Hungarian is the official language of Hungary and is spoken by the majority of the country's population. Several languages โโof ethnic minorities, such as Russian, Romanian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovak, Ukrainian, are spoken by communities living in the country. English and German are also popular foreign languages โโspoken in Hungary.
What language is spoken in Hungary
Hungarian is not only the most widely spoken language in the country, but also the 13th most widely spoken language in Europe. It is native to approximately 13 million native speakers. In Hungary, 99.6% of the population speaks Hungarian, which belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and is not associated with most of the languages โโspoken in neighboring countries. This is one of the most widespread and the only language in this family that is spoken in Central Europe. Hungarian is also spoken by ethnic Hungarians in other parts of the world. Romania, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Israel, and some other countries have a small Hungarian-speaking population.
Other languages โโof Hungary
What languages โโare minority languages โโof Hungary?
German is spoken by ethnic Germans living in Hungary. A significant ethnic German population lives around the Mecsek mountain system in the southern part of the country.
The official language of Slovakia. It is spoken by representatives of the Slovak minority in Hungary. This community lives mainly near Bekeszczaba and in the northern Hungarian mountains.
Serbian is spoken mainly in parts of southern Hungary by members of the Serb minority.
The language is distributed along the border of Hungary and Slovenia, where it is spoken by groups of Slovenian minorities.
The Croatian-speaking population is mainly concentrated in southern Hungary.
This language is spoken in the district of Gyula by ethnic Romanians of Hungary.
What languages โโare spoken in Hungary yet? English and German are the most common foreign languages โโin the country. According to the 2011 census, 16% of the Hungarian population, which is 1,589,180 people, speak English as a foreign language. German is spoken by 1,111,997 people, representing 11.2% of the Hungarian population.
Hungarian
Hungarian is the official language of Hungary. It is the largest of the Finno-Ugric languages โโby the number of speakers and the only one spoken in Central Europe. His closest relatives are Khanty and Mansi, the minority languages โโof Russia, which are spoken 3,500 km east of the Ural Mountains in northwestern Siberia. It is assumed that the Hungarian language was separated from the Khanty and Mansi about 2500-3000 years ago.
Linguists believe that the ancestors of modern Hungarians first migrated west from the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains in the steppes of southern Russia in the 4th โ 6th centuries and eventually moved farther west to the Danube basin west of the Carpathian mountains in the 9th century. For centuries, Hungarians have assimilated into the surrounding European cultures. Only their language testifies to their Asian origin.
Status
8,840,000 people speak Hungarian in Hungary. It is the official language of the country used in education and public administration. It is one of the official languages โโof the European Union. In Romania, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Israel and the United States, a significant number of Hungarian speakers live. In Canada, Slovenia and Austria, a smaller part of the population speaking Hungarian lives. The total number of Hungarian speakers worldwide is 12 605 590.
Dialects
The standard Hungarian language spoken in Hungary is based on the variety spoken in the capital of Budapest. Although the use of a standard dialect is mandatory, Hungarian has a number of urban and rural dialects. The following dialects of the Hungarian language are distinguished: Central Transdanubia, Northeast Hungarian, Southern Great Plains, Southern Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia, Oberwart (Austria), Chongo (Romania).
Speakers of the standard Hungarian language have difficulty understanding the Oberwart dialect spoken in Austria and the Choong dialect spoken in Romania.
Vocabulary
The main vocabulary of the Hungarian language, which is spoken in Hungary, reflects its Finno-Ugric origin. The language also borrowed a large number of words from other languages. Some of the earliest borrowings were taken from the Iranian and Turkic languages โโduring the Hungarian migrations. Later borrowings from German, Italian, French, Slavic and English entered the language after the Hungarians settled in Europe.