A magyar tanítási nyelvre áttérés viszontagságai a szakirodalomban és ismeretlen levéltári forrásai Debrecenben (1797–1833)

Absztrakt

Under the Habsburg rulers, the question of Hungarian as the language of instruction was a source of political tension. The “supreme royal supervision” of education forced Protestant school administrators to “coordinate” and harmonize with the state Catholic system. The main obstacle to the replacement of Latin (outside of politics) was the state of our language and the shortcomings of Hungarian scientific terminology. Since Latin was the official language of the country before 1844, the livelihood of students could only be secured through effective bilingualism, so in 1797, the leaders of the Debrecen College decided to teach all subjects in Hungarian, while also striving to maintain the level of Latin proficiency.

The first “exams” were then conducted in a peculiar mixture of languages. In the following years, as a compromise while new technical terms were being found, some subjects were taught in Latin and others in Hungarian. The local procedures of the transition offer parallels at the national level in an area that is difficult to research: Hungarian lectures were followed by Latin recitations, and the language of teaching, testing, and conversation often differed and even alternated. Some Hungarian textbooks were translated into Latin independently, while Latin authors were translated into Hungarian.

With a few exceptions, the literature on the history of education does not take into account that between 1797 and 1833, several subjects were taught in Hungarian at all levels of the college in Debrecen. Between 1800 and 1825, nearly forty Hungarian textbooks were published here, and there are also plenty of student notes from such lectures. After a period of internal strife, the 1820s saw the establishment of new Hungarian-language “cathedras” and then the Department of Hungarian Language and Literature, with the complete transition to the native language (with the exception of law) taking place in 1833.