The present and future of Hungarian regional dialects in Slovakia

Abstract

This paper focuses on characterizing the present day situation of Slovakia Hungarian dialects and on outlining strategy for the future based on the status quo. After a brief overview of the dialect regions and their subregions, the present situation of Slovakia Hungarian dialects is described. The situation of the dialects is dependent on their linguistic features, their distance from the standard, as well as on extralinguistic (demographic, geographic, social, economic, educational, cultural, and settlements structural) factors. The present situation of the Slovakia Hungarian dialects is discussed, along with their changes, functions, and attitudes attached to them. The paper concludes that the differences are greater between the Slovakia Hungarian vs. Hungary Hungarian dialects than among the various Slovakia Hungarian dialects.