Multilingualism in the Hungarian Kingdom (1867-1918) Nature, Legal Basis and Practice

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 established the dual monarchy that put the Hungarian Kingdom on an equal footing with the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian double monarchy. In addition to a shared monarch from the House of Habsburg who carried the title “Emperor” in Austria and “King” in Hungary, there were three shared ministries that remained in place until the end of the monarchy in 1918: the ministry for foreign affairs; the ministry of finance; and the ministry of defence. In Transleithania, Hungarian, as the language of the dominant ethno-linguistic group, was promoted to the status of an official language for communication. The other 14 languages that were officially recognized could be used at lower levels of government. Nonetheless, multilingualism remained “separatist” and strengthened the ethno-linguistic building blocks in society. This paper investigates the separatist structure in the context of the educational system and demonstrates the extent to which it had a limiting effect on the frequency of multilingualism.