Embracing Hungarian : Top-down emancipation of an immigrant language in Finland

• The term “language emancipation” has to date been mainly used in the context of historical minority languages and underprivileged vernaculars. The aim of the present article is to discuss the extension of this concept to other language categories and in this case, an immigrant language. It focuses on the situation of Hungarians and Hungarian in Finland and discusses the relevance of language emancipation in this context. The factors which are concentrated on are: first, the long history of cultural relations between Hungarians and Finns; second, the situation of Hungarian at various levels of education in Finland; and third, the attitudes towards Hungarian on the part of the majority society as well as the Hungarians themselves. The situation of Hungarian in Finland is special compared with other immigrant languages because Hungarian was part of the Finnish nationalist language emancipation. This historical heritage still seems to positively affect the status of Hungarians and the Hungarian language in Finnish society as reflected in a recent sociolinguistic study carried out among second generation Hungarians in Finland. Both official support from the state level and the favorable attitudes among majority language speakers contribute to the privileged status of Hungarians among immigrant groups in Finland.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Kulturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Cultural Studies (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Övrig annan humaniora (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Other Humanities not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Hungarians in Finland

Finno-Ugric languages

linguistic affinity

attitudes towards related languages

top-down language emancipation

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)