There are experiments to develop quick types of handwritten Rovas, though no signs of their wide spread usage.
Modern experiments with Rovas
Gyorsrovás (in English: Quick Rovas or Rovas Shorthand) was developed by Attila Répai as an alternative way to write Hungarian using a rounded style of the Hungarian rovás (used in books between the 16th and 19th centuries).
The reason of creating this alphabet was to make the Rovás handwriting faster and easier. For this purpose the original letters were simplified or reduced to their most important part. Another advantage of Gyorsrovás over the Latin alphabet is that it reduces the overall length of a Hungarian text as it doesn’t contain digraphs and words can be abbraviated.
Notable features
- Used to write: Hungarian
- Type of writing system: alphabet
- Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines. It can also be written from right to left, but in this case all characters are to be mirrored.
- All small letters can be written down with one continuous line, without lifting the pen.
- There are four ligatures for long consonants to save on the length of the words.
- The most frequent vowel, E (8%) can either be replaced with a diacritic mark or be completely omitted. But it’s obligatory to write E in initial or final position or between two identical consonants.
- Some frequent linking words can be abbreviated to one letter: és > s, az > z, egy > gy, hogy > h.
Gyorsrovás alphabet
Notes
- There are no letters for non-Hungarian letters such as Q, X, Y, W. Words containing them are to be transliterated phonetically, replacing these letters with KV, KSZ, I or J, V.
Numerals
Punctuation
Most of the punctuation marks are identical with the English ones. These are the exceptions:
Sample texts in Hungarian
Without abbreviations
Transliteration
Minden emberi lény szabadon születik és egyenlő méltósága és joga van. Az emberek, ésszel és lelkiismerettel bírván, egymással szemben testvéri szellemben kell, hogy viseltessenek.
(Az Emberi Jogok Egyetemes Nyilatkozata, 1. cikk)
With diacritical E’s
Transliteration
Mind’n emb’ri lény szabadon szül’tik és egy’nlő méltósága és joga van. Az emb’r’k, éssz’l és lelkiism’r’tt’l bírván, egymással sz’mb’n t’stvéri sz’ll’mb’n k’ll, hogy vis’lt’ss’n’k.
(Az Emb’ri Jogok Egy’t’m’s Nyilatkozata, 1. cikk)
With abbreviations, medial E’s are omitted
Handwritten
Transliteration
Mindn embri lény szabadon szültik s egynlő méltósága s joga van. Z embrk, ésszl s lelkiismrttl bírván, egymással szmbn tstvéri szllmbn kll, h visltssnk.
(Z Embri Jogok Egytms Nyilatkozata, 1. cikk)
Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1)
Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)
(Répai Attila – Eredeti cikk)
Kapcsolódó cikkek:
