Language experiences of Transcarpathian Hungarians in Hungary
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18349/MagyarNyelv.2023.2.215Keywords:
Hungarians in Transcarpathia, war in Ukraine, living in Hungary, differences in language use, listening to speech, use of loanwordsAbstract
The thousands of Transcarpathian Hungarians who have arrived in Hungary since February 2022 have not only left their homeland behind, but also have integrated into a new social, political, economic, cultural and linguistic environment, which is to a greater or lesser extent different from the usual one. On the one hand, this new linguistic environment means that in Hungary, Hungarians from Transcarpathia are not forced to use a different language in certain situations. In their homeland, Transcarpathia, found in Ukraine, social norms dictate that in many situations they should or must use Ukrainian. Hungarians from Transcarpathia who arrive in Hungary also face differences between the language of the host environment and their own language used in Transcarpathia. There are well-documented differences between the use of Hungarian in Hungary and in Transcarpathia. Sometimes, however, the characteristics of their local language use can be a stigma attached to the speaker, and in some cases language differences can even lead to a lack of mutual understanding, which can be mainly due to the lack of knowledge of the Ukrainian loanwords used by Hungarian speakers in Transcarpathia. – In this paper, based on empirical research data, we attempt to show how Hungarians from Transcarpathia who arrived in Hungary after 24 February 2022 perceive the language use of the host environment in Hungary, what differences and similarities they identify between their own language varieties and the language use experienced in Hungary, and what reflections this triggers among the refugees fleeing the war.
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Copyright (c) 2023 István Csernicskó, Vilmos Gazdag
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