Srpski kao diplomatski jezik na ugarskom dvoru XV veka (na primeru pisma Stefana Batorija Ali-begu Mihalogluu)

Abstract

From the philological perspective, the paper examines the letter of Stephen V Báthory (Ecsedi Bátori István in Hungarian), a court judge and Transylvanian duke from the time of the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, sent from Buda on 1 May 1483 to the Turkish military commander and Smederevo Sandžak-beg Mihaloğlu Ali Bey. Báthory’s letter represents one of the rare testimonies of the use of the Serbian language and Cyrillic script in the diplomatic correspondence that Hungarian kings and their magnates exchanged with Turkish sultans and their officials during the 15th and 16th centuries. The letter belongs to a wider unpreserved diplomatic correspondence in the Serbian language in which disputes between Hungary and Turkey were being resolved after the collapse of the peace negotiations in 1478. In addition to the new edition of Báthory’s letter in the original script, the paper likewise explores its most important ortographic and linguistic features, yet always in the context of the use of Serbian as a diplomatic language in Hungarian court correspondence with Turkish sultans and military officials as well as in the broader context of Serbian office relations on the Hungarian court with the business and legal literacy of the Serbian Despotate. The paper demonstrates how Báthory’s letter differs significantly in its ortographic and linguistic features from the letter of King Matthias Corvinus addressed to Sultan Bayezid II in 1487, with which it has been connected in previous research. With the predominant use of the Resavian orthography, Báthory’s letter differs from other letters created on Hungarian soil during the second half of the 15th and the first half of the 16th century, and approaches the orthography of the letters of Mara Branković and secular letters of Despots Lazar and Stefan Branković from the second half of the 15th century. On the other hand, the research confirmed the initial hypothesis that the language of Báthory’s letter was close to the language of the Despot Vuk Grgurević’s letters sent between 1482 and 1483 to Sultan Bayezid II and Mihaloğlu Ali Bey. In both sets of letters, the Serbian language based on the southeastern Serbian dialect of the 15th century was used, which led to the development of the modern Kosovo-Resavian and PrizrenSouth Moravian dialects. The language of Báthory’s letter and the language of Despot Vuk Grgurevic’s letters show how the shift of political activities of the remaining Serbian nobility to the territory of Hungary after the fall of the Serbian Despotate enabled the language of its business and legal literacy to continue living in a new environment and a new (diplomatic) function.