Hungarians

Hungarians’ autonym is ‘magyar’. The Hungarian Republic is located in Central Europe, neighbouring with Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine and Austria.

Population

Hungarians are the largest Finno-Ugric people in terms of population – 14.5 million. The capital of Hungary is Budapest. Approximately 3.5 million Hungarians live as ethnic minorities in the neighbouring countries (Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Servia, Croatia, etc.).

Language

First records of the Hungarian language date from the 9^th and 10^th centuries in Byzantine sources. The “grave speech” from approximately 1200 is the oldest Hungarian and also Finno-Ugric written text. Hungarian written language began developing in the 16^th century. Its vocabulary includes, besides the Finno-Ugric layer, loans from former Turkic tribes speaking Bulgar language, Slavic languages, Turkish language and others.
Closest related languages to Hungarian within the Uralic language family are Khanty and Mansi languages. This explains why Khanty-Mansi lands have commanded main interest of Hungarians.