Hungary in brief

Hungarian Studies at SSEES | Hungarian Language | More about Hungary

The first Hungarians, under their leader Árpád, reached the Danube basin in the ninth century, after at least half a millennium spent moving steadily westwards from the Urals, some of the time in symbiotic cohabitation with Turkic tribes. An early report from Byzantium notes that the "tourkoi speak two languages" and in one of them "they address their leader as ourum" i.e uram "my lord".

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Some interesting facts and figures

Apart from the special case of the Roma, Hungarians form the largest ethnic and linguistic minority, about 3 million, in Europe (excluding the Russian Federation)

Hungary's Parliament on the Danube was modelled on the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. And the oldest bridge across the Danube in Budapest, the Chain Bridge, is recognisably modelled on the bridges across the Thames at Hammersmith and at Marlow: the same builders under Adam Clark were responsible for all three.

So many of the scientists who designed the atom bomb under Edward (Ede) Teller in the USA were from Hungary that it is said their meetings in California were often conducted in Hungarian.

The ball-point pen was invented by a Hungarian émigré, László Bíró - hence the term biro. Other internationally-used words of Hungarian origin include English coachand, of course, goulash.

Links relating to Hungary

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary
Hungarian Government Portal: www.magyarorszag.hu/english
Yahoo Search Directory: dir.yahoo.com/Regional/countries/hungary
SSEES Internet Resources on Hungary

This page last modified Thursday 16 December 2010.

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