Hungarian Speakers Research Articles

The appearance of the results of bilingualism research in secondary school education in Transcarpathia and Hungary

Over the past decades, the development of Hungarian language varieties beyond the borders of Hungary and the state language influences that have been manifested in them have attracted considerable attention in linguistic research in Hungary and beyond. In a large part of the literature on the subject, the authors also emphasise the importance of language and language use awareness for achieving adequate communication in all contexts, which is undoubtedly closely linked to the quality of mother tongue teaching in schools and to the language attitudes and linguistic biases of teachers. However, there has been relatively little research on the form and quantity of the results of bilingualism research in school education in Transcarpathia and Hungary. The aim of this paper, therefore, in response to the above-mentioned gap, is to provide an overview of the materials published in Transcarpathian and Hungarian curricula and textbooks on bilingualism research and to present the specificities of the two countries. Based on the analysis of state standards, curricula and textbooks, it can be said that the results of bilingualism research are reflected in the Hungarian language curricula of secondary education in Hungary and Transcarpathia. At the same time, while the Hungarian National Curriculum, the framework curricula and the related textbooks are characterised by a continuous enrichment of the materials related to bilingualism and language varieties from across the border, a certain regression can be observed in the education of native Hungarian speakers in Transcarpathia.

Multilingual COVID-19 linguistic landscape in Berehove

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought severe changes to people’s lives and has influenced all aspects of our being. The most common attribute of these changes is that we had to comply with regulations that we had not experienced before, use words and phrases that might have been previously unknown to us. Tour daily rhythm was radically transformed. The measures taken to stop the epidemic and the social effects of the pandemic have been examined in many forms. In our paper, we focus on a multilingual town in Transcarpathia, namely Berehove. The results of our longitudinal study, the trends that emerge from the data, can be projected not only on the city, but also on its agglomeration and other settlements that are inhabited by Hungarian speakers. In the linguistic landscape of Berehove, a multiethnic town in the westernmost part of Ukraine, a number of new signs have appeared after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which are an excellent reflection of the multilingual nature in the region and the municipality. In our study, we present the geosemiotic characteristics of the signs, announcements on epidemiological restrictions and warnings published in public places in Berehove. We also investigate whether the advertisements, inscriptions and symbols were made on the official or private level (top-down / bottom-up). The photographic data was collected in the course of two years (2020–2021) and clearly shows the ever-changing multilingual landscape of the territory, and the alternations of different waves of the pandemic. International literature finds it important to advocate for the appearance of multiple languages as regards to the linguistic landscape of the virus, precisely because linguistic tolerance towards minorities in a hard times like the previous years of constant lockdowns, financial and heath crises, is not only a language policy issue, but also related to health policy. Linguistic landscape, even in these times is not only a reflection of a territory’s ethnolinguistic and ethno-demographical composition but is shaped issues of language policy, cultural legacies, language dynamics and attitudes.

Grammatikai vonatkozású kontaktusjelenségek a mezőségi nyelvhasználatban

The paper discusses the grammatical aspects of language contact in the language use of Hungarian communities in the Transylvanian Plain on the basis of living language data. The database has been created as part of a larger, more extensive research in the course of which the language shift processes of the Hungarian-Romanian bilingual speakers living in the diasporic communities of the Transylvanian Plain are being analysed and which has been continuously increased in the past three years. The research has been carried out by narrative interviews recorded in nine communities by now, with native Hungarian speakers of different ages who also speak Romanian to a certain extent. These communities have provided a varied field for bilingual researches from a demographical point of view but in terms of linguistic environment and the extent of bilingualism as well. Up to now the language contact researches have mainly been directed towards lexical and phonetical aspects, and for a while they have been extended to semantical aspects too, but as far as grammatical contact phenomena are concerned, we have quite few results at the moment. On basis of the data presented in the paper the analysed phenomena can be explained in certain cases with the influence of the dominant second language, respectively the Romanian, or with the uncertainty rising from the running of two language systems at the same time. The phenomena occuring most often as results of the Romanian language effect are the syntactical phenomena and those regarding word order, the use of plurals in a different way from the standard use, suffix confusions, suffix borrowings, redundancy and missing elements. Redundancy phenomena contain the use of unnecessary articles, special double negation, redundancy of negative particles, missing elements mean the lack of the modal verb in conditional structures. In certain cases, for example at the phenomenon of suffix borrowing, the parallel structures can be found in Romanian as well, so this can be considered language contact phenomenon, just like the lack of modal verbs in conditional structures. Other phenomena, such as the specific SVO word order characteristic of the Romanian language, or specific use of plurals are viewed as relative language contact phenomena, as these can be observed in the language use of monolingual Hungarian speakers too, though more rarely than in the language use of bilinguals. In order to completely understand the processes of language contacts further researches of the grammatical contact phenomena are needed.

Meaning-construction in everyday bilingualism. On the language attitudes of Hungarian-speaking youth in Romania

In our presentation we will examine the diversity of linguistic attitudes of Hungarian speakers in Romania. Although there are several definitions for this concept from psychology and linguistics, linguistic attitudes are generally understood as the value judgments and attitudes that individuals form on the basis of their language socialization, language use and learning experience, in relation to languages, language varieties and language expressions. In our present research, we wanted to find out the speakers’ value judgments about the phenomenon of using Romanian and/or English loanwords in their everyday Hungarian communication. In our research paradigm we adopted a case-oriented, inductive, data-focused research towards which we applied a mixed approach: the data was collected through a questionnaire, then the focus group discussion highlighted the criteria respondents used in their value judgment, as well as their opinions about loanwords adopted from the two languages. The conversations also indirectly shed light on the way in which a minority community relates to the languages active in its linguistic environment.

From Proletarian Internationalism to Transnational Consciousness

Abstract Following the Treaty of Trianon, in Transylvania, which had been detached from historical Hungary and attached to Romania, besides the Romanian majority, there lived a considerable Hungarian- and German-speaking minority. Although in the last two decades of the communist dictatorship – in the 70s and 80s – as a consequence of emigration to Germany, the number of ethnic Germans decreased substantially, the number of Hungarian speakers is over one million even today. Regarding the characteristics of the post-World War II literary discourse and cultural policy, in the second half of the forties, the communist power gained control over all manifestations of community life in Romania. It regulated culture and the arts, banned, abolished, or restructured all forums that had enjoyed some kind of independence, and completely revised the literary and artistic canon. In this era, the discourse emphasizing the aspects of revolutionary transformation and radical policy change decisively builds on the enemy image; the fault-line between past and present and the necessity of continuous political struggle prevail in both poetry and prose. In order to achieve the intended social goals, this kind of communist sacrifice ethics regards the annihilation of resisters, protesters, and even of the internal opposition not only as a possibility but as an assumed necessity. This paper aims to present the ideological/political and aesthetic/poetic tendencies that determined Transylvanian Hungarian literature and cultural policy from the mid-40s until the end of 20th century.

“Transylvanian Hunglish” Phonological Properties of Hungarian Accented English in Transylvania

Abstract Hunglish is a term for Hungarian native speakers’ English pronunciation. It is a well recognisable and quite homogeneous accent, which is thoroughly described in the literature of second language acquisition. However, this paper proposes that Hungarian speakers living in Romania use a phonologically different Hunglish compared to those living in Hungary. The study is built on direct speech recordings made with 30 Hungarian speakers descending from various parts of Transylvania. Their accent is confronted with the pronunciation of 15 speakers from Hungary, who participated in the same reading experiment. Results indicate that the English pronunciation of the two groups mostly share the same phonetic and phonological features. Only a few persistent phonological differences can be identified; for instance, English open back vowels [ʌ, ɒ, ɑ] are replaced with Hungarian [ɒ] by the Transylvanian informants, and with [a] by the speakers from Hungary; Transylvanian informants preserve more English schwas and diphthongs due to their L2 Romanian, etc. The differences basically originate in the fact that Transylvanian speakers’ interlanguage is much more heterogeneous than that of Hungarians’, i.e. Transylvanians speak a substandard version of Hungarian as L1, they speak a Transylvanian dialect, they speak Romanian at high level as L2, and they usually speak further foreign languages as well beyond English; these varieties all affect their foreign accent. The paper takes account of the most important characteristics of Transylvanian Hunglish, with a synchronic phono-logical analysis, and a contrastive analysis with the general phonological properties of Hunglish found in the literature.

A magyar megszólítások és köszönési formák tanítása (nem csak) finneknek

Choosing the appropriate forms of address and greetings is not easy even for the native Hungarian speakers, especially as a result of the changes in the Hungarian language in the last 30 years. In order to achieve successful communication, the acquiring the use of T and V forms(by pronouns maga or ön)and nominal address forms (including first or last names, nicknames, titles, job titles and endearments) occupies an important role in the teaching of Hungarian as a foreign language. Mastering the tools of the address forms and the rules of their use develops the pragmatic competence of the students. Because of the relatively quick changes in the address system in Hungarian, the language books can not be always up to date, therefore it usually depends on the teacher to pass on the changes in the present language use or at least providing information on them. Particular emphasis should be placed on the teaching of Hungarian address system to native speakers of Finnish (a language belonging to the Scandinavian cultural circle).Although V forms exist also in the Finnish language, their use is quite infrequent. Consequently, the use of them can cause difficulties for the younger generations. In Finnish, as several studies have shown, the use of last names, nicknames and endearments are relatively rare and has completely different rules than their equivalents in Hungarian. Teaching addressing by titles in Hungarian is challenging, because in Finnish titlesare used quite rarely and they can even get an ironic tone. Therefore, special attention should be paid to addressing teachers and those working in the (university) bureaucracy, as some students continue their language studies in Hungary. Although greetings are not an integral part of address system, they may indicate the subject of using T or V forms; and certain official address forms, especially in writing and addressing unknown persons (e. g. Tisztelt Elnök Asszony! ’Dear Madam President!’), usually involve V forms. As a language teacher, it is not enough to emphasize that some of the Hungarian greetings –even without a specific formal or informal element –are informal and indicate T forms (e.g. a szia, szervusz), and some of them are formal indicating almost always V forms (e.g. Jó napot kívánok!, Viszontlátásra!).If the students do not use formal greetings regularly in their native language, the teachers of Hungarian have to pay close attention to those forms of Hungarian in teaching and have to give enough time to practicing the correct address forms during the whole period of Hungarian language studies. In this paper we present our best practices and ideas for teaching address forms and rules of their use, based on the research on Hungarian language changes in the last 30 years. In addition to the traditional methods (e. g. translation, interpreting tasks), we have developed modern, often playful tasks during our many years’ teaching carreer. We present practical examples for teaching of important features of the Hungarian address system, based partly on the earlier published language teaching books and partly on our own materials. Based on these examples and practices, teachers of Hungarian as a foreign language may get inspiration to develop their own materials, within the limits of the possibilities

Phonological acquisition of European Portuguese oral vowels: A forced-choice identification study with Hungarian native speakers

Auditory perceptual experiments with Portuguese L2 are scarce, especially within the scope of the European variety (EP). In this study, we aim at observing the assimilation of the EP vowels [ɐ] and [ɨ] by Hungarian native speakers, and their perceptual learning after some contact with Portuguese. A multiple forced-choice identification experiment was run with two groups of Hungarian speakers – a group with and a group without previous contact with EP. The results show that the categorization fell into the closest phonetic categories of the L1. The results also indicate a learning effect for [ɨ], with a recategorization path from [y] to [ø]. As for [ɐ], no major differences were observed between groups. This result is consistent with difficulties observed in the classroom environment, where [ɐ] is particularly challenging to Hungarian learners.

The development of variability in pausing and articulation rate in Hungarian speakers ten years apart

In recent years, attention given to speech-related disciplines has shifted to analyzing extra- and paralinguistic information occurring in speech. Moreover, there is a growing public interest in ageing, which, in turn, may encourage the conduct of this type of research. Earlier studies have analyzed older speakers, and, to date, we have little information about the changes taking place in the voices of healthy, young speakers growing older. Our research examines how certain temporal patterns in speech change in two different types of speech (reading and spontaneous speech) over a period of 10 years. The analysis included speech samples from 13 healthy, young adult male speakers recorded under the same conditions ten years apart. The study focuses on the timing differences within and between the recordings. The development of temporal and pausing patterns were analyzed depending on the type of speech, position, and the time of the recording (10-year difference). The results showed that not only the type of speech but the differences within and between the recordings affected the pausing strategies. In addition, the data indicated that (1) a slower articulation rate was observed in spontaneous speech and (2) higher variability between sample types i.e., a more varied articulation rate was observed in spontaneous speech than in reading. In the case of the articulation rate the individual differences dominated.

On the enregisterment of Szekler. Communicational stereotypes recreated in the sketch Úgy-e, Magdi? by Open Stage

Abstract The article aims at unfolding the key linguistic aspects of nowadays’ stereotypical Szekler-representations through a case study on a satirical representation of regional communicative practices in the locally well-known sketch Úgy-e, Magdi? (‘Right, Magdi?’) by Open Stage. The research is mainly centred around the concept of enregisterment, thus the work is meant to be a contribution to the scarce literature on the enregisterment of Szekler (and Hungarian dialects in general) and on regional communicative practices. After providing a brief overview of the key areas and aspects along which the Szekler dialect has been enregistered so far in public discourse and in linguistics, the article tries to capture the main attributes which create the authentic Szekler voice for Hungarian speakers through analyzing the plot, the characterological figures and the linguistic repertoire conveyed by the sketch, as well as the online reactions to it given by viewers. Besides examining the most prominent phonological/phonetic, lexical and grammatical phenomena construed as characteristic to Szekler, the article also touches upon some regional conversational features depicted through stylization by the sketch.

Endre Szentkiralyi. Being Hungarian in Cleveland: Maintaining Language, Culture, and Traditions.

Endre Szentkiralyi. <i>Being Hungarian in Cleveland: Maintaining Language, Culture, and Traditions.</i>

The “we” vs. “they” distinction in Slovakia Hungarians' discourse

AbstractLinguistic differentiation is a basic component of sociocultural differentiation: social processes create the social and linguistic meanings of variants, sometimes also contributing to language change through discourse processes. In addition to being continuously constructed, discourse is in a dialectic relationship with extra-discursive factors and can therefore be studied only when embedded in its social and linguistic contexts (cf. Fairclough 2010: 3–5, Laihonen 2009). In this article I investigate how the notion of “we” occurs in the metalinguistic discourse of Hungarian speakers in Slovakia (with reference to Slovakia Hungarians and their Hungarian language use) (cf. Kontra 2006) in contrast with the notion of “they” (with reference to Hungary Hungarians and their Hungarian language use) in lay speakers' utterances referring to language. The study reported on in this article uses directed interviews and employs discourse analysis to provide insight into the use of “we” vs. “they” and their meanings in the Slovakia Hungarian variety. It also seeks to show how certain expressions become indexical in conceptualizations of identity and how the distinction of “we” vs. “they” is created by language.

“Creating the illusion of speaking Romanian well”: Hungarian speakers’ teaching and learning the majority language in Romania

Abstract The case study of the article is translanguaging as an educational strategy in preparation for the graduation exam in Romanian language and literature in a Hungarian school in Miercurea Ciuc/Csíkszereda, Romania. Romanian language competence scores are at the bottom of national rankings in this Hungarian-majority town in Szeklerland. Students who speak a minority language have their knowledge of the majority language evaluated in the graduation exam in Romanian language and literature based on the same criteria as first-language speakers’, which has strong implications for their participation in Romanian society. The main research question of this ethnographically informed article is how translanguaging happens in a classroom where students’ first language is being used with the aim of facilitating performance in their second language. The article argues that in the classrooms where the research was conducted, translanguaging is a strategy that negotiates between students’ educational needs in the local environment and the expectation espoused by the state to perform as if they were monolingual Romanian speakers. Similarly, students use translanguaging to strategize between the curricular expectations and their language performance. Yet, I argue that in this case study the emancipatory potential of translanguaging is limited due to ethnolinguistic hierarchies that remain unchallenged.

Ethnolinguistic Identity, Coping Strategies and Language Use among Young Hungarians in Slovakia

Abstract The purpose of the present paper was to investigate the propositions of ethnolinguistic identity theory among young Hungarian speakers in Slovakia. Specifically, we aimed to explore the role of ethnolinguistic identification, vitality and boundary permeability in coping with negative ethnolinguistic identities, and also how these effects impact language use. Self-report questionnaire data were collected among Hungarian-speaking secondary school students in (N = 311). The data were analyzed using a Bayesian moderated mediation analysis with informative priors for coefficients based on an earlier study. The results provided mixed support for the hypotheses. Ethnolinguistic mobility appeared to be an outcome of a complex process, where identification, vitality and permeability operate interactively; at the same time, ethnolinguistic competition was independent of the perception of vitality and permeability, but a sole consequence of strong Hungarian identification. In addition, the results indicated that identification, vitality and competency in the outgroup language were factors predicting language use, whereas there was no support for the anticipated mediating effect of coping strategies. Findings are discussed in relation to ethnolinguistic identity theory and to the particular qualities of the local context.

Great Expectations and Interwar Realities: Hungarian Cultural Diplomacy, 1918–1941

Great Expectations and Interwar Realities: Hungarian Cultural Diplomacy, 1918–1941

Indonesians Do Not Believe in Lying: New Results of Replicating Coleman and Kay’s Study

For most people, a lie would be defined solely as a false statement. However, many philosophers argue that a statement does not need to be false to be considered a lie, what is important is that the speaker believes that the statement is false. In a prototype semantic analysis, there are three elements of a lie , namely factual falsity, belief, and intention (Coleman and Kay, 1981). As in the case of philosophers’ arguments, English, Spanish, Arabic and Hungarian speakers consider belief as the main element of a prototypical lie. By replicating Coleman and Kay’s study of Indonesian speakers, the present paper tries to answer the following research questions. (1) Does the Indonesian word bohong ‘lie’ consist of the Coleman & Kay’s prototype elements? (2) If it does, what is the order of the elements? (3) Do Indonesians interpret the situation in which a lie occurs similarly to speakers of other languages? And (4) how to interpret the results of this experiment from the philosophical perspective? The results reveal that not all elements suggested by Coleman and Kay (1981) are present in lying according to Indonesians and the factuality of the statement is more important to Indonesians than belief. Thus, Indonesians have a perception of a lie that is different from the definitions suggested by the philosophers.

On the nature of collocations and ways of teaching them in foreign language classes

AbstractWhen it comes to teaching vocabulary in foreign language classes words are often taught in isolation, without regard to the context in which they appear. The paper draws attention to the importance of teaching words in context so that the meaning of a word often results from the meaning of a larger construction it is part of. After presenting the morpho-syntactic and semantic characteristics of collocations, and the difficulties language learners face in acquiring them, the paper presents a few ideas on how to teach collocations, giving examples of activities and exercises that can facilitate the learning process. The focus has been laid on activities that can complement the lessons in class, can be applicable at different levels and also require relatively little preparation from the part of the teacher. In addition, an important aspect has been to choose activities that language learning have fun doing (that include creativity, problem solving, humor, real life examples, own experiences, etc.) and that integrate the necessary language learning skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing). Without the intention of being exhaustive, the paper concentrates on those activities and tasks that present collocations in their entirety, as constructions, assuming that these are the most useful for students. While the ideas presented are generally applicable in foreign language classes, the present paper has been written with native Hungarian speakers in mind.

Analógia a jelölt mássalhangzó-kapcsolatra végződő, idegen eredetű főnevek tárgyesetében

This paper examines nouns of foreign origin with strongly marked consonant clusters at the end and how they behave when Hungarian native speakers inflect them for the accusative case. Un-like other Hungarian nouns (or what speakers reckon as Hungarian nouns), a significant part of Hun-garian native speakers add the accusative case marker to these nouns without a linking vowel (e.g. taps &gt; tapsot [tɒpʃ] &gt; [tɒpʃot] ‘applause, nom. &gt; acc.’ but Hanks &gt; Hankst [hɛŋks] &gt; [hɛŋkst]) which is highly unexpected. The investigation took place within the model of analogical grammar. The gang of monomorphemic Hungarian nouns that end in the consonant clusters [ks], [ns], or [ps] facilitates the appearance of a linking vowel in recent words of foreign origin with three consonants at the end when Hungarian speakers inflect them for the accusative case. When, on the other hand, there is no linking vowel at the end of the nouns of foreign origin in the accusative, the gang that affects them comprises those Hungarian monomorphemic nouns which have non­branching codas with an [s] in them. There are three gangs that affect the nouns of foreign origin with two consonants at the end. The first one is where the branching coda’s first consonant is [r] or [l] and a linking vowel is required. The second and third gangs comprise Hungarian monomorphemic nouns that have non­branching codas with an [l] (in the case of the second gang) or with an [n] (in the case of the third gang). These two gangs allow their members to exhibit the absence of a linking vowel when they are in the accusative case.

A Y-chromosomal study of mansi population from konda River Basin in Ural

Based on genetic studies published, the Hungarian Y-chromosomal gene pool significantly differs from other Uralic-speaking populations. Hungarian males possess a high frequency of haplogroup R1a-Z280 and a low frequency of haplogroup N-Tat, which is uncommon among other Uralic-speaking populations. Previously we published the Northern and Southern Mansi Y-chromosomal data and now further studied to search the links between the linguistically related Hungarian populations. Samples were collected from 36 Southern Mansi males from Konda river basin in the Ural region. We analysed male-specific markers including Y-STRs and Y- SNPs, which would reflect past and recent paternal genetic history. In the case of the Southern Mansi males, the most frequent haplogroups were N1b-P43 (33%), N1c-L1034 (28%) and R1a-Z280 (19%). For phylogenetic studies, networks were constructed for the most frequent haplogroups in the Konda Mansi together with Khanty and Hungarian speaking populations. The Konda Mansi population shared common haplotypes within haplogroups R1a-Z280 or N-M46 with Hungarian speakers, which may suggest that the Hungarians were in contact with the Mansi people during their migration to the Carpathian Basin.

Genetic history of Bashkirian Mari and Southern Mansi ethnic groups in the Ural region.

According to genetic studies, the Hungarian Y-chromosomal gene pool significantly differs from other Uralic-speaking populations. Hungarians possess a significant frequency of haplogroup R1a-Z280 and a low frequency of haplogroup N-Tat, which is common among other Uralic-speaking populations. Based on this evidence, we further worked to define the links between the linguistically related Hungarian, Mansi and Bashkirian Mari populations. Samples were collected from 45 Bashkirian Mari and 36 Southern Mansi males in the Ural region. We analyzed male-specific markers including 23 STRs and 36 SNPs, which reflect past and recent paternal genetic history. We found that the haplogroup distribution of the two population samples showed high genetic similarity to each other except for the N-Tat* and R1a-Z93 haplogroups in the Bashkirian Mari males. On the MDS plots constructed from Fst- and Rst-genetic distances, the Bashkirian Mari and Southern Mansi population groups showed close genetic affinities with the Khanty, Northern Mansi, Mari, and Estonian populations. For phylogenetic studies, networks were constructed for the most frequent haplogroups in both populations together with other Eurasian populations. Both populations shared common haplotypes within haplogroups R1a-Z280 or N-L1034 with Hungarian speakers, suggesting a common paternal genetic footprint that arose in prehistoric or historic times. Overall, the Hungarian, Mansi, and Bashkirian Mari populations have a much more complex genetic history than the traditional linguistic model or history would suggest. Further studies are needed to clarify the common genetic profiles may have been acquired directly or indirectly during the more or less known their history.