The Roots of Modern Hungarian Nationalism: A Case Study and a Research Agenda

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