Hungarian is a member of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family, which also includes Finnish and Estonian. Since the 13th century A.D., the language has been written using a modified Latin alphabet. Hungarian, or Magyar, is a Uralic language, meaning it belongs to a distinct language family unrelated to most European languages. It is primarily spoken in Hungary but also in parts of neighboring countries. Its origins trace back to the Ural Mountains in what is now western Siberia, where the Uralic-speaking peoples first lived. Over time, the ancestors of modern Hungarians migrated westward, arriving in the Carpathian Basin around the 9th century. As they settled, the language began to evolve separately from other Uralic languages, influenced by interactions with neighboring Indo-European languages like Turkish, Slavic, and Germanic languages, which played a significant role in shaping its vocabulary and grammar.

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The development of written Hungarian began around the 11th century, with the earliest texts appearing in the Latin alphabet after the Christianization of Hungary. In the 16th century, with the introduction of printing, the orthography of this language stabilized. Despite political and cultural shifts over the centuries, including Ottoman occupation and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Hungarian language has maintained a strong national identity. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a language reform movement aimed at modernizing Hungarian and purging foreign elements, which helped standardize the language. Today, Hungarian remains a unique and vital language, largely unchanged despite its historical influences, and serves as a cornerstone of Hungarian national identity and culture.

 

This language is spoken primarily in Hungary; however, you can find speaker groups in Slovakia, Romania, and beyond. ​​