Hungarian: The language island in the heart of Eastern Europe
Hungary is located in the middle of Europe, surrounded by countries where Slavic languages are spoken almost everywhere – Polish, Slovakian, Serbian and many more. But then there is Hungarian, which is completely out of the ordinary. It is the only language in the region that is not a Slavic or Indo-European language. But why is that?
Hungarian, or Magyar, comes from the Finno-Ugric language family. That sounds pretty exotic at first, and it is. Hungarian is related to Finnish and Estonian, although these languages are geographically distant. The ancestors of the Hungarians migrated to the region that is now Hungary over 1000 years ago and brought their language with them. And the exciting thing is: despite all the influences from the surrounding area, Hungarian has retained its unique character to this day.
Hungary is located in the middle of Europe, surrounded by countries where Slavic languages are spoken almost everywhere – Polish, Slovakian, Serbian and many more. But then there is Hungarian, which is completely out of the ordinary. It is the only language in the region that is not a Slavic or Indo-European language. But why is that?
What makes Hungarian so special?
Unlike the Slavic languages around it, Hungarian has a special system called agglutination. This means that words become longer and longer by adding endings and contain more information – what can be a single word form can be a whole sentence in other languages.
Even though the Hungarian language is characterized by many influences (e.g. from German or Slavic), it remains unique in its basic structure.
Unlike the Slavic languages around it, Hungarian has a special system called agglutination. This means that words become longer and longer by adding endings and contain more information – what can be a single word form can be a whole sentence in other languages.
Even though the Hungarian language is characterized by many influences (e.g. from German or Slavic), it remains unique in its basic structure.
