Hungarian Language Contact Outside Hungary

Studies on Hungarian as a minority language

Bibliographic Data

ID5791775
EditorsAnna Fenyvesi (0000-0002-3065-4238, University of Szeged, corresponding author)
Year2005
Pages411
Publication date2005-06-09
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueHungarian language contact outside Hungary (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/impact.20
OpenAlexW595282259
Open LibraryOL19253684M
ISBN9789027218582
LanguageEN
Citations received21

This chapter provides an overview of the Hungarian minority in the United States, the Hungarian-Americans, and their language.Since no study on the sociolinguistic situation of the entire Hungarian-American population of the United States exists, the description of the sociolinguistic aspects of this community is based on census records and the available comprehensive studies of the sociolinguistic and linguistic aspects of four Hungarian-American communities.These latter are the following: Kontra (1990), the first such study, on Hungarian as spoken in South Bend, Indiana (for a review of it in English, see Kerek 1992); Bartha (1993), on Hungarian in the Delray neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan; Fenyvesi (1995a), on Hungarian in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a small town just outside Pittsburgh; and Polgár (2001), on the sociolinguistic aspects of Hungarian-Americans in the Birmingham neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. . Sociolinguistic aspects . The origin of the contact situationGroups of Hungarian immigrants started arriving in the United States in the mid-19th century.Before this time, only sporadically did Hungarian individuals resettle in or visit this country.Allegedly, one Hungarian sailed with Leif Ericsson in the 10th century and another with Sir Humphrey Gilbert, one of Elizabethan England's colonists in the New World, in the 16th.Hungarian volunteers fought in the American Revolution and were followed by Hungarian travelers, naturalists and explorers in the 19th century.About 4 thousand Hungarians immigrated to the United States after the failed revolution of 1848-49, and about 800 of them fought as part of the Union Army in the American Civil War (Richmond 1995: 126; Benkart 1980: 464).They even established a colony of their own, calling it Új Buda, 'New Buda' , in southern Iowa (Vassady 1979). Anna FenyvesiTable 9.1.The total number of Hungarian-Americans, 1870-2000, according to censuses* YearsBorn in Born in the US Total

Gender Studies in Language · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Hungarian language · Languages in contact · Linguistic minorities · Minderheidstalen · Political aspects · Social aspects · Sociolinguistics · Taalcontact

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