If you ever wanted to know anything about the history of Slovak-Hungarian relations, just look at what they’re like now; the latest incarnation of the Slovak state language law is fairly indicative. Having spent the better part of the last thousand years under the tutelage of Hungarian control, it is nothing new for the Slovak government to use language policy as a means of asserting Slovak nationalism, in an attempt to consolidate the reversal of the historical ethnic power in the region. The Hungarian government looks on developments such as the various state language laws adopted by Slovakia as  acts of aggression towards their kin across the border. Thus, the Hungarian government has been quite active in the region, not quite able to forget its former imperial role, promoting and protecting cross-national Hungarian cultural and linguistic rights and generally getting itself into trouble for its efforts.

The 1995 Slovak language law, which was strongly rebuffed by the European Commission, was justified “with the argument that it was a remedy for historical grievances regarding the treatment of the Slovak language under Hungarian rule and it was described as the ‘finale of a battle of many years’.” Such a justification could easily be made in favour of the newest language law; for rather than serving as a progressive vehicle to protect minority language use as intrinsic to basic minority rights and to allow both majority and minority language speakers to access their government in their own language (as one would like to see of language policy), the 2009 language law seems a nationalistic jab at the countries minorities, a reminder of which side of the border they really live.

The law, due to come into effect on 1 September, formulates that, “[t]he Slovak language shall be the State language in the territory of the Slovak Republic” and gives Slovak a priority status over all other languages. But not only does it make Slovak the official lanuage of spoken and written communications, it also “applies not only to State and municipale authorities, including self-government bodies, but also to ‘legal persons, self-employed natual persons and private individiuals’.” Supposedly protecting Slovak from incorrect language use, it seems unlikely that the law is aimed at Czechs and their poor command of Slovak; rather, the language law seems to be an attempt to marginalise Hungarian speakers by limiting their language options and subordinate Hungarian to Slovak.

To me, it all seems unfortunately petty; rather than acknowledging reality for what it is and getting on with life as it really is, the Slovak government seems perfectly happy to dredge up historical grievances and dress them as contemporary national policy. The nexus between language and nation are the cornerstone of nation-building but can we not set aside these 19th century modes of thinking and see language for what it really is? Rather than seeing language use as a direct threat against the “nation”, would it not be more productive to see it as a tool for communication, a practical necessity? There are minorities in Slovakia: Hungarians, Roma, Ruthenians, Ukrainians. That isn’t going to change. So wouldn’t it be easier and more respectful of their rights as minorities and as human beings to allow them to communicate with, say, the government in the language in which they are most comfortable? It seems to me that by granting them this right, the Slovak government may be able to find a balance between majority and minority language concerns; no one ever won anyone over by disenfranchising them.