The founding charter of the Abbey of Tihany is the oldest monument of the Hungarian language written in Hungary. The document — issued by Andrew I in Latin in 1055 — is preserved in its original form and contains 82 Hungarian elements: toponyms, common words indicating places and phrases made up of these parts. The philological significance of the document is underlined by the fact that it is not only the oldest record of the Hungarian language but also the first one written in any Uralic language.

This prominent linguistic record has been in the focus of attention for a long time. In 1951, the charter was described and thoroughly analysed by Géza Bárczi in one of the greatest and still prevalent works on the history of the Hungarian language (A tihanyi apátság alapítólevele mint nyelvi emlék [The Founding Charter of the Abbey of Tihany as a Language Monument]. Budapest, 1951). The charter came to the centre of increased interest on the 950^th anniversary of its composition. However, the expansion of knowledge of linguistics in general and onomastics in particular, methodological changes together with the increase in historical and sociolinguistic sources available for analysis have made the re-evaluation of this especially important linguistic record necessary.

In the opening chapters, the author presents the history of research of the charter, and lays down the main aspects of his own research, in which the onomastic approach acquires a prominent role. Some linguistic elements are analysed differently from previously applied etymological procedures: the novelty lies in the process of name reconstruction, which includes, besides the examination of the origins of names, their subsequent histories in the language, revealing their relations to the elements that can be found in contemporary linguistic records, with an analysis of the conditions under which they changed. This method considers the linking of names to places to be of primary importance, that is why they are located on spectacular maps. A separate chapter deals with the linguistic connection between Hungarian elements and Latin texts, the problems of presenting Hungarian names in Latin, questions of Hungarian toponym sociology, all factors that make the application of names an indispensable tool for the study of the history of the population. Finally, the book also considers the moral with regard to onomastic systems that can be drawn from the nearly one hundred toponyms. The text and the translation of the charter, edited by Rudolf Szentgyörgyi, is published in the appendix to this volume.