national populism and slovak – hungarian relations in - MEK

Magyars and Slovaks in Southern Slovakia...So that Slovaks and ethnic Hungarians can communicate together, i.e. communicatein their second language, it is inevitable that they have good commandof that language. Three in five Slovak respondents (60%) said theyspoke Hungarian; half of them assessed their knowledge of Hungarian asfluent while the other half evaluated it as sufficient. At the same time, 13in 14 Slovaks (93%) believe that ethnic Hungarians should have sufficientcommand of both Hungarian and Slovak.Only one percent of ethnic Hungarian respondents said they did notspeak Slovak while others answered in affirmative; three in four of them(76%) assessed their knowledge of Slovak as fluent while the remainingshare (23%) evaluated it as sufficient. The command of Slovak largelydepends on respondents’ age and education status; pensioners with primaryeducation as well as the youngest and the oldest category of unemployedwith primary education showed the worst command of Slovak.Let us sum up what we have learned about verbal communication ofSlovaks and ethnic Hungarians inhabiting ethnically mixed territories ofsouthern Slovakia. We found out that 3% of respondents who now considerthemselves ethnic Hungarians hail from families where Slovak was thedominant language of family communication. Is it fair to call them assimilated?Perhaps yes. But in that case the 9% of respondents who now viewthemselves as Slovaks but hail from families whose communication used tobe dominated by Hungarian must be viewed as equally assimilated.These figures along with all other cited statistical data indicate that nationalidentity of ethnic Hungarians living on ethnically mixed territories isthreatened more than that of their Slovak neighbours. Through attendingprimary schools where Slovak is the language of instruction as well asthrough family and extra-family communication that is dominated bySlovak language, Slovaks continue to use their language, which is one ofessential factors of preserving and strengthening national identity. The factthat 60% of them also speak Hungarian does not threaten their identity inany way; if it was so, the share of ethnic Hungarians inhabiting southernSlovakia would also include these Slovaks. Good command and use ofHungarian language cannot threaten Slovaks’ national identity but merelyimprove mutual communication with ethnic Hungarians; the same is truevice versa. What may threaten ethnic Hungarians’ national identity, though,is their gradual abandoning of Hungarian language, which shows throughthe fact that some ethnic Hungarian parents communicate in Slovak withtheir children and enrol them to Slovak primary schools.National Populism and Slovak – Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 – 2009. Forum Minority Research Institute Šamorín – Somorja, 2009175