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willing to respond in Swabian but they speak Hungarian with their grandchildren. The
majority speak Hungarian just as well as Swabian. When they speak Hungarian, older
Swabians’ use Swabian intonation.
Members of the second generation in Csolnok and Véménd also mostly learned Hungarian in
daycare and spoke Swabian at home. They specified Swabian as their native language and
added – that in spite of this specification – mostly spoke Hungarian. From among the
members of the second generation many speak German at a native proficiency level as well as
Swabian and Hungarian. Speaking three languages, however, on equal proficiency levels is
not universal. People of Véménd and Csolnok use the language that is the best medium for
expressing thoughts and ideas. This utilitarian language use is for practical purposes because
the speaker is forced to change codes when he/she wants to appropriately express something
that is beyond the capacity of the Swabian dialect and the Hungarian vocabulary is needed. In
Dunabogdány the majority of the second generation does not consider Swabian as their native
language and even people of Swabian native language often speak Hungarian.
The language change is essentially finalized in the third generation. This is characteristic for
all the three settlements. Yet, changing languages does not involve a complete language loss.
Members of the third generation mark off Hungarian as their native language but they still
understand Swabian wherever grandparents are still available and their Swabian language use
is exclusively confined to speaking with them. This generation, however, cannot think in
Swabian any more. There are only a few among the primary school children who understand
Swabian well but they do not want to use it either. The primary socialization in Hungarian
within the family is reinforced by the secondary educational socialization also in Hungarian.
Whenever, besides the Hungarian native language socialization, proficiently acquiring the
minority native language was possible, it happened but frequent Swabian language use has
been made superfluous and impossible anyway by its diminishing function as a native
language. The Swabian language use became passive and was limited to listening to the
grandparents. The upcoming fourth generation is not passively bilingual any more.
The Swabian native language was of identity creating force only in the first and second
generations. The vernacular principle does not prevail in the case of the Swabian dialect and
the narrowing of its limited sphere of functions has been continuing. Lacking a language
standardization, codification, aspirations for establishing a standard language, pronunciation
norms, and a standard written version, Swabian has become inadequate to satisfy increased
communication needs. The German literary language is taught in primary and high schools
and intends to compensate for the missing language identity. In addition, there are initiatives
in Véménd to re-learn the dialect.
2.2.4 The cultural bases of identity
Assuming that ethnic identity is embedded in the past and is the script for the survival of a
group, traditions within the realm of cultural representations provide the area where survival
strategies can be best embraced. Due to its tradition-orientation and its embeddedness in the
past, ethnic culture is often identified with folklore and is considered static and conservative,
a repository of cultural archaisms and relics, although changing processes also impact ethnic
culture. Its diachronic dimension contains traditions which evoke the past in the collective
memory and its synchronous dimension is brought about in the representation of the
traditions.
The fundamental element of group identity is the relationship between the individual and the
characteristic cultural elements such as language, music, and dance: „The folklore – music,
dance, customs, and traditions – is a source, and probably the most important one, of the
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