> BTW, since the group of Magyar invaders seem to have been polyglot,
> and since they untypically for a FU group were cattle nomads, one
> has to ask oneself why the FU language Hungarian came out on top?
> GK: Numbers probably. A similar issue as to why Turkic replaced
> Iranic in the steppes. Or why Cumanic rather than Mongol became the
> language of the "Tartars" of the West.
Erh, as far as I know those numbers became what they were through action, if I may put it that way. It's my impression that the various FU groups were allowed to survive, unlike other peaceful groups, because they provided honey and wax
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/66834
This might be a necessary function, but it can't create a majority population relative to the trade etc community they are part of.
GK: Agreed. But I thought we were talking about those groups of FU who became nomads and functioned as nomads for a long time while retaining their language. I believe they were a comfortable majority in the "Hungarian" groups in the immediate pre- and post- Landnahme period [ca. 900 CE]. It is my impression that they were originally "invited" by the Khazars to help in their war with Omortag of Bulgaria (c. 820) at which point they were already warlike nomads. But perhaps the other George could elaborate (if he's willing (:=))
*****GK: Additional point. (From memory). I think that some Hungarian nomadic tribal units were already in the steppes west of the Dnipro as allies of the Bulgars (I believe that a German chronicler (Fulda?) calls them the "concives" of the Bulgars in the 9th c. When the "Khazar" Hungarians were chased westward by the Pechenegs, they fused with this earlier group and together made the Hungarian Landnahme.*****