Századok – 2000
TANULMÁNYOK - Kristó Gyula: Magyarország népei Szent István korában 3
44 KRISTÓ GYULA varied picture than the languages spoken. According to his findings, four languages were spoken in Hungary in the 11t h century, of which Slavic was the most widely used one; several loan words in the Hungarian language were not borrowed from the neighbouring Slav nations but from the Slavs who inhabited the Carpathian Basin. Hungarian was the second most frequently spoken language, not much behind Slavic, then Turkic and German, followed en suite. In the second half of the 10th centuiy the Slav language had lost its leading position to Hungarian due to the gradual Magyarization of the Kavars. The author estimates that the ratio between non-Hungarian and Hungarian-speaking peoples at the time of the Hungarian Conquest (895 A. D.), being 1.5-2.5:1, was no longer valid at the time of Saint Stephen; the ratio had changed to the advantage of the Hungarian language. At the same time Turkic was rapidly losing its ground after the beginning of the 11th century, whereas German, especially as a result of the settlements in the 12-13t h centuries, had become more important. The fact that Saint Stephen had taken into account the multi-lingual and multi-ethnic nature of his country is substantiated by one of the passages from his Admonitions to his son Imre, 'The kingdom where one language is spoken and one custom prevails is weak and fragile.'
