Penn Language Center

Hungarian (Magyar) is an official language of Hungary, spoken by 10.5 million people (98% of the population). Substantial populations of speakers are also found in adjacent countries: Romania (2 million); the Czech and Slovak Republics (600,000); the former Yugoslavia (450,000); Ukraine (170,000); and Israel (150,000). A significant number of speakers live in the US (450,000) and smaller populations--under 20 thousand--live in Slovenia, Canada, and Austria.

Hungarian is a Finno- Uralic language surrounded by Indo-European languages. The original Hungarians moved westward into Europe from their homeland east of the Ural Mountains, reaching their present settlement area in the Danube basin, west of the Carpathian Mountains, in the ninth century. It is estimated that the Hungarian language has been separated from its nearest linguistic relatives, Mansi and Khanty, for about 2,500 or 3,000 years.  Hungarian uses Latin script, and its first literary sources date back to 1200.

Source: UCLA Language Materials Project Language Profiles