What I mean to ask is, what was the language that she spoke, like her mother tongue, the language her parents spoke and named her in... and in that language, how would her name be spelled?
I have seen so many variations, from Erszebet or Erzsabet to Alzbeta to Elizabeta and just Elizabeth, that I am so confused. Some of them I know must be other language's forms of her name, but what was the real one? The one SHE used? Can anybody please tell me?
She was born in what was Hungary, and was from a Hungarian family, so I think she would have used the form: "Erzsébet Báthory" (which apparently is the Hungarian spelling of her name). Wiki notes her name would be spelled Alžbeta Bátoriová in Slovak, so it is possible that this form of her name was used to refer to her in Slovakia (but I think Hungarian would have been her first language because she grew up there, and so she would have used the Hungarian form)
shareyou've got that backwards - she was born in what was hungary in her time, but is NOW slovakia.
shareyou've got that backwards - she was born in what was hungary in her time, but is NOW slovakia.
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lol sorry for that. But I still think she would have used the Hungarian form of her name, because Hungarian would have been the dominant language among the elite in 16th century Hungary (and areas that were controlled by Hungary then which are now Slovakia). At least I think it was. But if you want to know for sure which form of her name she used, I would check a reliable biography about her life.
"Hungarian would have been the dominant language among the elite in 16th century Hungary (and areas that were controlled by Hungary then which are now Slovakia)"
In fact it's hard to tell. She probably considered herself Hungarian but Thurzo considered himself Slovak. What was his real name? Gyorgy or Juraj?
Wikipedia lists him as György Thurzó, though, as others have pointed out below, the name order may be reversed. Either way, they use the Hungarian version of his name.
shareher birth name was erzsebet, which is hungarian. She spoke four languages primarily: Latin, Hungarian, German and Slovak. Alzbeta is her Slovakian pronounciation...and after her husband's death she would sign letters as the " Relicta Nadasdiana".
Hope that helps!
Alex
I think that in the times of Elisabeth the people of high class were comunicating in Latin or German. She was of Hungarian origin born in Nyírbátor, Hungary, so I think it would be probably Erzsebet.
To understand better her times and why she is called in so many ways:
To say frankly in those times of her life because Turks were near it was probably more safe to live in Slovakian part of the Hungarian kingdom which is more mountainous than Hungarian one and was not conquered by Turks. As I am aware of Elisabeth spoke not only German, Latin and Hungarian, but probably even Slovak. Many of the Hungarian nobles spoke the Slovak langauge because they wanted to understand the locals .
As for example even here in Bratislava there were all of three languages spoken among latin which was for a long time official language of the kingdom and these were German, Hungarian and Slovak. Most of the people spoke all the three of them. So You have some different names of our city as is Pressburg, Poszony, Presporok. They were used in all of the three variants. Because of the variety of nations who lived in the kingdom, You have veriety of names.