The languages spoken in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

include Hungarian, recognized minority languages, and other languages.

Minority languages of Hungary

Minority languages A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...

are spoken in a number of autochthonous settlements in

. The country is a signatory of the

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. However, th ...

, which was ratified at 26 April 1995 under which 14 minority languages are recognized and protected. Official linguistic rights of 13 recognized minorities are regulated by the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities, which provides measures for development of cultural and educational autonomy. Levels of linguistic assimilation among Hungarian ethnic minorities are high. At the time of 2001 Census, out of the 314 059 citizens belonging to ethnic minorities, 135 787 stated minority language as their primary language. Under the terms of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Hungary is providing special protection for the

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

Boyash Boyash or ''Bayash'' (endonym: ''Bȯjáṡ'', Romanian: ''Băieși'', Hungarian: ''Beás'', Slovak: ''Bojáš'', South Slavic: ''Bojaši'') refers to a Romani ethnic group living in Romania, southern Hungary, northeastern and northwestern ...

, Bulgarian, Croatian,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

, Rusyn, Serbian, Slovak,

Slovenian Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Sloven ...

and

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

languages.

Language families

Uralic languages The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...

:: – Hungarian: The only official language of the country, unrelated to any of the neighbouring languages. It is the

first language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

of some 98.9% of the total population. :

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

:: –

: spoken by the German minority, especially in and around

Mecsek Mecsek (; hr, Meček; Serbian: ''Meček'' or Мечек; german: Metscheck) is a mountain range in southern Hungary. It is situated in the Baranya region, in the north of the city of Pécs. Etymology The Hungarian toponym "Mecsek" derives from ...

Mountains, but also in other parts of the country. (Historically, the Swabian German dialect was spoken in Hungary.) :: – Slovak: spoken by the Slovak minority, especially in the

North Hungarian Mountains The North Hungarian Mountains ( hu, Északi-középhegység), sometimes also referred to as the Northeast Hungarian Mountains, Northeast Mountains, North Hungarian Highlands, North Hungarian Mid-Mountains or North Hungarian Range, is the norther ...

and around

Békéscsaba Békéscsaba (; sk, Békešská Čaba; see also other alternative names) is a city with county rights in southeast Hungary, the capital of Békés County. Geography Békéscsaba is located in the Great Hungarian Plain, southeast from Budap ...

. :: – Serbian: spoken by the Serbian minority, especially in and around Bácska, but also in other territories of Southern Hungary. :: – Slovene: spoken by the Slovene minority, especially around the

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

n border, Western Hungary. :: – Croatian: spoken by the Croatian minority, especially in Southern Hungary. :: –

: spoken by the Romanian minority, especially in and around Gyula, Eastern Hungary. :: –

: spoken by some members of the Roma minority throughout the country. :

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...

:: –

Cuman The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian exonym ), were a Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation. After the Mongol invasion (1237), many so ...

: once spoken in

Cumania The name Cumania originated as the Latin exonym for the Cuman–Kipchak confederation, which was a tribal confederation in the western part of the Eurasian Steppe, between the 10th and 13th centuries. The confederation was dominated by two Tu ...

region in Hungary. It is a Kipchak language closely related to other Kipchak languages like Crimean Tatar. The last speaker died in 1777. :: – Kipchak: once spoken in Eastern Europe which includes Hungary. It was the lingua franca of the

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragme ...

-controlled areas. It is the ancestor of all Kipchak languages today, which also includes the extinct Cuman. :

Sign languages Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

:: –

Hungarian Sign Language Hungarian Sign Language is the sign language of Deaf people in Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to th ...

: spoken by around 9,000 people. It belongs to the

French Sign Language family The French Sign Language (LSF, from ''langue des signes française'') or Francosign family is a language family of sign languages which includes French Sign Language and American Sign Language. The LSF family descends from Old French Sign Langua ...

Population by knowledge of languages

References

{{Languages of Europe

Minority languages of Hungary

Language families

Population by knowledge of languages

See also

References