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Hungarian Runes ("Székely Rovásírás" in Hungarian; also called "rovas") is a type of runic writing system used among the pagan Magyars prior to 1000 AD, when the first Christian king of Hungary, St. Stephen I (István) ordered that all pre-Christian writings be destroyed and that the Latin alphabet be adopted. However, this script remained in use in remote regions of Transylvania until the late 1850s.
Images
Ungarische_Runen.png
Image:Ungarische_Runen.png
Origins
Hungarian Runes are not related to Germanic Runes, but derive from the Orkhon or Turkic Runic script.
They were usually written on sticks in boustrophedon style (alternating direction right to left and then left to right). In some respects, they are more suitable for writing Hungarian than the Latin alphabet, because they include separate letters for all the phonemes of Hungarian. Also note that it does not contain the so called "foreign letters": dz, dzs, q, w, x and y, which only appear in foreign words.
Today
These days the "rovásírás" have a political undertone. It is mainly used by far-rightist groups in propaganda or graffiti across Hungary.
External links
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