Hungary's founding fathers, so it's said

Hungarians have their origin in Asia, not Europe.

 

The story goes that nomadic tribes from central Asia, having fought their way around much of Europe, decided to settle in what is now Hungary, as its flat landscape reminded them of the steppes of their Asian homeland.

 

There were seven tribes, and they are represented in the 7 figures around the base of this statue in Heroes' Square in Budapest.

 

We are talking about the ninth century, so how much of this is historical fact, and how much is mythmaking by nationalists from a later era, is inevitably uncertain.

 

But definite evidence of Hungary's uniqueness compared to its neighbours comes from its language.

 

Hungarian is not part of the Indo-European family of languages, which includes virtually all European languages and some from Asia. It is very distantly related only to Finnish and Estonian.

 

This suggests a different origin for the people living in what is now Hungary, compared to all the Slavic peoples and languages surrounding them.

 

 

 

 

Done