Languages of Hungary

Map of Hungary

The languages spoken in Hungary are as follows.

Languages

Uralic languages

– Hungarian: The only official language of the country, unrelated to any of the neighbouring languages. It is the mother tongue of some 93.6% of the total population. Hungarian is also widely understood among the remaining percent.

Indo-European languages

– German: spoken by the German minority, especially in and around Mecsek 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 and around Békéscsaba.

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

– Slovene: spoken by the Slovene minority, especially around the Slovenian border, Western Hungary.

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

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

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

Population by knowledge of languages

2001 Census (Hungarian). Note: percentages do not add up to 100% as, according to this study, 24.5% of Hungarians speak multiple languages. Not all languages are shown.

Language	Knowledge	Note
Hungarian	99.8%	The only official language of Hungary. Of this percent, 93.6% speak it as a mother tongue; 6.2% speak it as a second or foreign language
German	10.2%	Official minority language, historically the German is the most common second language among Hungarians
English	9.8%	Foreign language
Russian	1.9%	Foreign language
French	1.1%	Foreign language
Romanian	0.9%	Minority language, but mainly Transylvanian Hungarians speak Romanian
Slovak	0.6%	Minority language

Sources

• "Nemzetiségi kötődés – A nemzeti, etnikai kisebbségek adatai" (in Hungarian). Népszámlálás. Központi Statisztikai hivatal. 2001. http://www.nepszamlalas.hu/hun/kotetek/04/tartalom.html. Retrieved 2009-08-17. 

See also

• Hungary
• Hungarian language
• Demographics of Hungary