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

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Published/Copyright: June 6, 2011
International Journal of the Sociology of Language
From the journal Volume 2011 Issue 209

Abstract

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.

Keywords:: Hungarians in Finland; Finno-Ugric languages; linguistic affinity; attitudes towards related languages; top-down language emancipation
Published Online: 2011-06-06
Published in Print: 2011-May

© 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Introduction: defining language emancipation
  2. From Swedish to Finnish in the 19th century: a historical case of emancipatory language shift
  3. Reclaiming Sámi languages: indigenous language emancipation from East to West
  4. The birth of the Kven language in Norway: emancipation through state recognition
  5. Embracing Hungarian: top-down emancipation of an immigrant language in Finland
  6. Reassessing Gallo as a regional language in France: language emancipation vs. monolingual language ideology
  7. National languages in education in Guinea-Conakry: re-emancipation in progress?
  8. Coda: linguistic emancipation
  9. When support for language revitilization is not enough: the end of indigenous language classes at Warm Springs Elementary School
https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2011.022
Keywords for this article
Hungarians in Finland; Finno-Ugric languages; linguistic affinity; attitudes towards related languages; top-down language emancipation

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Introduction: defining language emancipation
  2. From Swedish to Finnish in the 19th century: a historical case of emancipatory language shift
  3. Reclaiming Sámi languages: indigenous language emancipation from East to West
  4. The birth of the Kven language in Norway: emancipation through state recognition
  5. Embracing Hungarian: top-down emancipation of an immigrant language in Finland
  6. Reassessing Gallo as a regional language in France: language emancipation vs. monolingual language ideology
  7. National languages in education in Guinea-Conakry: re-emancipation in progress?
  8. Coda: linguistic emancipation
  9. When support for language revitilization is not enough: the end of indigenous language classes at Warm Springs Elementary School
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