Mother tongue and ethnicity as statistical indicators of interethnic relations: the case of Hungarians in Transylvania

Abstract

In most East Central European countries census data regarding ethnic affiliation are collected by two categories: mother tongue and ethnicity. As the census does not offer the possibility to declare multiple mother tongues or ethnicities, uncertain or multiple ethnic identities remain easily hidden in these databases. The main aim of the present study is to outline the relation and the correspondence between these two „statistical” categories and to reveal the spatial consequences of these differences. The study also tries to shed some light on the assimilation and dissimilation processes of the Hungarian population in the last hundred years.
The Romanian census data of 1930, 1966, 1992 and 2002 reveal that the extent and direction of deviation between the values of mother tongue and ethnicity show regional and temporal changes. Generally speaking, this phenomenon is caused by assimilation; its direction and extent is determined by the size and spatial concentration of the ethnic groups and by the actual national and local power structures. Both ethnically mixed marriages and the socialisation in the majority language (e.g. in schools) can be identified as factors fostering assimilation. In the case of the Hungarian population of Transylvania the spatial position seems to be the most important factor: Communities with well-balanced Hungarian ethnic identity can be found in those territories where more people indicated Hungarian mother tongue rather than Hungarian ethnicity, while areas with inverse values are characterised by a ‘diaspora’ identity.