A short presentation of the Bulgarian community in Halásztelek

Kuthy, Erika

Keywords: Bulgarian community, Halásztelek, ethnic composition, language usage

Among the minority communities living in Hungary, the Bulgarians are the smallest one. During the census of 1990, 5,000 people declared themselves to be of Bulgarian origin, 1,320 of whom gave Bulgarian as their mother tongue. 80 % of Hungarian Bulgarians acquire the language of their ancestors either as L1 or L2. In Hungary, Bulgarians live in 170 settlements: around Miskolc and Pécs as well as on Csepel-island. This paper aims to briefly present the Bulgarian community in Halásztelek.

Halásztelek can be found on Csepel-island 10 km away from the southern boundary of Budapest. The village has 7,500 inhabitants, 200 of them of Bulgarian origin. The village was established on 25th June 1945 on the Malonyay estate, but started to function as an independent village only from 1st March 1950. Twenty Bulgarian gardeners also took part in its foundation. The peculiarity of the Bulgarian community of Halásztelek is that all members of the community derive from two Bulgarian settlements: Polikraiste and Ljaskovec. They came to Hungary in several waves: in the 15th-16th centuries, then at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries. They keep in close contact with their relatives and friends living in Bulgaria and several trips are arranged to their home country every year. They regularly read different Bulgarian newspapers and books. They are not a closed community any more and they make mixed marriages. 80-85 % of the families try to make their children and the non-Bulgarian partner in the marriage study the Bulgarian language. In the 1980s Saturday schools were organised and run, where anyone could learn Bulgarian. Most of their children study at the 12-class Bulgarian School of Budapest. 100 % of the members of the Bulgarian minority of Budapest can also speak Hungarian besides Bulgarian. Their choice of the language depends on the situation: the language knowledge of their partner in speech and the informal or formal nature of the situation may also influence this.

At the end of my paper I also publish a questionnaire concentrating on the use of language, completed not by the bulk of the society, but rather by a representative group, the results of which will also be included in the study in the form of data.