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THE NC HUNGARIAN CLUB
G2 speakers have a more positive attitude to cherishing the heritage language
and traditions, mostly for the use of sself-identification?".
The largest segment of G1 (36%) speakers claim that cherishing the
Hungarian language and traditions is not important for instrumental reasons,
that is “Hungarian can only be used in Hungary” (Statement A).
The lack of Hungarian’s integrative value (Statement E “I would want them
to be fully integrated in the American society.”) is ranked as the second most
important argument against cherishing it in the Gl group (28%). However,
in the G2 group, it is ranked equally (3%) with statements reflecting the
language as identity (Statement B “One does not need to speak Hungarian
to be Hungarian.”) and the pragmatic-instrumental dimension (Statement D
“Sooner or later English will replace small languages such as Hungarian.”) of
the Hungarian language.
Interestingly, while no G2 subject has agreed with statement C (“Hungarian
would only interfere with their ability to acquire English perfectly.”) highlighting
the conflicting interrelation between Hungarian and English languages, one
Gl respondent has. It provides slight evidence of previous findings that G2
respondents, unlike Gl respondents, are less likely to consider Hungarian to be
in conflict with English but rather to be in a complementary relation with it?**.
Attitudes to being a Hungarian-American
The final attitude-related question is of synthesizing nature and inquires
about the overtly expressed attitude of the subjects to being a Hungarian¬
American. Subjects have been asked to finish the sentence “Being a Hungarian¬
American” in such a way that they feel the most appropriately describes this.
No set responses have been provided. Therefore, the responses given are of
qualitative nature. However, relying on the underlying content of the responses
given by the subjects, they have been classified into four groups. Responses
reflecting an overwhelmingly negative feeling have been given the value of 1,
responses expressing that being a Hungarian-American is better than being
a Hungarian-Hungarian has been given the value of 2, the ambivalent feeling
has been quantified as 3, and the overwhelmingly positive feeling attached to
being a Hungarian-American has been quantified as 4.
87 Yagmur — Akinci, Language use, choice, maintenance, International Journal of the Sociology
of Language, 126
288 Canagarajah, Language shift and the family, Journal of Sociolinguistics, 156
* 141 +