Oldal 92 [92]
OCR
CHAPTER 5 BACKGROUND INFORMATION to speak the language of their parents"??. It reinforces the notion that with every intergenerational cleft, the use of the Hungarian language reduces pointing gradually toward language death. A strong institutional background of ethnic communities usually fosters language maintenance efforts”**, but the prevalence of English in the traditional ethnic Hungarian institutions could not be hampered by Hungarian ethnic organizations. Since the very beginning, Hungarian-American communities have had their own ethnic institutions. The first Roman Catholic Church (St. Elizabeth) was built by Hungarians in Cleveland, Ohio in 1893?*’. The first two congregations of the Reformed Church were organized in 1891, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’. Churches, fraternal associations, Hungarian summer and Sunday schools, and clubs have supported the maintenance efforts of Hungarian-Americans. The Reformed Church particularly has been an “avid supporter of Hungarian language instruction”. Between the two world wars, churches in fiftysix cities offered Saturday or Sunday Hungarian language instruction and 68 churches conducted summer school classes”*°. Besides the church organizations, Hungarians also had their secular organizations. With a view to provide sickness benefits for their fellow Hungarians, the first and largest, the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association was founded in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, in 18867’. By the 1950s, this organization had lost its dominantly Hungarian character and was turned into the William Penn Insurance Association*’. Unlike Verhovay, the second largest secular organization, the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, founded in 1986 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was more successful in retaining its Hungarian character. It sponsored Hungarian school camps, books and educational materials”*. Early Hungarian settlers founded their own newspapers, of which two became dailies; Szabadsag founded in 1891, in Cleveland, Ohio and Amerikai Magyar Nepszava, in 1899, in New York City. At present, of the Hungarian community organizations, only churches and clubs function, with the former usually offering mixed language services. Hungarian language media services are also on the decline. In the present situation, only Hungarian newspapers of national distribution are available, and 235 Papp, Beszédből világ, 439 236 Bartha, Nyelvhasználat, nyelvmegtartás, nyelvcsere, 120 Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 116 Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 119 Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 120 Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 120 Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 123 Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 123 Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 124 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 * 90 ¢
