É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.

ORMOS, István: Goldziher's Mother Tongue: A Contribution to the Study of the Language Situation in Hungary in the Nineteenth Century

GOLDZIHER'S MOTHER TONGUE constant influx of Hungarians: the total number of inhabitants rose from 3 126 in 1720 to 12 244 in 1804 and 20 069 in 1830?" The language of the protocols of the Magistracy became Hungarian in 1814, and Hungarian was also declared the official language of the city in 1819.

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1 As far as language was concerned, the inhabitants of Székesfehérvár already spoke mainly Hungarian by 1836; there were also ethnic Germans, but they all understood Hungarian and their children spoke Hungarian better than German.

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1 Around 1849 approximately only 10 percent of the population were ethnic Germans, but by then they had become Hungarian in sentiment: the events of 1848-1849 and the years that followed demonstrate this clearly. In the years of Neo-Absolutism, between 1849 and i860, the German spirit was promoted officially though this was unable to change the existing situation.

h" By 1851 the assimilation of Germans had made considerable progress: an important source states that Hungarian-speakers made up the majority (90.8 percent) of the population; there was also a German-speaking minority (6.3 percent) but they all knew Hungarian and their children spoke it even better than German.

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3 An important proof of the preponderance of Hungarian around 1850 is the decree of 7 September 1850 issued by Count Leo Thun-Hohenstein, minister of education in the Habsburg Empire, which listed the Székesfehérvár Gymnasium among those with Hungarian as its language of instruction. At this time the general rule was that the language of instruction in secondary schools was to be the language of the majority of the local population - yet in these Neo-Absolutist times, when centralization and the spreading of German were regarded as prerequisites for the effective modernization of the Empire, German was markedly favoured, and Thun-Hohenstein made its use Budapest 1997, 11. (Alajos Hauszmann is not to be confused with his namesake, the French architect George Eugene Haussmann of Paris.) 2

9 Lajos Thirring, 'Székesfehérvár s Fejérmegye népességének fejlődése és összetétele' [The Development and Composition of the Population of Székesfehérvár and Fejér County], Magyar Statisztikai Szemle 16 (1938), 209. 6

0 Farkas, A tőkés társadalom..., 145-146; Ilona Pálfy, 'Székesfehérvár sz. kir. város 1828ban [The Royal Free Borough of Székesfehérvár in 1828], Magyar Statisztikai Szemle 16 (1938), 247. 6

1 Fényes, Magyar országnak, 's a ' hozzá kapcsolt tartományoknak..., vol. I, 77. 9

2 Gábor Farkas, 'Nemzetiségi viszonyok Fejér megyében 1848-1868 között' [The Comparative Relations of Nationalities in Fejér County between 1848 and 1868], in: Fejér Megyei Történeti Évkönyv (A Fejér Megyei Levéltár Évkönyve) 12 [Historical Yearbook of Fejér County (Yearbook of the Archives of Fejér County) 12]. Ed. Gábor Farkas, Székesfehérvár 1978, 256-257. 9

3 Elek Fényes, Magyarország geográphiai szótára [Geographical Dictionary of Hungary], Pest 1851, vol. II, 9; quoted in Farkas, A tőkés társadalom..., 146. Fényes lacks the percentages, consequently they must come from a different source. 217