Table 4 Concepts to be clarified in relation to the present research

Runic script family

Various Germanic peoples used the Runic scripts between the second and fifteenth centuries AD. The oldest Runic scripts are Elder Fuþark (AD ca. 150–650), Anglo-Frisian Fuþorc (AD ca. 450–1000), and Younger Fuþark (7th–11th c. AD) [34,35,36, 38]. The Runic script family evolved independently from the Rovash scripts

Old Hungarian orthography of the Latin script; shortly, Old Hungarian script

Its stages: (i) medieval systems (11th c. AD—1530 s) and (ii) modern system (1530s—1832, up to the publication of the first Hungarian spelling rules)

Hungarian orthography of the Latin script

1832—present

Proto-Rovash

It is a hypothetical script that was developed in Inner Asia during the fifth and sixth centuries AD. It was based on Aramaic-Middle Iranian and Brahmic scripts and may have been influenced by Eurasian tamgas [3]

Turkic Rovash (also known as Turkic runic or runiform) script (TR)

TR was used by Turks in Inner Asia. Its inscriptions are believed to date back to the 7th to 10th centuries AD [38]

Carpathian Basin Rovash script (CBR)

CBR was used in the Carpathian Basin between the seventh and eleventh centuries AD to record various languages, primarily Hungarian, and to a lesser extent Turkic, as well as sporadically Alan and Slavic [39]

Steppe Rovash script (SR)

SR was used in the Eurasian Steppe and sporadically in the Carpathian Basin to record Turkic and possibly Alan languages during the 8th to tenth centuries AD [40]

Székely-Hungarian Rovash script (SHR)

SHR was first used by Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin and the earliest deciphered inscription dates back to around 900 AD [41] or the first half of the tenth century AD [42] in Bodrog-Alsóbű, Hungary. The majority of SHR inscriptions are in Hungarian, although there are also some in Cuman and Latin. The script known as Székely-Hungarian Rovash is sometimes erroneously referred to as ‘Old Hungarian’