Greeks in Anatolia

[SeleucusNicator]

Like Winner, I am puzzled by why the Bulgars speak a Slavic language but the Magyars do not. This is nowhere near as shocking to me as the fact that the descendants of Anatolian Greeks speak Turkish, as the Turks built a very strong and prestigious state that lasted for hundreds of years and created strong incentives for assimilation.

Also, Hungary is a good counter-example for the popular new theory that language adoption is determined in large part by agricultural technology.

 

[Winner]

Also, Hungary is a good counter-example for the popular new theory that language adoption is determined in large part by agricultural technology.

About that - AFAIK about 10% of Magyar words have Slavic origin, and most of these words are related to agriculture.

My personal guess is that Pannonia was too diverse to offer any effective "cultural resistance" to Maygarization. There were Slavs, yes, but the whole plain was full of various descendants of the previous nomadic invaders (Huns, Avars...). Maybe the population density wasn't high enough, so when the Magyars settled there, they were not just a tiny minority in an ocean of Slavs, but a very large minority. This allowed them to assimilate the diverse population of Pannonia, whereas the population of present-day Slovakia remained mostly Slavic.

 

[Mirc]

About that - AFAIK about 10% of Magyar words have Slavic origin, and most of these words are related to agriculture.

As a counter example to that however, about 10% of the Romanian words have a Slavic origin, and they as a rule are not related at all to agriculture.

 

[Winner]

As a counter example to that however, about 10% of the Romanian words have a Slavic origin, and they as a rule are not related at all to agriculture.

Makes sense, doesn't it? Romanians were already there when the Slavs arrived, they didn't have to adopt Slavic words for agriculture-related activites, they had their own. Magyars, on the other hand, were nomadic herdsmen, so they simply adopted words used for their peasant Slavic subjects.

 

[Mirc]

Makes sense, doesn't it? Romanians were already there when the Slavs arrived, they didn't have to adopt Slavic words for agriculture-related activites, they had their own. Magyars, on the other hand, were nomadic herdsmen, so they simply adopted words used for their peasant Slavic subjects.

Yes, it does actually make sense.