Magyar News, 2001. szeptember-2002. augusztus (12. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2002-03-01 / 7. szám

( N

THE HUNGARIAN SONG

From the words of our song The wheat fields abound It rings out our happiness It cries with our sadness As if it had a soul of its own.

When our heart’s feelings are filled to overflowing Blossoming like the flower’s first bloom of spring,

And since days of old, flows with abundant song . Throughout our wondrous land for centuries long The beautiful Hungarian song.

The lark sows its song among us From dawn till dusk,

Imprinting the love of music deep into our hearts.

Learning from its melodious song to open our lips,

To sing of sorrow, love and happiness.

We have sung our songs for hundreds of years,

This is our heritage, a gift of joy and tears,

The beautiful Hungarian song.

Our country has suffered throughout the years So often that our souls cried from the pain,

But our song made it bearable helping us to cope.

Forever filling us with confidence and hope,

For as long as we have our song our nation will sustain.

We have lived with our song for oh so long

And will live as long as there is............

The beautiful Hungarian song.

V_________________________________________________________________

NEW MW ON THE LANGUAGE

Will DISCOUNT be DISZKÁNT or ÁRENGEDMÉNY?

A new language-use law adopted by Parliament in November stipulates that names on storefronts, and wording on posters, billboards and other ads in public places should be in Hungarian.

Hungarian, a Finno-Ugrian language, related to the Ural-Altaic languages, became a distinct tongue about 3,000 years ago. The written language began in the 8th or 9th century, if the runic form is considered. The Christian Kingdom of Hungary, which came about in the 11th Century, is considered to have had a written language from the time of its inception. Only about 15-20 European and Asian languages still spoken have had written languages dating back to this time.

Hungarian language policy does not believe that the language or culture is under any threat of extinction. When compared with other languages, it is part of a group that comes just behind the major world languages. Of the 3,000 languages spoken in today's world, Hungarian is in about 40th place, and it is 12th among the 67 spoken in Europe.

In contrast with many other languages, spoken Hungarian does not contain clear dialects indicative of different social strata or locales. In addition, the language itself qualifies as prestigious, since it is one of the most often studied and cited languages in scientific life.

There is instruction in Hungarian in 78 universities of twenty three nations, and there are Hungarian institutes operating in 14 countries. Hungarian literature is uniform and universally available. A constitutional amendment adopted in 1989, when the political system changed, defined freedom of language as a basic freedom.

When Hungary shifted to a market economy, one concomitant was a rapid spread of English business terminology. Many linguists and personalities in public life have long been calling for a halt to the influx of foreign words, which at this point even appear in advertising texts, business information reports, company names, and signage, sometimes to the degree that they become incomprehensible to non-English speakers. Linguistic scholars, however, are divided because many linguists, including the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Language Institute, find language censorship repulsive.

The new language-use bill in Hungary is the most limited of any similar law within Europe, and it is also the most lenient. It has focused only on business names, and on advertisements and signage. It allows the use of other languages in advertisements for goods and services, as well as in the press and on signs in public places. But the Hungarian language equivalent also must be displayed in a clearly visible way. □

Frank Vámos from Columbus Ohio, a reader of the Magyar News, sent us a letter. With the letter he sent a translation of the lyrics of a song. The translation is good and the spirit of the song blends in with our patriotic celebration of March 15, 1848.

So we tried to find out something about Frank Vámos.

He is a second generation American- Hungarian. Though his grandfather was the first to come to this country. His parents from Patak, Nograd Megye, followed after their first daughter was bom. Here in America they had three more children, including Frank. The whole family worked very hard. His father was a molder, working long hours in the hot

place. As he said he is doing it to have his children get a good education and enjoy a better life.

As Frank says his father could do any kind of work. When he worked he sang a whistled Hungarian songs. Frank was always intrigued with their catchy tunes and claims that was the time he fell in love with Hungarian music.

Frank remembers his family being very generous in helping others. Also remembers the butchering of the hog in the winter time.

Today he says:“Every morning I still say a Hungarian prayer that my mother taught us as children. I have never seen it written down, it will remain in my memory forever, and I will never forget it.”

Page 3