THE STUDY OF THE HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE USE IN SLOVAK SECONDARY SCHOOLS

The variety of Hungarian spoken in Slovakia is widely used in elevated functions, since it is the language of culture, and several areas of education [Lanstyak 1996; Senkar 2019; Toth 2019; Nemeth 2020; Vanco 2020] despite the fact that the curricula are based on the Hungary Hungarian standard [Kozmacs-Vanco 2016]. Istvan Lanstyak conducted a study in 2000 to explore the differences between the use of the Hungarian language in Slovakia and Hungary. The aim of the present paper is to examine how language use in Slovakia and Hungary has changed over the past two decades: it updates the previous data and investigates to what extent Hungarian language use has changed and what the reasons for these changes are. Empirical data were collected using a questionnaire. In order to provide data comparable to earlier findings, it was put together based on a previous questionnaire by Istvan Lanstyak and Gizella Szabomihaly [1997], which they compiled at the end of the 1990's to collect the linguistic data they later analyzed in a monograph entitled A magyar nyelv Szlovakiaban ('The Hungarian language in Slovakia') [Lanstyak 2000]. This original questionnaire was revised and updated according to the cultural and communicational changes which have taken place since then.