Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)

Zsuzsanna Mészáros-Lampl: Magyars and Slovaks in Southern Slovakia - Exercising Language Rights

Magyars and Slovaks in Southern Slovakia...

So that Slovaks and ethnic Hungarians can communicate together, i.e. communicate in their second language, it is inevitable that they have good command of that language. Three in five Slovak respondents (60%) said they spoke Hungarian; half of them assessed their knowledge of Hungarian as fluent while the other half evaluated it as sufficient. At the same time, 13 in 14 Slovaks (93%) believe thať ethnic Hungarians should have sufficient command of both Hungarian and Slovak.

Only one percent of ethnic Hungarian respondents said they did not speak Slovak while others answered in affirmative; three in four of them (76%) assessed their knowledge of Slovak as fluent while the remaining share (23%) evaluated it as sufficient. The command of Slovak largely depends on respondents’ age and education status; pensioners with primary education as well as the youngest and the oldest category of unemployed with primary education showed the worst command of Slovak.

Let us sum up what we have learned about verbal communication of Slovaks and ethnic Hungarians inhabiting ethnically mixed territories cf southern Slovakia. We found out that 3% of respondents who now consider themselves ethnic Hungarians hail from families where Slovak was the dominant language of family communication. Is it fair to call them assimilated? Perhaps yes. But in that case the 9% of respondents who now view themselves as Slovaks but hail from families whose communication used to be dominated by Hungarian must be viewed as equally assimilated.

These figures along with all other cited statistical data indicate that national identity of ethnic Hungarians living on ethnically mixed territories is threatened more than that of their Slovak neighbours. Through attending primary schools where Slovak is the language of instruction as well as through family and extra-family communication that is dominated by Slovak language, Slovaks continue to use their language, which is one of essential factors of preserving and strengthening national identity. The fact that 60% of them also speak Hungarian does not threaten their identity in any way; if it was so, the share of ethnic Hungarians inhabiting southern Slovakia would also include these Slovaks. Good command and use of Hungarian language cannot threaten Slovaks’ national identity but merely improve mutual communication with ethnic Hungarians; the same is true vice versa. What may threaten ethnic Hungarians’ national identity, though, is their gradual abandoning of Hungarian language, which shows through the fact that some ethnic Hungarian parents communicate in Slovak with their children and enrol them to Slovak primary schools.

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