The Moldavian Csángós: the Hungarian speaking linguistic minority in North-Eastern Romania

Abstract

The Moldavian Csángó are a group of Roman Catholics in Northeastern Romania, ca. 48,000 of whom are bilingual in Romanian and a variety of Hungarian, the "Csángó way of speaking". We describe the history, language repertoires as well as language ideologies and practices of this contested minority. We then investigate processes of change brought about by the Csángó Educational Program, a venture begun in 2001. The teaching of Hungarian has the potential to bring a significant change in the lives, language practices, and ideologies of the Csángó. There is a place for the teaching of standard Hungarian in the Educational Program with the goal of preparing Moldavian children for Hungarian medium education elsewhere. At the same time, the Csángó modes of speaking should be respected in education in order to find Moldavian parents, who would be committed to revitalizing Hungarian in Moldavia by using it with their children, thus ensuring a future for Csángó and Hungarian in Moldavia.

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