Language Research

Minority languages are taught in such localities where a significant number of pupils belong to national minorities. In 1997, fifteen minority languages were taught at various levels in Romania:

• Hungarians and German at all levels of education (including kindergarten)
• Slovakian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Russian and Turkish at all levels of education except vocational (including kindergarten)
• Polish, Croatian, Italian at the primary, secondary and university levels (including kindergarten)
• Czech language at primary and university levels (including kindergarten)
• Romany at primary, secondary and teacher training levels
• Armenian and Greek at primary and secondary levels (including kindergarten)

National minorities have access to printed and electronic media in their language. There is television and radio broadcasting in the minority languages mostly in Hungarian and German.

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Updated (November 2002)

PRIVATE TV STATION LAUNCHES A REGIONAL PROGRAM IN THE HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE

In Oradea (Nagyvarad), about 38 percent of the population is of Hungarian origin.

Starting mid-March, a local studio of the private TV station "Antena 1" has launched a new weekly program in the Hungarian language, disseminating information about politics and other issues interesting for the Hungarian-speaking community. The show lasts one hour and it is broadcasted every Friday.

Source: Minelres Archive, No. 1; April 1, 2002,

http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2002-April/002121.html

SCHOOL SEPARATION ON ETHNIC BASIS

Some two hundred pupils at the Romanian department of the "Bolyai Farkas" high school in Tirgu Mures (central Romania) protested against local authorities' decision to separate the school on the ethnic basis. Before this change students could study in both the Hungarian and Romanian language.

Under a protocol signed last year between the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR), "Bolyai Farkas" should have become a Hungarian language college and all the classes taught in Romanian should have been moved to another college. Transfer was devised to take place during the summer holidays, so that the school year 2002/2003 would not be disturbed.

UDMR President Marko Bela said that the Romanian Ministry of Education agreed with the procedure whereby "Bolyai Farkas" high school will become Hungarian only educational institution.

Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said the solutions should be carefully correlated with the signals coming from those who live together; even they may speak different languages besides the official one, which is the Romanian language.

Source: Minelres Archive, No. 3; April 15, 2002;

http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2002-April/002146.html

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Updated (November 2003)

BILINGUAL SIGNS AT TRANSYLVANIAN RAILWAY STATIONS

The Romanian National Railway Society (SNCFR) has started the process of mounting bilingual signs at railway stations in those localities where ethnic minorities live in considerable numbers. Each sign contains the name of the locality in two languages – in Romanian and in Hungarian, German, Serbian or other minority language. In case of the Serbian names in the Banat Region, the signs are written in Cyrillic.

This gesture towards ethnic minorities is a result of an agreement between the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR), which supports the policy of the PSD.

Before October 20, 2003, 32 stations primarily in western Transylvania (Bihor/Bihar and Satu Mare/Szatmár counties) received their bilingual signs. Further 38 localities in eastern Transylvania's counties (Harghita/Hargita, Covasna/Kovászna and Mure°/Maros) with large Hungarian minority will get them by the end of November.

The Law on Local Administration stipulates that bilingual signs are compulsory in those counties where ethnic minorities constitute a minimum of 20 percent of the total population. However, bilingual signs in railway stations are not subject to this law, but to the above-mentioned political agreement, as well as to traditional Transylvanian tolerance and to the recommendations of the European institutions.

Besides those localities exceeding a 20-percent threshold bilingual signs can be used also in the two railway stations in Cluj/Kolozsvár, where ethnic Hungarians constitute official only 18.9 percent of the total population.

Source: Eurolang News, Cluj/Kolozsvár, October 24, 2003, by Áron Balló, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4456

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Updated (December 2003)

MOVES TOWARDS A HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE CHANNEL IN TRANSYLVANIA

A twenty-four hour Hungarian-language television channel is one of the goals of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ). TV programs in Hungarian are broadcast only sporadically, the channels from Hungary cannot be received over the whole territory¹ and do not focus on the special problems of 1.5 million Hungarian-speakers in Romania.

Public television studios in Bucharest, Cluj/Kolozsvár and Timi°oara/Temesvár as well as some private channels produce a few hours of programming in Hungarian. Duna TV and Channel M2 from Hungarian public television are broadcast via satellite.

The RMDSZ, when meeting with the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD), proposed to reopen a public television studio in Târgu Mure°/Marosvásárhely and create a daylong Hungarian-language channel. A separate frequency has been offered for a 24-hour programming in Hungarian covering almost all Transylvania from the public TV studio in Kolozsvár; however, this option would need a lot of investment.

There have also been talks between Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy and RMDSZ President Béla Markó whether Hungary will finance the launch of a Hungarian-language Transylvanian channel.

Source: Eurolang News, Kolozsvár/Cluj, December 15, 2003, by Áron Balló, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4545

¹ Only in western Transylvania

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Updated (March 2004)

UPHILL STRUGGLE FOR HUNGARIAN-LANGUAGE UNIVERSITY FACULTIES IN ROMANIA

Having Hungarian language faculties at the Babe°-Bolyai University (UBB) in Cluj/Kolozsvár has been a general demand of the Hungarian speakers in Romania for years.

The first university in Kolozsvár, set up in 1581, used the Hungarian and Latin language. The Romanian language university appeared only in 1919, under the Romanian rule in Transylvania. However, during World War II the Hungarian language returned into the educational system.

The Romanian Babe° and the Hungarian Bolyai Universities co-existed peacefully till the Communist regime did not merge them forcibly in 1959. However, the Hungarian section became moribund so the ethnic Hungarians demanded re-opening of their own state university. The only thing they achieved after 1989 was more Hungarian classes at UBB.

The aim to have a Hungarian language department is a part of the program of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) who reached an agreement on this matter with the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD) in 2000. This agreement meant that separate Hungarian-language faculties would be set up at the UBB.

The RMDSZ has discussed with the PSD the renewal of this agreement for the year 2004.

Source: Eurolang News, Cluj/Kolozsvár, March 16, 2004, Áron Balló, http://www.eurolang.net

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Updated (May 2004)

BROADCASTING

Public broadcasting services using national minority languages are provided by the Central Radio Studios and by local radio studios. These local radio studios are as follows: “Radio Cluj” (14 hours a day on the air, 4 hours a day in Hungarian); “Radio Iasi” (16 hours a day on the air; 15 minutes a week in Ukrainian); “Radio Targu Mures” (16 hours a day on the air in German and Hungarian and 30 minutes a week in Romany) and “Radio Tmisioara” (16 hours a day on the air in German, Hungarian, Serbian, Slovak, Bulgarian and Ukrainian).

National television programs for national minorities on “Channel 1” are as follows: “Kronika” (political and social weekly magazine in Hungarian), “Kronika” (cultural weekly magazine in Hungarian), “Panorama” (twice a week in German) and “CONVIETUIRI” (magazine for other national minorities broadcast twice a week).

Source: Minority-language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE, Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP), Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, Oxford University & Institute for Information Law (IViR) (http://www.ivir.nl/index-english.html), Universiteit van Amsterdam (Study commissioned by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities), April 2003, edited by T. McGonagle (IViR), B. Davis Noll & M. Price (PCMLP), http://www.ivir.nl/publications/mcgonagle/Minority-language%20broadcasting.pdf

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Updated (March 2005)

EDUCATION IN THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

In Romania the Ukrainians live in eight departments – Maramures (some 40 percent), Suceava, Caras-Severin, Timis, Tulcea, Arad, Botosani and Satu Mare. Although only Maramures, Suceava, Botosani and Satu Mare border on Ukraine, the Ukrainian language is studied in all eight departments as a native language.

Out of 23,519 kindergartens, primary, secondary and vocational schools operating in the country, almost 2,650 (11.29 percent) offer tuition in the languages of national minorities.

Concerning education in the Ukrainian language there are four possibilities:

• full education in Ukrainian
  (number of educational units: 10, number of pupils: 685, number of teaching staff: 53)

• schools with tuition in the Romanian language where Ukrainian is studied as a native language
  (number of schools: 63, number of pupils: 7,360, number of Ukrainian teaching staff: 122)

• pre-school education in Ukrainian
  (number of schools and sections: 5, number of pupils: 252, number of teaching staff in Ukrainian: 53)

• secondary schools fully in the Ukrainian language

All Ukrainian children study Ukrainian as a native language in schools up to university level¹.

On parent's demand pupils of the Ukrainian ethnicity can study at schools with the Ukrainian language as the language of instructions while Romanian is taught as a foreign language or they can study in Romanian and Ukrainian is taught as a native language (3-5 hours a week). The majority of students were interested in the second possibility. The first form can be organized any time on request of at least 15 parents in a particular locality.

Teacher training for pre-schools and primary schools began in academic year 1990/1991 in three towns: Sighetul Marmatiei, Suceava and Tulcea. The textbooks have been revised twice since 1990 and they were published with the financial support of the Ministry of Education.

Two new departments of the Ukrainian language and literature have been set up at the University of Suceava and Cluj-Napoca, besides the already existing departments at the Universities of Bucuresti and Iasi.

Source: Minelres News, December 23, 2004, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2004-December/003739.html, Ionas Aurelian Rus from the Center for the Prevention of Conflicts and Early Warning from Bucharest, Romania received this text on August 13, 2004. It was written on June 19, 2004.

1. Four universities financed by the state have a department of the Ukrainian language and literature.

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Updated (July 2005)

DRIVING LICENSE IN MINORITY LANGUAGES

During a press conference taking place on May 20, 2005 at Sfintu Gheorghe, the senator from the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, Balint Puskas, stated that the new Law on Traffic on the Public Roads would enable members of national minorities to take a driving license exam in their mother tongue.

Ervin Gyorgy, the prefect of the Covasna County admitted that even though everyone in Romania should speak the official language, there are many people over forty (especially in rural areas), who cannot take the exam because they do not speak Romanian.

Source: Mercator News, June 1, 2005, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2005-June/004022.html, DIVERS, Divers Bulletin No. 20 (148)/May 30, 2005, Sfantu Gheorghe

LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES FAVORABLE TO THE ROMANIAN FCNM STATE REPORT

Romania submitted to the Council of Europe its second state report of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM). The Advisory Committee will consider it and adopt an opinion intended for the Committee of Ministers.

The report shows general improvement in the legal framework and administrative capacity regarding ethnic minorities, especially in connection with the language use, education and political representation.

There are twenty ethnic minorities living in Romania. When the report compares ethnic identity data of the year 1992 with the figures from 2002, only in five cases the number of persons belonging to an ethnic minority increased (Roma, Turks, Croats, Greeks and Italians)¹.

Generally in 2002, less people declared themselves to belong to ethnic minorities than in 1992. Similarly, less people had a minority language as their native language.

Last year a draft version of the report circulated among national minority leaders. Because of no feedback from them, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department for Inter-Ethnic Relations (DRI) decided to organize a meeting in March. At this meeting, the DRI President and State Secretary, Attila Markó, managed to postpone sending the report to the CoE, because it only reflected the minority situation in Romania up to November 2004. After parliamentary elections the former ruling party had been overthrown and a new government program was more favorable to minority policy.

Mr. Markó asked for the report's completion, taking into consideration that such a report is written every five years. His remarks focused first of all on the necessity to improve the situation in the field of the minority-language media and education. However, the report should also inform about the progress achieved: that several minority-language schools had been set up, especially for the Csango minority in Romanian Moldavia and that there was some improvement in the sphere of minority media.

Except for the ethnic Italians, Czechs and Slovaks, who were satisfied with the report, no other minority group expressed its written view.

The Advisory Committee will analyze the report and inform about it the Committee of Ministers who are then expected to adopt a resolution with the final conclusions.

Source: Eurolang News, Kolozsvár/Cluj, June 23, 2005, by Áron Balló, http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=5071

1. The number of ethnic Hungarians fell from 1,624,959 to 1,431,807 due to several reasons: emigration, work abroad, negative birth rate, ethnic assimilation and the different method of registering one's ethnic identity according to EU standards in 2002, compared to 1992.

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Updated (August 2005)

ROMANIAN TELECOM OFFERS ASSISTANCE SERVICES IN HUNGARIAN

On August 1, 2005 the Romanian phone company Romtelecom launched a Hungarian-language directory assistance service. The new service makes it possible for more than 1.5 million ethnic Hungarians in Romania to receive basic information from their phone company in their mother tongue.

Every day between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. the Hungarians can dial 932 (+40-021-932 from abroad) to reach a Hungarian-speaking operator. These operators are based in Brassó (Brasov Kronstadt) in southern Transylvania.

When being a state-owned telephone company, Romtelecom had no specific policy concerning minority language services. There were a few Hungarian-speaking operators working in some Hungarian regions; however, when the company centralized its national operator services these jobs disappeared and all calls were answered by Romanian-speaking operators in Bucharest.

The Romanian Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Zsolt Nagy, thanked the company for responding to the needs of the Hungarian-speaking Romtelecom customers and he expressed hope that in future the present service would be expanded to 24 hours a day.

Source: Eurolang News, Marosvásárhely, August 4, 2005, by Áron Balló, http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2426&Itemid=1&lang=en

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Updated (July 2007)

CALL FOR THE REINSTATEMENT OF THE HUNGARIAN-MEDIUM UNIVERSITY

Ethnic Hungarians are still calling for the reinstatement of the Bolyai University in Cluj, which existed until Ceausescu's communist regime decided to dissolve it by merging it to the Babes University in 1959. By this step, the Hungarian minority in Romania lost their only state–funded university where the students could study in their mother tongue.

The Hungarian minority argues that in different EU states much smaller minority communities have the opportunity to study at state–financed universities in their own minority language. Therefore, their initiative to reinstate the rights of the Hungarian community in Romania to a university, which had been confiscated by the communist regime, is profoundly justified and crucially important. They think it is a legitimate demand within the framework of the European Union to provide a traditional minority group of 1.5 million people with a state-funded university.

Furthermore, the necessity to establish a state-funded Hungarian language university was also emphasized by the European Commission in its October 2005 country report and by a number of European Parliament reports, the latest adopted on 30 November 2006.

Just recently, the ethnic Hungarian MEPs have called for support for their written declaration of the university reinstatement to be read in the European Parliament this autumn. But the Hungarians will need 393 signatures from MEPs by 25 October in order for the issue to be discussed at the Parliament's plenary session. The campaigners are also organizing a hearing, a conference and a series of cultural events in the run up to 25 October.

Source: Eurolang News, July 23, 2007 by Davyth Hicks http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2928&Itemid=1&lang=en

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