Hidegháború (Cold war)

We shall now carry out an interesting exercise. As both Hungarian and Estonian belong to the same language group, namely the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, we shall practice examining them in parallel.

But first, a little genealogy. Research hypothesizes and reconstructs a distant ancestor to the Uralic languages, the Proto-Uralic, presumably spoken from 7000 to 2000 BC around the Ural Mountains. Geographical origins are, however, unclear and the more recent hypothesis of an even more distant origin, in Western Siberia, is evoked. For instance, an interesting study at the crossroads of genetics, archaeology and linguistics, based on the analysis of DNA data from the pre-Roman Iron Age in Estonia, highlights a certain similarity in genomic patterns and distributions between these ancient populations and those of modern Siberia. [1]

Proto-Uralic would have gradually differentiated into the present-day Uralic languages. Debates rage as well as to the history of this differentiation - tree or comb. The conventional hypothesis holds that Proto-Uralic differentiated into two - reconstructed - languages, Proto-Samoyedic and Proto-Finno-Ugric. Another distinguishes three direct descendants of the proto-ancestor, Finno-Permic, Ugric and Samoyedic, while the comb hypothesis holds that the ancestor directly gave rise to the current variety of Uralic languages, that is, to the Sami, Finnic, Mordvinic, Mari, Permic, Hungarian, Mansi, Khanty and Samoyedic languages. Some see a unity in a Finno-Samic group, while others consider that the similarities between the distinct Finnish and Sami groups stem from common influences, notably Germanic and, to a lesser extent, Baltic. [2]

In any case, modern Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch. It results from a gradual standardization during the 18th and 19th centuries, based on the dialects of northern Estonia. Indeed, two groups of dialects, northern and southern, are thought to have formed in distinct waves of migration two millennia ago. The northern group includes the keskmurre, or central dialect, which forms the foundation of the standard Estonian language; the läänemurre, or western dialect, primarily spoken in Lääne and Pärnu Counties; the saarte murre, which is the dialect of the islands like Saaremaa, Hiiumaa, Muhu, and Kihnu; and the idamurre, or eastern dialect, predominantly found in the northwestern region near Lake Peipus.

And this is where South Estonian thrives. It consists of the Tartu, Mulgi, Võro and Seto varieties.

From North to South, Germanic influences are evident. As early as the Middle Ages, the language borrowed heavily from Middle Low German (Middle Saxon), then from Standard German after the 16th-century Protestant Reformation.

As for the other Finnic languages, they are Livonian (Latvia), Võro-seto (Estonia, Russia), Votic (Russia), Finnish (Finland), Ingrian (Russia), Karelian (Finland, Russia) and Veps (Russia). Now heading down to the Carpathians, let's examine Hungarian.

Origins are again a matter of conjecture! The usual hypothesis, mentioned earlier, is that Hungarian derives from an Uralic ancestor, perhaps Siberian, common to Finnish, Hungarian and a few other varieties. Yet there are opponents to the Finno-Ungric theory, some of whom believe that the similarities in the putative Finno-Ugric family stem exclusively from linguistic exchanges, just as the centuries of intermingling of early Hungarians with Turkic peoples also left their mark on Hungarian language - doubt the existence of a genetic and linguistic flow from the Urals to the people of modern Hungary. [3]

Some of these alternative narratives, sometimes tinged with nationalism, are perhaps dated, and clearly challenged by the most recent archaeological discoveries. In any case, the consensus view is that the Hungarian language diverged from its Ugrian relatives in the first half of the first millennium BC, in western Siberia, east of the southern Urals. The earliest evidence of a written Hungarian language dates from the 10th century, with several philological studies detailing the occurrence of proper and religious names in Hungarian in Latin texts. [4] Supposedly ancient Hungarian writings from this period have been lost, as they were written on wood, a perishable material.

The aforementioned archaeological, genetic and linguistic study corroborates its discovery and dating of successive waves of migration, from Siberian ancestry to the Baltic lands, remarking that "phenotypic traits often associated with modern Northern Europeans like light eyes, hair and skin as well as lactose tolerance can be traced back to the Bronze Age in the Eastern Baltic". Is it necessary to have a genetic predisposition to master one or more languages of Uralic origin? Let's rely instead on brain plasticity - a fascinating object of study to which we shall devote further episodes. There's no doubt to us that this cerebral plasticity can be exercised, and if its characteristics and potential evolve over the course of time, we can bet that this is not a simplistic decline, but a process of ebb and flow, under the influence of multiple factors : genetic predispositions, environment and circumstances, a rich and healthy diet, the psychological landscape, fluctuations, the contingencies of inner life, and last but not least, intellectual stimulation. This hypothesis of variable rather than decreasing plasticity is underpinned by a prolific volume of scientific literature, such as a study recording brain activity in two groups of adults, young (in their twenties) and less young (in their seventies) respectively, during the learning and performance of a bimanual coordination task. As a result, "older adults showed lower performance levels than younger adults but similar learning capability." [5] In any case, we'd like to believe in a cerebral plasticity that is not only maintained over the whole of life, but is fluctuating, malleable, capable of being exercised and influenced. And our intuition suggests that the intelligent, passionate and assiduous practice of a given foreign language reinforces this plasticity, which not only results in a growing ease in learning that very language, but also in learning foreign languages at large, and the manipulation of language in general - even in the first and native language. [6]

Let's move on to the Cold War.

"A hidegháború sok nemzetközi feszültséggel járó korszak volt 1947 és 1991 között, amelyet a két szuperhatalom, az Amerikai Egyesült Államok és a Szovjetunió közötti folytonos rivalizálás jellemzett. A szó szoros értelmében vett háború nem tört ki a két ország között – a hidegháború a második világháború két nyertes nagyhatalmának ideológiai, kulturális, társadalmi, gazdasági, politikai összecsapásából állt. Ebben az időszakban vált kézzelfoghatóvá a nukleáris fenyegetés, és ekkor indult a fegyverkezési és az űrverseny is, a propaganda mellett. A hidegháború fogalma Walter Lippmanntól származik, továbbá ő mondta, hogy ez nem más, mint két vak dinoszaurusz viaskodása egy gödörben. Semmiképp sem hagyható azonban figyelmen kívül, hogy ez a háború csak az északi/nyugati országok számára volt hideg: az időszakot a harmadik világban több száz fegyveres konfliktus jellemezte (elsősorban a két szuperhatalom által támogatott polgárháborúk), összességében milliós nagyságrendű áldozatokkal."

Here's a machine translation in Estonian, then in English.

Külm sõda oli suurte rahvusvaheliste pingete periood aastatel 1947–1991, mida iseloomustas jätkuv rivaalitsemine kahe suurriigi, Ameerika Ühendriikide ja Nõukogude Liidu vahel. Sõna otseses mõttes kahe riigi vahel ei puhkenud – külm sõda koosnes ideoloogilisest, kultuurilisest, sotsiaalsest, majanduslikust ja poliitilisest kokkupõrkest kahe Teise maailmasõja võiduka suurriigi vahel. Just sel perioodil muutus tuumaoht käegakatsutavaks ning algas võidurelvastumine ja kosmose võidujooks koos propagandaga. Külma sõja kontseptsioon pärineb Walter Lippmannilt, kes ütles samuti, et see pole midagi muud kui kaks pimedat dinosaurust, kes kaklevad süvendis. Siiski ei saa mainimata jätta, et see sõda oli külm ainult põhja-/lääneriikide jaoks: perioodi iseloomustasid sajad relvakonfliktid kolmandas maailmas (peamiselt kodusõjad, mida toetasid kaks suurriiki), kokku miljonite kaotustega. .

The Cold War was a period of high international tension between 1947 and 1991, characterized by the ongoing rivalry between the two superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union. A literal war did not break out between the two countries - the Cold War consisted of an ideological, cultural, social, economic, and political clash between the two victorious superpowers of the Second World War. It was during this period that the nuclear threat became tangible, and the arms and space races began, along with propaganda. The concept of the Cold War comes from Walter Lippmann, who also said that it was nothing more than two blind dinosaurs fighting in a pit. However, it cannot be ignored that this war was cold only for the northern/western countries: the period was characterized by hundreds of armed conflicts in the third world (mainly civil wars supported by the two superpowers), with a total of millions of casualties.

Let's explore the text, paying attention sentence by sentence, word group by word group.

A hidegháború sok nemzetközi feszültséggel járó korszak volt 1947 és 1991 között, amelyet a két szuperhatalom, az Amerikai Egyesült Államok és a Szovjetunió közötti folytonos rivalizálás jellemzett.

Külm sõda oli suurte rahvusvaheliste pingete periood aastatel 1947–1991, mida iseloomustas jätkuv rivaalitsemine kahe suurriigi, Ameerika Ühendriikide ja Nõukogude Liidu vahel.

The Cold War was a period of high international tension between 1947 and 1991, characterized by the ongoing rivalry between the two superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union.

The blue correspondence neurons light up concomitantly.

A hidegháború sok nemzetközi feszültséggel járó korszak volt 1947 és 1991 között, amelyet a két szuperhatalom, az Amerikai Egyesült Államok és a Szovjetunió közötti folytonos rivalizálás jellemzett.

Külm sõda oli suurte rahvusvaheliste pingete periood aastatel 1947–1991, mida iseloomustas jätkuv rivaalitsemine kahe suurriigi, Ameerika Ühendriikide ja Nõukogude Liidu vahel.

The Cold War was a period of high international tension between 1947 and 1991, characterized by the ongoing rivalry between the two superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union.

We are marked so far by the great morphological distance between Estonian and Hungarian. From one language to another, stems are difficult to relate to.

A hidegháború sok nemzetközi feszültséggel járó korszak volt 1947 és 1991 között, amelyet a két szuperhatalom, az Amerikai Egyesült Államok és a Szovjetunió közötti folytonos rivalizálás jellemzett.

Külm sõda oli suurte rahvusvaheliste pingete periood aastatel 1947–1991, mida iseloomustas jätkuv rivaalitsemine kahe suurriigi, Ameerika Ühendriikide ja Nõukogude Liidu vahel.

The Cold War was a period of high international tension between 1947 and 1991, characterized by the ongoing rivalry between the two superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union

Here, the number two (2) seems to derive from a common origin, which we confirm here: proto-Uralic kakta gave rise to Hungarian két and proto-Finnic *kakci, the latter still deriving in particular into Finnish kaksi and Estonian kaks. As for superpowers, riigi is the genitive singular of riik in Estonian, also meaning government, state, country, and is tinged with Germanic influences. The word has been borrowed from Low German riek, or Swedish rike, or Old Swedish rīke. In Hungarian, hatalom adds the noun-forming suffix -alom to the radical hat-, the verb hatni meaning to have an effect, to affect, to influence - power, therefore.

A hidegháború sok nemzetközi feszültséggel járó korszak volt 1947 és 1991 között, amelyet a két szuperhatalom, az Amerikai Egyesült Államok és a Szovjetunió közötti folytonos rivalizálás jellemzett.

Külm sõda oli suurte rahvusvaheliste pingete periood aastatel 1947–1991, mida iseloomustas jätkuv rivaalitsemine kahe suurriigi, Ameerika Ühendriikide ja Nõukogude Liidu vahel.

The Cold War was a period of high international tension between 1947 and 1991, characterized by the ongoing rivalry between the two superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union.

To the English passive voice characterized by correspond two active forms in Estonian and Hungarian, iseloomustas and jellemzett respectively. Literally, the relative clause in Hungarian or Estonian characterizing "period" could be translated as "which the ongoing rivalry between the two superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union characterize". It seems that Hungarian, like Estonian, prefers an active form to express the passive, which can then be qualified as impersonal. This seems corroborated by a study by Reeli Torn-Leesik on Voice and modal verbs in Estonian:

"In the voice system of Modern Estonian, active personal constructions contrast primarily with active impersonal constructions and resultative passive constructions. The active impersonal is often regarded as the more basic voice construction in Estonian, and in Finnic generally (Viitso 1998), whereas the periphrastic passive appears to be an innovation based on the participial passives of Indo-European languages (see e.g. Nemvalts 1998)." [7]

Let's read further.

A szó szoros értelmében vett háború nem tört ki a két ország között – a hidegháború a második világháború két nyertes nagyhatalmának ideológiai, kulturális, társadalmi, gazdasági, politikai összecsapásából állt.

Before we get to the parallel texts and word-group-by-word-group identification, let's decipher Hungarian, from the known to the unknown. Let's list what we can easily recognize.

szó means word. háború means war. nem expresses the negation. ki is a preverb associated to tört and tört ki is the full verbal form. In a két ország között we recognize között, between, and almost immediately the full meaning is clear, between the two countries. Now two specific wars, a hidegháború means the Cold War while a második világháború means the Second World War. In nagyhatalmának, where the suffix -nak indicates the dative case, we recognize nagy, big, and hatalom, which we saw earlier in szuperhatalom and refers to power. The dative here probably takes part in one of the possible constructions for the noun complement, more precisely, összecsapásából (declined to possessive singular in the elative case) is complement of the noun nagyhatalmának (marked with the dative), thus, from the clash of the two superpowers.

Let's slowly break down this possessive case. The nominative összecsapás means clash, collision. The suffix -a is added to form the 3rd person singular possessive: összecsapása. összecsapásából adds the suffix -ból to mark the elative case. The elative case is common to Estonian and Hungarian - Uralic languages in the broadest sense - and we'll try to find evidence of it in the Estonian translation in a short while. It's a locative grammatical case meaning that something comes from somewhere or from someone. Let's continue our understanding of what we are capable of understanding.

ideológiai, kulturális, társadalmi, gazdasági, politikai - these are adjectives, betrayed in particular by an -i ending, whose meaning is for the majority obvious to an English speaker. Besides, we know that társadalmi means social and gazdasági economic.

állt is the second verbal form and constructs with a complement in the elative case, in -ból. We remember the original meaning of állni, to exist, to stand. Literally or awkwardly, állt -ból would be "exists out of". "Consist of" or "involves" would probably be better - the Cold War consists of the (ideological, cultural, social, economic, political) clash of the two superpowers. a második világháború characterizes the latter, and the meaning of nyertes becomes clearer by elucidating the whole immediate context: the two superpowers victorious in the Second World War.

háború nem tört ki a két ország között could perfectly well imply that war did not take place between the two countries. A szó szoros értelmében vett remains a little unclear, we've recognized the word szó which means word, the whole group nuances or characterizes the fact that the war didn't happen: maybe strictly speaking.

Let's take a look at machine translations in Estonian and English.

Sõna otseses mõttes kahe riigi vahel ei puhkenud – külm sõda koosnes ideoloogilisest, kultuurilisest, sotsiaalsest, majanduslikust ja poliitilisest kokkupõrkest kahe Teise maailmasõja võiduka suurriigi vahel.

A literal war did not break out between the two countries - the Cold War consisted of an ideological, cultural, social, economic, and political clash between the two victorious superpowers of the Second World War.

We were not far from the full meaning, and without recourse to the dictionary or translator - slowly reconstructing from known to unknown.

Let's remember to look for some elative in the Estonian text. Just as állt (exists, here, consists of) in Hungarian was constructed with the elative összecsapásából - consists of the clash -, the Estonian verb koosnes is constructed with the elative kokkupõrkest to mean the same thing. In contrast, the construction of the noun complement in Estonian is much closer to the English one. (Germanic borrowings and influences?) First the noun to be characterized, a clash or kokkupõrkest, then a noun complement introduced by between and equivalently vahel. Where English and Estonian use a noun complement, specifying the noun - the context, the nature, the parties involved in the clash - Hungarian makes explicit use of a possessive form - in the clash of two countries, the clash is, in short and in the grammatical sense, possessed by the two countries. nagyhatalmának összecsapásából illustrates one of the two ways of expressing the possessive in Hungarian: the thing possessed is in the dative and the possessor takes the possessive mark (very literally, from of the superpowers their clash*!). The other way is to simply mark the thing possessed with the possessive suffix.

We could proceed similarly to multilingual identifications in what remains of the parallel texts. But along the way, we are struck by the abundance of Germanic influences evident in the Estonian translation. Why not spend a little of our life time on what intrigues us. So, we take a closer look at loanwords, first in the text in Estonian.

Külm sõda oli suurte rahvusvaheliste pingete periood aastatel 1947–1991, mida iseloomustas jätkuv rivaalitsemine kahe suurriigi, Ameerika Ühendriikide ja Nõukogude Liidu vahel. Sõna otseses mõttes kahe riigi vahel ei puhkenud – külm sõda koosnes ideoloogilisest, kultuurilisest, sotsiaalsest, majanduslikust ja poliitilisest kokkupõrkest kahe Teise maailmasõja võiduka suurriigi vahel. Just sel perioodil muutus tuumaoht käegakatsutavaks ning algas võidurelvastumine ja kosmose võidujooks koos propagandaga. Külma sõja kontseptsioon pärineb Walter Lippmannilt, kes ütles samuti, et see pole midagi muud kui kaks pimedat dinosaurust, kes kaklevad süvendis. Siiski ei saa mainimata jätta, et see sõda oli külm ainult põhja-/lääneriikide jaoks: perioodi iseloomustasid sajad relvakonfliktid kolmandas maailmas (peamiselt kodusõjad, mida toetasid kaks suurriiki), kokku miljonite kaotustega. .

German has two words for cold, kalt and kühl, and Kalter Krieg stands for Cold War - kühl is less cold than kalt and closer to fresh. Anyway, Estonian külm seems a good candidate for Germanic cousinship. The path seems complex - külm is thought to have inherited from the Proto-Finno-Permic *külmä, but the latter would have resulted from a borrowing, via Baltic, from the Proto-Indo-European *gel- . Yes, *gel-, which much later gave the Latin gelū (frost, cold) and even French gel (frost). It also gave Proto-Germanic *kalaną (to be cold, to freeze) and *kaldaz (cold), the latter later deriving into Old High German kalt. So, Baltic rather than Germanic influence, Indo-European in any case and related, via the Balts, to the Germans. But kühl also inherits from *gel, via the Proto-Germanic *kōlaz (the one that also produced the English cool) - and how entertaining to see that the Estonian for fridge is külmkapp, the exact counterpart of the German Kühlschrank or the Dutch koelkast, since the Estonian kapp, cupboard, comes from Middle Low German schap and further on from Proto-Germanic *skap- which yielded German Schaff and Dutch schap, two slightly outdated terms for cabinet, closet - the equivalents in modern use being Schrank and kast respectively. (It should be noted that southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland also use Kasten and Kästchen for cupboard, which brings them closer to the Dutch kast, and we could, if we endeavored to exhaust more examples, and torture them until they spoke in our favor, propose a thesis on these intriguing similarities between the extreme south of the Germanic arc and the Low Countries.)

We won't go so far as to see Jaar through aasta (the adessive aastatel to say at what time this takes place), and yet etymology tells us a borrowing from Proto-Germanic (to *aiwaz, long time) or Proto-Indo-European (to *h₂óyu ~ *h₂yéws, long time, lifetime) - a year, which statistically shortens as life expectancy increases, is a long time according to Indo-European remains.

Next, let's consider for example ainult, an adverb formed on ainus and meaning only, just, wholly. ainus seems to inherit from Proto-Finnic *ainaga, borrowed from Proto-Germanic *ainagaz, and we can clearly see the analogy between ainus and English any, Dutch enig, German einig - or even Icelandic einigur! mainima (mainimata) means to mention and resembles the German for opinion, die Meinung, meinen. And indeed, Estonian here borrows from Finnish mainita, which inherits a Proto-Finnic reconstructed word *mainit'ak supposedly borrowed from Proto-Germanic *mainijaną - which yielded meinen, Meinung, or in English mean, meaning.

We see several routes outlined for Indo-European borrowings and influences into modern Estonian. But the history of Estonian traced by linguists points to the period from the 13th to the 17th century as the scene of major change, under the influence of the Low German language. Not just borrowings, but structural changes that mark the differentiation from Finnish. Under the influence of Low German, stress changes from non-dominant to dominant, which means that the energy mobilized to pronounce a word is no longer uniform but unevenly distributed between syllables, which has the effect of hierarchizing them. Subordinate syllables fall and words become shorter. The vowel harmony that still characterizes modern Finnish - and Hungarian - then vanishes in Estonian.

Let's close this page of history with a brief review.

• Parallel translation has enabled us to note a number of similarities - in particular, of stems - between Hungarian and Estonian, which evoke their belonging to the same FinnoHungarian family, presumably derived from an original proto-Uralic.

• Sometimes, Estonian constructions are closer to English than to Hungarian. And the Estonian vocabulary, its etymology, still bears the hallmark - through multiple borrowings - of Germanic influences.

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[1] Saag, Lehti & Laneman, Margot & Varul, Liivi & Malve, Martin & Valk, Heiki & Razzak, Maria & Shirobokov, Ivan & Khartanovich, V.I. & Mikhaylova, Elena & Kushniarevich, Alena & Scheib, Christiana & Solnik, Anu & Reisberg, Tuuli & Parik, Jüri & Saag, Lauri & Metspalu, Ene & Rootsi, Siiri & Montinaro, Francesco & Remm, Maido & Tambets, Kristiina. (2019). The Arrival of Siberian Ancestry Connecting the Eastern Baltic to Uralic Speakers further East. Current Biology. 29. 10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.026. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333000290_The_Arrival_of_Siberian_Ancestry_Connecting_the_Eastern_Baltic_to_Uralic_Speakers_further_East

[2] Wikipédia, Proto-Uralic language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Uralic_language 

[3] Wikipédia, Alternative theories of Hungarian language origins, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_theories_of_Hungarian_language_origins#Alternative_theories

[4] Tóth, Valéria (July 2016). "Etelköztől Tihanyig. A helynevek és a magyar őstörténet" [From Etelköz to Tihany. Place names and Hungarian prehistory] (PDF). Rubicon (in Hungarian). 27 (7): 96. ISSN 0865-6347. Retrieved May 29, 2020.

http://www.rubicon.hu/ma_files/2016_07_96.pdf

and

Szentgyörgyi, Rudolf. (2011). A Tihanyi alapítólevél személynevei I.: Középkori okleveleink teonimái. Névtani Értesítő. 33. 9-28. 10.29178/NevtErt.2011.1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374247550_A_Tihanyi_alapitolevel_szemelynevei_I_Kozepkori_okleveleink_teonimai

[5] Santos Monteiro, Thiago & Beets, Iseult & Boisgontier, Matthieu & Gooijers, Jolien & Pauwels, Lisa & Chalavi, Sima & King, Bradley & Albouy, Geneviève & Swinnen, Stephan. (2017). Relative cortico-subcortical shift in brain activity but preserved training-induced neural modulation in older adults during bimanual motor learning. Neurobiology of Aging. 58. 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2017.06.004. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317689076_Relative_cortico-subcortical_shift_in_brain_activity_but_preserved_training-induced_neural_modulation_in_older_adults_during_bimanual_motor_learning

[6] That practice alters brain structure is, here too, well documented. See for instancZatorre, R., Fields, R. & Johansen-Berg, H. Plasticity in gray and white: neuroimaging changes in brain structure during learning. Nat Neurosci 15, 528–536 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3045

[7] Torn-Leesik, Reeli. (2007). Voice and Modal Verbs in Estonian; 173-186. Linguistica Uralica. 43. 173. 10.3176/lu.2007.3.02. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357333684_Voice_and_Modal_Verbs_in_Estonian_173-186