Changing Hungarians' L1 education / Jövőt formáló anyanyelvi nevelés

Abstract

The transmission and maintenance of Hungarian standard language ideology is extremely harmful socially because it perpetuates social inequity and reduces the nation's resources. The insistence on speaking Hungarian “correctly”, i.e., that all Hungarians speak their mother tongue “correctly”, is both unrealistic and socially extremely damaging. In addition to anecdotal evidence cited from belletristic authors Gyula Illyés (1930s), Szilárd Borbély (21st century) and others, the results of several sociolinguistic studies are cited to show how unrealistic such expectations are. These studies cover important sociolinguistic variables e.g., t-final verbs and the inessive case ending (bVn) as used by Hungarians in Hungary, in Transcarpathia (Ukraine) and in Transylvania (Rumania). The social harms that result are illustrated by several well-documented cases of linguicism. The author recommends that the evaluation of linguistic phenomena in terms of “correct – incorrect” should be abandoned and replaced by “appropriate – inappropriate” evaluations (where appropriate language use varies according to speech partners and speech situations). The subtractive language education prevalent in Hungarian schools should be replaced by additive education. Teacher training should be revamped similarly, but the most difficult task ahead is changing the culture of widespread belief in “correct Hungarian” and cultivating a more democratic language ideology which, rather than striving to eliminate language variation, respects linguistic varieties and their speakers.