A miraculous Hungarian-speaking village in Constanta

Costanta in Romania is more than 1,000 kilometers away from Budapest. Still, here the miraculous Hungarian-speaking village can be found. It is the most southerly European and the most easterly Hungarian-speaking village, as reported by Vujity Tvrtko. The small village of around 500 people can be found on the coast of the Black Sea, where no one would believe that the Hungarian language is spoken. Let’s figure out more about the incredible little village and its inhabitants! 

The history of the Hungarian-speaking village

The Hungarian village, called Oituz, is just a few kilometers north from Constanta. It is incredible that all of the inhabitants moved here from Moldavia and they still preserve the Hungarian language. They are called the Csángó Hungarians, a Hungarian ethnographic group of Roman Catholic faith coming from Romania. Most of them emigrated to Constanta after World War I to which the Csángó refer to as “the 1st Great Battle”.

During the World War, many of them fought in Oituz, Marasasti and Marathi, after which the Romanian ruler, king Ferdinand gave them the territory on the coast of the Black Sea.

Many people moved from Moldavia because of the lack of food and problems regarding employment. Whole families left the country on chariots with their livestock in the hope for a better future.

Initially, three men built up the 1st house there, then they were followed by 60 other migrants. Between the two World Wars, the size of the Csángó-Hungarian community increased significantly in the village, and from that time on, it was their cherished home where they made the dry land fertile and appropriate for agricultural activity.

What characterizes the Csángó language?

• Living far away from the Hungarian majority, the Csángó-Hungarians on the coast of the Black Sea speak the Hungarian language in its Medieval form with its characteristics present before the language reforms.
• They use the language at home and also among each other. The majority of them have never been to Hungary before, so the knowledge of the language comes from their ancestors settling down in Oituz.