Study Hungarian Abroad

There are 13 million Hungarian speakers, this is largely due to the Treaty of Trianon which reduced Hungary's borders in 1920 and created a number of Hungarian speaking communities in Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine.

Studying Hungarian is an incredibly unique experience. The origins and history of Hungarian are somewhat contested though most believe that it began as a language in 1,000 BCE when the ancestral tribe of Hungary broke apart from similar groups and settled the area west of the Ural Mountains.

In 896 Hungarians conquered what is present-day Hungary and its surrounding areas. While they lived as raiders for some time, by 1000 the Christian Kingdom of Hungary was created led by Stephen the 1st. This lead to the introduction of Latin as the country's official language and the adaptation of Hungarian to the Latin alphabet.

Over the next 500 years, Hungarian became used more and more prominently. In 1533 the first Hungarian book was published, a translation of the letter of Saint Paul. During the 18th century there was a major reform of Hungarian that lead to the creation of over ten thousand words and by 1844 Hungarian became the country's official language.

Learn Hungarian in:

Hungary