The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe

by Leon Dominian

[CHAPTER VIII]
THE LANDS OF HUNGARIAN AND RUMANIAN LANGUAGES

The presence in Europe of Hungarians, a race bearing strong linguistic and physical affinity to Turki tribesmen, is perhaps best explained by the prolific harvests yielded by the broad valleys of the Danube and Theiss. Huns, Avars and Magyars, one and all Asiatics wandering into Europe, were induced to abandon nomadism by the fertility of the boundless Alföld. Western influences took solid root among these descendants of eastern ancestors after their conversion to Christianity and the adoption of the Latin alphabet. So strongly did they become permeated by the spirit of occidental civilization, that the menace of absorption by the Turks was rendered abortive whenever the Sultan’s hordes made successful advances towards Vienna. At the same time, fusion with the Germans was prevented by the oriental origin of the race. The foundation of a separate European nation was thus laid in the Hungarian plains.

Language to the Magyar has always represented nationality. When in 1527 St. Stephen’s crown was offered to Ferdinand of Austria in order to strengthen Hungary’s resistance against the Turk, the new ruler pledged himself not to destroy this sacred token of Hungarian political independence. “Nationem et linguam vestram servare non perdere intendimus” was his solemn promise. The germ of a dual form of government was thus created in the presence of the Sultan’s barbarous hordes, but Hungary always preserved its individuality, for at no time did the kingdom form part of the Holy Roman Empire. Closer union with Austria towards the end of the seventeenth century when the right of succession to the Hungarian throne became hereditary in the Hapsburg family, failed to Germanize the land during all the eighteenth century. Later, up to 1867, the persistent struggle of the Magyar against the Austrian was kept up. Attempts to replace German by Hungarian in the governing bodies of counties and municipalities were merely the outward expression of the contest.

When, in 1825, the Hungarian Academy of Science was founded by a group of patriotic leaders, the movement was little more than an attempt to revive the Magyar tongue. Count Stephen Széchenyi’s words on this occasion betray the consciousness of the intimate relation between language and nationality which is felt in every country during periods of actual danger. “I am not here,” he said, “as a great dignitary of the kingdom; but I am an opulent landowner, and if an institution be established that will develop the Magyar language and, by so doing, advance the national education of our countrymen, I will sacrifice the revenues of my estates for one year.” The impetus given by this statesman, and a few equally earnest compatriots, to the cultivation of national literature in Hungary became a potent factor in the shaping of the country’s modern political destiny. It liberated the Magyar from the Germanizing influences of Austrian rule and ultimately paved the way to the establishment of a dual government in the Empire.

The linguistic boundary between Hungarian and German is found in the eastern extremity of the Austrian Alps. The southern side of the valley of the Danube between Pressburg and Raab is German. Magyar spreads however to the north to meet the Slovak area. South of Pressburg the shores of Lake Neusiedler are included in the German area. The line then crosses the upper valley of the Raab and attains the Drave, which forms the linguistic boundary between Croatian and Hungarian. East of the Theiss, contact with the Rumanian of Transylvania begins in the vicinity of Arad, on the Maros river, and extends northward in an irregular line, hugging the western outliers of the Transylvanian Alps and attaining the sources of the Theiss. In the northeastern valley of this river, Hungarian and Ruthenian languages replace each other. The area of Magyar speech thus defined lacks homogeneity in its western section lying west of the Danube. Important enclaves of Germans are solidly intrenched in this portion of the Hungarian domain. The central portion of the monotonous expanse unfolding itself between the Danube and the Theiss is, on the other hand, characterized by uniformity of the Hungarian population it supports. Enclaves however exist all along the border of this eastern area.

Hungarian nationality asserted itself definitely in the nineteenth century in the face of strenuous effort on the part of Germans to assimilate the Magyars. The latter took advantage of the defeat of the Austrians at Sadowa in 1867 to reach a compromise with their masters. The Hapsburg Empire was then converted into a Dual Monarchy. For a time the economic advantages of this union lay entirely with Austria. The Hungarian plain, vast and fecund, bestowed the wealth of its fertility on Austria. A land of farmers it also became an important market for the industrial output of its German partner-state. This economic relation was maintained until the beginning of the twentieth century, when Hungary made rapid progress in industry and forced Austria to seek Balkan markets for the disposal of its manufactured goods.

Austria’s unsuccessful attempt to dominate Hungary’s economic life accelerated the growth of the germ of dissension between the two countries. The tie that links Budapest to Vienna, at present, is strengthened by Hungarian dread of the Slav. It might have given way long ago otherwise, for in truth Hungary has to face the menace of Pan-Germanism as well. The percentage of native Hungarians in their own country is under 55 per cent and gives them a bare majority over the combined alien peoples.[157] The number of Germans scattered in Hungarian districts is 2,000,000. The only advantage which the natives of the soil possess lies in their occupation of the richest lands in their country.

A minor group of Hungarians have settled on the eastern edge of the Transylvania mountains. Here they live surrounded by Rumanians on all sides except on the west where a lone outpost of Saxons brings Teutonic customs and speech to the east. The name of Szekler, meaning frontier guardsmen, applied to this body of Magyars is indicative of their origin. Their presence on the heights overlooking the Rumanian plain bespeaks the desire of Hungarian sovereigns to control the site of a natural rampart dominating their plains. At the end of the thirteenth century this Hungarian colony was in full development. Its soldiers distinguished themselves during the period of war with the Turks. Prestige acquired on battlefields strengthened the separate and semi-independent existence of the community. The region occupied by these Hungarians is situated along the easternmost border of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. It extends west of the uninhabited mountain-frontier district between Tölgyes Pass and Crasna. The towns of Schässburg and Maros Vasarhely lie on its western border. But the area of Rumanian speech situated between the land of the Szekler and the main Hungarian district is studded with numerous colonies of Magyars, thereby rendering delimitation of a linguistic boundary in the region almost impossible.