Hungarian dialects

Hungarian has ten dialects. These are fully mutually intelligible, and do not differ significantly from standard Hungarian except for the Csángó dialect. They are mostly distinguished by pronunciation; although there are differences in vocabulary, these are usually small and do not hinder intelligibility. Due to increased internal migration and urbanization during the 20th century, most of the characteristics of the different dialects can only be observed in smaller towns and villages, and even there mostly among the elderly; the population of the larger cities and especially the capital has been mixed for generations and the dialectal differences have been lost. A notable exception is the Western Transdanubian pronunciation, which is distinctly noticeable even in Szombathely, the largest city in the region.

The following dialectical regions are currently distinguished by researchers:

1. Western Transdanubian
2. Central Transdanubian – Little Hungarian Plain
3. Southern Transdanubian
4. Southern Great Plain (+Tisza–Körös)
5. Palóc
6. Northeastern
7. Transylvanian Plain (Mezőség)
8. Székely
9. Moldavian (Csángó)

The last three are spoken outside the current territory of Hungary, in parts of Romania. The Csángó dialect is spoken primarily in Bacău County in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from other Hungarian people, and they therefore preserved a dialect closely resembling an earlier form of Hungarian.

A former classification distinguished the following dialects: Great Hungarian Plain, West Danube, Danube-Tisza (territories between the two rivers), King's Pass Hungarian (Pass in Apuseni Mountains), Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian, Székely, West Hungarian and Csángó. This classification was also used by Ethnologue, with the exception of the Csángó dialect, which was mentioned but not listed separately.

In addition there are seven dialects of Hungarian Sign Language.