The Roots of Modern Hungarian Nationalism

The Hungarian proverb ‘A nyelvében él a nemzet’ (‘The nation lives in its language’) expresses the fact that the Hungarian language is the most prominent feature of modern Hungarian nationalism. Although this proverb has been documented only from the mid-nineteenth century, I will attempt to demonstrate in this chapter that the Hungarian language is one of the core features of early modern Hungarian nationhood as well. ¹ Native knowledge of the Hungarian language is a prerequisite for claiming Hungarian national and cultural identity. ² As a consequence, only native speakers of Hungarian are considered to be members of the Hungarian nation. Note that this presupposes an ethnie, an ethno-linguistic community in the sense of Anthony Smith. ³ This also implies that the ethno-linguistic community is an antecedent to the development of the modern Hungarian nation. Hence, language is one of the most important roots of modern Hungarian nationalism. If this implication is correct, the question arises regarding how Hungarian nationalism should be analysed within the different theoretical paradigms available in the scholarly literature.