Is Hungarian A Dying Language?

Currently around 2,900 of the world’s 7,000 languages are at risk of dying out. Is Hungarian one of them?

This post will cover if Hungarian is a dying language and how many people currently speak it.

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Is Hungarian A Dying Language?

No, while Hungarian is not a growing language, Hungarian is also not a dying language.

Languages can be considered endangered or dying out for many different reasons. I’ve summarised the main characteristics of a dying language below.

The language is not widely spoken
Other dominant languages are being spoken instead
Children are not learning the language

Hungarian doesn’t fit any of the above criteria of a dying language.

How Widely Spoken Is Hungarian?

There are currently roughly 13 million speakers of Hungarian, most of which live in Hungary.

There are also large Hungarian speaking minority communities in other countries including Romania and Serbia.

Hungarian is very widely spoken within Hungary, where it is an official language, with over 99% of the population knowing the language. Of these, 98.9% speak Hungarian as their first language.

Hungarian is actually the only official language in Hungary so it is used in the majority of settings including in government, at work, at school and at home.

It is also an official language of the European Union.

As Hungarian is very widely spoken within Hungary (almost everyone speaks it), there’s no risk here.

Are There Any Other Dominant Languages In Hungary?

This is a common reason why languages tend to die out.

Often another language may be spoken within a country and over time people start using it more and more and stop learning their mother tongue.

For example, in Hawaii very few Hawaiians speak Hawaiian, instead they speak English.

There are no other dominant languages used in Hungary.

Most people in Hungary don’t speak English, just 16% know English as a second language.

The second biggest foreign language after English is German, just 11.2% of the population speak German.

As the majority of the population in Hungary only speak Hungarian, the language is not at risk of being dominated by another language and dying out.

Are Children Learning The Language?

Another reason why languages often die out is that children grow up speaking another language and don’t learn their mother tongue.

Languages die out over time when they’re not passed on to the next generation.

In Hungary, children do grow up speaking Hungarian, it’s not just the older generation that speak it.

They are taught in Hungarian at school and grow up speaking Hungarian in the home. This means there’s no risk that the language will not be passed on to the next generation.

Considering all of the above, we can safely say Hungarian is not currently at risk of dying out.

The Future Of Hungarian

Even though we can conclude that Hungarian is not currently dying out, this doesn’t mean that the language is growing.

It is predicted that the numbers of Hungarian speakers will fall slightly in the coming years.

This is due to Hungary’s decreasing population.

In the last 30 years, Hungary’s population has decreased by 7.7% and is predicted to keep dropping over time.

Current projections show that the population could drop by around 29.6% by the end of 2099. We can expect speakers of Hungarian to drop by a similar amount.

How Can I Learn Hungarian?

Hungarian is not a dead language so it’s worth learning as there’s millions of people out there to practice with.

By learning Hungarian you would be able to communicate with 13 million people and enjoy their vibrant and interesting culture.

This can range from movies, TV shows, music, poetry, books and much more.

People consider Hungarian to be a hard language to learn but there are lots of great resources to make it easier.

My top recommendation for learning Hungarian is the Pimsleur Hungarian course. This fantastic audio course will get you speaking from day 1 and is great for absolute beginners.

This course is perfect for anyone who wants to focus on being able to speak the language (rather than just reading and writing).

You can try the first Pimsleur Hungarian lesson for free to see if you like it.

Another recommendation is Glossika which is a great resource for building up vocabulary and learning to speak the language fluently.

Glossika is better suited for people at a lower intermediate level rather than absolute beginners.

The best thing about Glossika is that they help you to acquire the language (rather than memorizing). It’s a fun, easy and effective way to learn Hungarian.

You can also get an introduction to the language by doing the Duolingo Hungarian course.

How Many People Speak Hungarian?

Hungarian currently has about 13 million native speakers around the world.

The majority of Hungarian speakers live in Hungary. There are approximately 9.8 million Hungarian speakers in Hungary. This makes up about 75% of all native speakers.

There are also several large minority communities who speak Hungarian in other countries.

The biggest of these minority groups lives in the Transylvania region of Romania. There are approximately 1.2 million Hungarian speakers in Transylvania.

This area was actually part of the Kingdom of Hungary before 1920 which is why there’s a big Hungarian population here.

Hungarian is actually a co-official language (alongside Romanian) in Transylvania.

Other minority communities that speak Hungarian:

Slovakia – 450,000
Serbia (mainly Vojvodina) – 240,000
Ukraine (mainly Zakarpattia) – 150,000
United States – 118,000
Canada – 75,000
Israel – 70,000
Austria (mainly Burgenland) – 22,000
Australia – 20,000
Croatia – 16,000
Slovenia (mainly Prekmurje) – 9,000

There are also other Hungarian speakers scattered throughout the rest of the world.

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If you’re interested in learning Hungarian then check out our Hungarian posts here.

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