Magyarország is the official name of Hungary. The landlocked state is located in Central Europe and is surrounded by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.
Hungary was founded by the Magyar tribes in the late 9th century. In its present form, the Republic of Hungary has existed since its independence from the Soviet Union at the end of the 20th century.
The country, which is since 2004 part of the European Union, has about 10 million inhabitants, spread over an territory of 93,030 square kilometers. This corresponds approximately to the size of Portugal or Jordan.
The traditional Hungarian cuisine is based on the rural cuisine of the country people and the cuisine of the Hungarian aristocracy.
Goulash is one of the most popular Hungarian dishes. The origins of the Hungarian court go back to shepherds.
There are different variants. Gulyásleves (gulyás = shepherd, leves = soup) is a goulash soup made of meat (traditional beef), vegetables, paprika powder and other spices. Bográcsgulyás is cooked in a kettle over an open fire and is usually cooked in larger groups, such as the Hungarian form of “Barbecue”.
Pörkölt contains the same ingredients as Gulyásleves, but is cooked down more and therefore has a thicker consistency. This dish is usually what you get when you order goulash outside Hungary.
The Hungarian language belongs to the Ugrian branch of the Finno-Ugric languages within the Uralic language family. Finno-Ugric languages include Finnish and Estonian.
This is very unusual for a European country as most languages belong to the Indo-European language family.
Since Hungary’s accession to the EU, it has become one of the official 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, where the highest number of speakers is found, most speakers of the Hungarian language are in the neighbouring Romania and Slovakia. However, there are also a large number of Hungarian-speaking emigrants in North America, especially Canada.
Hungary also differs from large parts of Europe when it comes to naming its inhabitants. In Hungary, as in Japan or Korea, the eastern name order is used, i.e. the last name is followed by the given name. The common surname is Nagy, which can be translated to big or great.
In the top 20 surnames, which are shared by 21% of Hungary’s population, there are also Hungarian forms of occupational names, which can be also found in other countries. Some examples are Kovács (blacksmith/smith), Szabó (tailor) and Molnár (Miller).
