Mehrsprachigkeit und Sprachenzwang in Oberungarn und Siebenbürgen 1867-1914. Eine statistische Untersuchung
Multilingualism and enforcement of language in Upper Hungary and Transylvania 1867-1914. A statistical examination

Summary/Abstract: The fast increase in persons who declared hungarian as their mother tongue in the period of the austro-hungarian compromise (Ausgleich) has been often interpreted as effect of school-politics. The present article tries to interprete statistical data from a different perspective: not only the increase in the amount of speakers of hungarian as mother tongue is analysed, but also the pattern of diffusion of other languages in different milieus in two multilinguistig regions of the Habsburg monarchy: Transylvania and Upper Hungary (today Slovakia). The majority of the rural population around 1880 was able to speak only one language. Especially among romanians and slvovaks, there existed closed linguistic milieus, whereas the german population had a relatively better knowledge of a second language. German as a second language was better known in Upper Hungary than in Transylvania. In Transylvania, the konwledge of the language of the majority (romanian) was better than in Upper Hungary (slovak). In Transylvania, the daily needs to communicate dominated the knowledge of a second language, whereas in Upper Hungary, social mobility was the main motivation for the choice of the second language. Between 1880 and 1910, there can be observed a growth in multilingualism, especially through better knowledge of hungarian. In Upper Hungary, acquisition of knowledge in hungarian led to a decline in the importance of german and slovak as common language, whereas in Transylvania, this phenomenen led much rarer to a linguistic assimilation. As it is demonstrated in some examples, there can be distinguished many variations in the general patterns on the local level. As a general conclusion, it can be sayed that the knowledge of hungarian grew much faster in Upper Hungary that in Transylvania, and the traditional monoliguistic milieus disappeared, for the exception of hungarian milieus. In Transylvania, the konwledge of hungarian grew as a second language, it was used more as a common language and did not lead to assimilation. On the bases of statistical evidences, it can be shown that a state-induced enforcement of language alone can not change language patterns. The analyses should be completed in the future with other types of sources, as statistical materials cause methodological problems. The contribution contains an appendix with tables showing the languages in the counties of Upper Hungary and Transylvania in the years 1880 and 1910.

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