Oldal 91 [91]
HUNGARIAN-ÁMERICAN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES
use of Hungarian significantly declined in the second generation outside the
boundaries of the family*!. First-generation community leaders realized that
the exclusive use of Hungarian would prompt fewer second generation speakers
to take part and an interest in Hungarian communal life, so threatened by
the potential loss of Hungarian culture in the successive generations, they
tried to meet the new linguistic and social needs of the second generation.
That is why the traditional Hungarian community organization, the Verhovay
Fraternal Insurance Association, established its first English speaking branch
in Cleveland, Ohio in 1934???,
World War II and the immediate post-war period further weakened the
position of the Hungarian language among second-generation Hungarian¬
Americans but strengthened their American loyalty and identity”** accelerating
the process of language shift.
The decline of the Hungarian language, in the macro-social domains such
as work, administration, etc., and in the peer communities such as school
continued. Even though second-generation speakers learned Hungarian at
home, they had a limited Hungarian competence, particularly, in terms of
their Hungarian vocabulary which was confined to the household and other
everyday activities.
This tendency was infused by a redefined function of Hungarian within the
family. Second-generation speakers start to use Hungarian less often at home,
and almost exclusively English in their peer communities. The ‘reciprocal’ type
of communication, that is, children responding in English to their parents’
Hungarian***, becomes prevalent especially when second-generation speakers
start school and become more exposed to peer pressure.
We have seen that it is the second generation where the use of Hungarian
significantly changes. In the Hungarian-American communities, we can see
an accelerating process of shifting from Hungarian to English. The main and
almost exclusive domain where Hungarian is used is within the family, and
mostly with the parents, though children respond in English to their parents’
Hungarian.
Today, 88.3% of the people professed to be of Hungarian-American ancestry
(US Census Bureau 2000) use only English at home. As Papp has pointed out
based on his comprehensive sociological research conducted among present¬
day Hungarian-Americans, “the younger generations are increasingly unlikely
#1 Fishman, Hungarian Language Maintenance in the US, 10
232 Puskas, Ties that Bind, Ties that Divide, 243
233 Fishman, Hungarian Language Maintenance in the US, 12; Papp, Hungarian Americans and
Their Communities of Cleveland, 135; Puskas, Ties that Bind, Ties that Divide, 254
334 Kontra, Fejezetek a South Bend-i magyar nyelvhaszndlatbol, 27
+ 89 «