Language Research

Following the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1920 and the establishment of the Hungarian People's Republic in 1949, multiparty democracy was peacefully re-established in 1989.

Hungary is trying to develop a social atmosphere in which none of the minorities have to suffer any discrimination. In the course of implementing the minorities' policy, Hungary relies on the active cooperation of the national and ethnic minorities and the activities of their legitimate and elected bodies. The Government supports the minorities in strengthening their identities, and it is trying to make people aware of common interests in the past and a sense of joint responsibility for the future. The Government is responsible for informing people that coexistence with national and ethnic minorities is natural and has been going on for many centuries. It also has the task of making people conscious of the ways in which the various national and ethnic groups enrich the common culture. In this respect, the Government does not view minorities as groups engaged in struggle against the majority for their rights. Rather, it conceives of minorities as aggregates of individuals who, together with the majority, bear responsibility for common virtues and faults and share the same destiny as the majority.

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Updated (March 2006)

SLOVAK MINORITY

The ancestors of the Slovaks probably settled in the area encircled by the Carpathian Mountains during the early period of Slavic migration in the fourth and fifth centuries.

After the conquest of the Carpathian Basin by the Hungarians (996), the whole area inhabited by Slovak ethnic communities became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. This coexistence of Slovaks and Hungarians within the framework of the same country continued until 1918. This symbiosis of almost one thousand years deeply marked the common history of both ethnic groups as well as their cultural, religious and linguistic development. In the course of history, the linguistic borderline between the two communities had constantly changed.

Slovak communities living in the territory of the present Hungary settled in the regions they still inhabit in the three migration waves. In the first wave of colonization, Lutheran Slovaks from central Slovakia moved to Békés County. They were followed by the Catholics from Western and Central Slovak regions who settled in other parts of the northern Hungary. Finally, the Slovak settlements in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County developed, where Greek-Catholics from Eastern Slovakia and former Békés County settlers moved.

The southward migration of Slovaks from the overpopulated and less fertile Northern regions can be explained by economic constraints and by the prospect of affluence in the fertile southern regions. Others were motivated by the promise of freely exercising their Lutheran religion after the Reformation. It is also important to note that, in spite of the great distance separating Slovak settlements from their Slovak homeland, these regions were parts of the same state, the Kingdom of Hungary.

While in the nineteenth century the relationship between the homeland and so called Slovak linguistic islands in Southern Hungary flourished, later on cultural exchanges between the two regions gradually weakened as a consequence of forced "magyarisation".

Slovaks were considered a national minority after signing the Trianon Treaty in 1920. Since then, not only distance but also state borders have separated the ethnic Slovaks from their kin country. In the period between the two world wars, Hungarian governments made an open attempt to foster assimilation of minorities in order to dissolve these communities. Economic policy, church relations and education also contributed to this aim.

After World War II, based on earlier minority policy experience, an agreement between Czechoslovakia and Hungary was concluded concerning the exchange of minority population in the two countries. During this process, which lasted almost two years, great majority of the Hungarian Slovaks (about 73,000 people including teachers, priests, literary people and actors) left their residences and resettled in the then Republic of Czechoslovakia. This wave of resettlement had a decisive effect on the fate of the Slovak minority in Hungary.

After the exchange, the remaining Slovak communities were reorganized and coordinated by the Democratic Federation of Slovaks in Hungary. They developed the framework of their educational and cultural life, getting only a minimum support from the kin state. The activities of ethnic Slovaks have increased after the political regime was changed in 1990. Several new civil organizations were established and, after the adoption of the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities, minority self-governments were elected at local and national level. Their aim is to represent and protect the cultural, linguistic, educational and political interests of the Slovak minority.

SLOVAK MINORITY AND ITS LANGUAGE

The Slovaks living in Hungary left their original linguistic environment before the development of the Slovak literary language. Due to historical events, only a few priests and clergymen maintained their relations with the language reform movement, and therefore the Slovak linguistic islands have continued using their earlier dialects. The dialects used are not identical: they differ from settlement to settlement and they mirror the archetypes of the three major dialects from Western, Central and Eastern Slovakia.

The fact that ethnic Slovaks belong to three different religious communities has increased the differences in the language use. For instance, Lutheran Slovaks living in Southeast Hungary originally used a dialect from the central Slovakia, but the church service has been conducted in the old-fashioned Slovakized Czech language until recently. On the other hand, Catholic communities around Budapest, who speak a dialect from either western or central Slovak regions, started using the standard literary Slovak language relatively early due to more direct relations with the homeland. Finally, there are Greek-Catholic Slovaks living in Eastern Hungary, they speak the language used in Eastern Slovakia, which is also the language in their religious services.

The literary Slovak language is taught at schools. One of its negative effects is that students do not develop strong emotional ties with this language. The reason is that they, in the best case speaking the local Slovak dialect, learn literary Slovak almost as a foreign language. Moreover, in the end they lose direct relations with the archaic local dialect, lacking modern terms and expressions. This is why the Hungarian language becomes increasingly dominant in their linguistic communication with parents and grandparents.

According to census data, the Slovak minority in Hungary is one of the most quickly assimilating minority groups in Europe. The following census data collected in the twentieth century show the number of Slovaks living in the territory of present-day Hungary:

Starting from these figures, the Slovak community estimates that it numbers about 100,000-110,000 members. With regard to the strong dual identity of the community, Hungarian minority policy usually takes into consideration these estimates in attempts to meet the community's needs.

Source: Mercator Education, Regional Dossiers, The Slovak Language in Education in Hungary, http://www1.fa.knaw.nl/mercator/regionale_dossiers/regional_dossier_slovak_in_hungary.htm

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