Slavonic and East European Review

Abstract:

The article investigates patterns of written language choice in majority Romanian and German rural local governments in the eastern third of Dualist Hungary. In spite of the recognition that the Nationalities Act of 1868 accorded to the citizenry's linguistic diversity, the political establishment soon embarked on typical nation-state linguistic policies. It failed, however, to make new generations learn Hungarian. The central government promoted the use of Hungarian by incentivizing village secretaries, the only career bureaucrats in local governments. The article brings to the fore the tension between the push of a Hungarian-only ideology and the rapid spread of mother-tongue literacy.