General information about the official language in Hungary

In the Carpathian basin, approximately 15 million people speak Hungarian not only in Hungary but also in our neighbouring countries, such as in Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, and Ukraine. Obviously, Hungarian speakers can be found in much further parts of the world as well, for instance, in Israel or America. In my home country, the single official language is Hungarian.

Dialects

As for our dialects, several different types can be perceived in my country: Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern, which are regionally used in Hungary depending on the geographical area where people come from. The dialects can be observed, however, significant differences cannot be found when it comes to language comprehension, only slight alterations in articulating diverse sounds. For example, in the case of Southern dialect, people tend to pronounce “ö” instead of “e” more times, and people originating from Csongrád county tend to use the language this way even at school or work. As far as I know, grammar-based differences cannot be found in the case of dialects, only pronunciation and vocabulary differences. In the mass media, however, with no exception, only the official Hungarian can be heard perpetually used by correspondents, announcers, reporters, and broadcasters.

Dialect-related stereotypes

It might sound as a discriminative stereotype, but when it comes to hearing a dialect, people from the capital may consider that the dialect user has a lower status both from educational and financial point of view. It may seem as a cliché or a platitude, but dialects are not really associated with higher educational background. People stemming from different social classes may speak differently, however, not necessarily from dialect point of view but from style. There is a grain of truth that lower classes may use more swear words or less refined, less sophisticated expressions than those who have a higher status, but of course, it is not always the case, and it sometimes has nothing to do with the class of the person but the emotional intelligence h/she may have.

Source of the Task: New Progress to Proficiency, page 52, task 1 C (340 words)