greeting of "Servus". [Latin for servant--Ed.] I am curious as to the origin of the word, and whether or not it is a recent lingual acquisition here in Hungary or if it goes back to the Empire days.

Major T. Sean Schultz
71410.25@compuserve.com

>>> Item number 191, dated 96/03/25 11:34:13 -- ALL

Date:         Mon, 25 Mar 1996 11:34:13 -0600
From:         lijpn@pegasus.acs.ttu.edu
Subject:      Re: Query: Hungarian greeting

Istvan Deak (Columbia U.) <id1@columbia.edu> writes:

The Hungarian szervusz is the same as the Austrian and South German Servus, and it really should read : Servus Humillimus, I am your humble servant.

The expression is not too old. The Hungarian Etymological Dictionary dates it back to 1815, and it entered into the language from the German-speaking lands of the Habsburg Monarchy. Today, unfortunately, it is being rapidly replaced by the greeting, Szia, origin unknown. Szervusz dates a person.

Here's a longer response from Janos Bogardi <BOGARDI@lib.jpte.hu> of Janus Pannonius University in Pecs, Hungary:

Greetings,

The Hungarian etymological dictionary tells us a few things about szervusz (A magyar nyelv to:rte'neti-etimolo'giai szo'ta'ra. 3. kot. O:-Zs. Budapest, 1976. pp. 744-745):

It was originally a Latin form of commendation: _servus humillimus_, i.e. somebody offers himself to be the humblest servant of the other. It was used in the written language first, later, omitting humillimus, it became a word of greeting in the spoken language, too.

The Hungarian translation of the expression (Ala'zatos szolga'ja, Ala's szolga'ja) was widely used in written language from at least the seventeenth century, as I recall it from my research. _Humble_ people used that Hungarian translated form when greeting more respectable beings up to 1945.

Unfortunately the etym. dict. does not specify when servus as a greeting appeared in Hungarian. What it gives is that in 1823 friends, too, greet one another saying _servus frater_. The dictionary also quotes a German dictionary from 1815: to say servus means to commend himself.

Servus et al. is not unique for Hungary, and not even for German speaking countries. According to the etym. dict., it is known in Czech, Polish, too. They are all informal greetings.

[...and Transylvanian Romanian, too--Ed.] Ciao,

Janos Bogardi

HABSBURG: Hey, Janos, how come that you say goodbye to the whole group in that rather informal way?

Janos: schiavo (slave, Italian) -> sciao (slave, Venetian) -> ciao ;-)

Bogardi Janos                                     Mr. Janos Bogardi
Feldolgozo konyvtaros                          Cataloging librarian
Janus Pannonius Tudomanyegyetem          Janus Pannonius University
Kozponti Konyvtar                                   Central Library
Pecs                                                  Pecs, Hungary

Cim          -> H-7641 Pecs, Szepesy I. u. 1-3. <-   Street Address
Postacim     ->     H-7601 Pecs, Pf. 227.       <-  Mailing Address
Telefon      ->         +36 72 325466           <-            Phone
Fax          ->         +36 72 324780           <-              Fax
E-mail       ->      bogardi@lib.jpte.hu        <-           E-mail

>>> Item number 194, dated 96/03/26 22:18:24 -- ALL

Date:         Tue, 26 Mar 1996 22:18:24 -0600
From:         lijpn@pegasus.acs.ttu.edu
Subject:      Re: Query: Hungarian greeting

Here is another group of postings on this thread. Unless somebody has an original manuscript to offer, I suggest we call a halt at this point.--Ed.

=3D> Steve Muhlberger, Nipissing University <STEVEM@EINSTEIN.UNIPISSING.CA>= :

"Your humble and obedient servant" was a common way to end a letter in the 19th century in English, too.

Istvan Deak of Columbia University <id1@columbia.edu>

The information cited by me earlier is in vol. III, on pp. 744-745, of _A magyar nyelv torteneti etimologiai szotara_ (Bp.: Akademiai Kiado, 1976.) The book is a fountain of pleasure for me.

By the way, servus humillimus is correctly, I am your most humble servant, Ihr sehr ergebener Diener, a legalazatosabb szolgaja.

> Tom Kramer, University of Sydney <kramert@tmx.mhs.oz.au>:

>      The Hungarian szervusz ... unfortunately, it
>      is being rapidly replaced by the greeting, Szia, origin unknown...

Because of its relatively recent introduction, szia could be derived from English (or, if you prefer, American). As such, if I were a gambler, I'd put some money on it being a corruption of "see ya" - which, in turn, is a corruption of "see you" - and obtained through cultural osmosis via English-language media (films, videos, print). Certainly, "szervusz" and "see you" have compatible meanings, and Hungarians may pronounce both words in a phonetically similar manner.

> Evan Baker in Los Angeles <evan@earthlink.net>

Servus is still frequently used in Austria as a greeting and a farewell signoff -- at least in Vienna when I was living there. Dialect form is also used as "Serv=E4s." "Ciao" is frequently used as well.

I always use the word with my German-speaking friends, especially after a long-distance conversation . . .

> James Doepp in Miskolc, Hungary <getjdoep@gold.uni-miskolc.hu>:

I posted the query regarding the Hungarian greeting (Szervusz) to the Hungary Discussion group, and came up with the following response:

According to the Hungarian etymological dictionary, 'Servus' as a greeting first appears in Hungarian in 1815. It is of course the Latin word for 'servant'.

The immediate source for Hungarian may have been German in part, but it's hard to tell: Latin was used widely in Hungary as a lingua franca in church, school, jurisprudence, government, and the basic idea is rather international: cf. English 'Your humble servant' (servus humillius), Italian 'ciao' (which evolves from 'schiavo', 'slave'), or Spanish 'servidor', used in various combinations to this day as a closing formula in letters. In Hungarian usage, as in South German, 'servus' develops into an informal, second-person greeting. In Hungarian only, the word takes a second-person plural ending, -tok, when greeting two or more friends informally: 'szervusztok'. This latter development shows that the speakers were no longer aware of the original meaning of the Latin.=20

L. J. Elteto
Portland State

> And finally from Karen Hobbs <KarenHob@aol.com>, who got us started:

Thanks to list subscribers for the replies to my query on the use of "Servus" as a greeting in Hungary and Germany. Have passed them on to Tuzla.

Karen Hobbs

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