Languages of Hungary
Thelanguages spoken inHungaryinclude Hungarian, recognized minority languages, and other languages.
Minority languages of Hungary[edit]
Minority languagesare spoken in a number of autochthonous settlements inHungary.The country is a signatory of theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,which was ratified at 26 April 1995 under which 14 minority languages are recognized and protected.[2]Official linguistic rights of 13 recognized minorities are regulated by the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities, which provides measures for development of cultural and educational autonomy.[3]Levels of linguistic assimilation among Hungarian ethnic minorities are high.[3]At the time of 2001 Census, out of the 314,059 citizens belonging to ethnic minorities, 135,787 stated minority language as their primary language.[3]
Under the terms of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Hungary is providing special protection for theArmenian,Boyash,Bulgarian,Croatian,German,Greek,Polish,Romani,Romanian,Rusyn,Serbian,Slovak,SlovenianandUkrainianlanguages.[2]
Language families[edit]
- Uralic languages
- –Hungarian:The only official language of the country, unrelated to any of the neighbouring languages. It is thefirst languageof some 98.9% of the total population.
- Indo-European languages
- –German:spoken by the German minority, especially in and aroundMecsekMountains, but also in other parts of the country. (Historically, theSwabian Germandialect was spoken in Hungary.)
- –Slovak:spoken by the Slovak minority, especially in theNorth Hungarian Mountainsand aroundBékéscsaba.
- –Serbian:spoken by the Serbian minority, especially in and aroundBácska,but also in other territories of Southern Hungary.
- –Slovene:spoken by the Slovene minority, especially around theSlovenianborder, Western Hungary.
- –Croatian:spoken by the Croatian minority, especially in Southern Hungary.
- –Romanian:spoken by the Romanian minority, especially in and aroundGyula,Eastern Hungary.
- –Romani:spoken by some members of the Roma minority throughout the country.
- Turkic languages
- –Cuman:once spoken inCumaniaregion in Hungary. It is aKipchaklanguage closely related to other Kipchak languages likeCrimean Tatar.The last speaker died in 1777.
- –Kipchak:once spoken in Eastern Europe which includes Hungary. It was the lingua franca of theGolden Horde-controlled areas. It is the ancestor of all Kipchak languages today, which also includes the extinct Cuman.
- Sign languages
- –Hungarian Sign Language:spoken by around 9,000 people. It belongs to theFrench Sign Language family.
Population by knowledge of languages[edit]
| Language | Number of speakers (2011)[4][5] | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Hungarian | 9,896,333 (99.6%) | The onlyofficial languageof Hungary, of which 9,827,875 people (98.9%) speak it as afirst language,while 68,458 people (0.7%) speak it as asecond language. |
| English | 1,589,180 (16.0%) | Foreign language |
| German | 1,111,997 (11.2%) | Foreign language and co-official minority language |
| Russian | 158,497 (1.6%) | Foreign language |
| Romanian | 128,852 (1.3%) | Foreign language and co-official minority language |
| French | 117,121 (1.2%) | Foreign language |
| Italian | 80,837 (0.8%) | Foreign language |
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^"SPECIAL EUROBAROMETER 386 Europeans and their Languages"(PDF).ec.europa.eu. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2016-01-06.
- ^ab"Hungary needs to strengthen use of and access to minority languages".Council of Europe.Retrieved16 January2019.
- ^abcAntal Paulik and Judit Solymosi."Language policy in Hungary"(PDF).Noves SL. Revista de Sociolingüística.Retrieved16 January2019.
- ^Hungarian census 2011 / Országos adatok / 1.1.4.2. A népesség nyelvismeret és nemek szerint (population by spoken language), 1.1.6.1 A népesség anyanyelv, nemzetiség és nemek szerint (population by mother tongue and ethnicity) (Hungarian)
- ^Note: percentages do not add up to 100% as, according to the census, large proportion of Hungarians speak more than one language (native and a second language). Not all languages are shown.
