Румыниядағы венгр этнографиялық тобы Rumıniyadagı vengr etnografıyalık toby

Hungarian ethnographic group in the Romanian region of Moldavia

72,215 82,215 (total)
| popplace = Romania (mostly Moldavia, especially Csángó Land), Hungary (Tolna)
| langs = Romanian (most ethnic Csángós are monolingual Romanian speakers) and Csángó, a dialect of Hungarian and in the village of Oituz in Northern Dobruja.

It has been suggested that the name Csángó is the present participle of a Hungarian verb csángál meaning ; purportedly a reference to sibilation, in the pronunciation of some Hungarian consonants by Csángó people. Alternative explanations include the Hungarian word elcsángált, meaning , or the phrase csángatta a harangot
The Finnish researcher Yrjö Wichmann believed that probably the name of ceangău (csángó) did not come from a certain Hungarian tribe, but they were called those Transylvanian Szeklers who moved away from their comrades and settled in areas inhabited by Romanians, where they were, both materially and ideologically influenced by them and even Romanized to a certain level. Ion Podea in the "Monograph of Brașov County" of 1938 mentioned that the ethnonym derives from the verb csángodni or ecsángodni and means This was used by the Szeklers in the case of other Romanized Szeklers from the Ciuc area. In some Hungarian dialects (the one from Transylvanian Plain and the Upper Tisza) csángó, cángó means In connection with this etymological interpretation, the linguist Szilágyi N. Sándor [hu] made an analogy between the verb "to wander" with the ethnonyms "kabars" and "khazars", which means the same thing. According to the "Dictionary of the Hungarian Language", 1862; The etymological dictionary of the Hungarian language , Budapest 1967; The historical dictionary of the Hungarian lexicon from Transylvania , Bucharest, 1978; The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language , Hungarian Academy Publishing House, Budapest, 1972; The new dictionary of regionalisms , Hungarian Academy Publishing House, Budapest, 1979, the terms csangó, csángó are translated in ,
The historian Nicolae Iorga stated that the term comes from șalgăi (șálgó, with the variants derived from the Hungarian sóvágó meaning ), name given to the Szekler workers at Târgu Ocna mine.

The Hungarian and the international literature in this subject unanimously agree that the Csángós are of Hungarian origin, but there are also small assimilated elements of Romanian, German, Polish, Italian and Gypsy origin. Hungarian origins include a mixture of Turkic (Cumans, Pannonian Avars, Khazars, Pechenegs, Székelys), original Hungarian, German and Alan populations. The Csángós had historically been a rural and agricultural people, raising stock like sheep and cows and farmed crops such as corn, potatoes, and hemp. They were also often called for military service, protecting the Eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages. Before the Communist era and the collectivization efforts, the Csángós were structured in a traditional society until the introduction of civil code. Village elders were well respected and could be pointed out by their traditionally long hair and beards. Notably, some Csángós also participated in the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt and fought on behalf of Romania in both world wars.

The situation of the Csángó community may be understood by taking into consideration the results of the 2002 census. 1,370 persons declared themselves Csángó. Most of them live in Bacău County, Romania, and belong to the Roman Catholic Church. During the last years, some statements identified all Catholics in Bacău County (119.618 persons according to 2002 census) as Csángó. This identification is rejected by most of them, who did identify themselves as Romanians. The name Csángó appeared relatively recently, being used for the first time, in 1780 by Péter Zöld.

Their music shows the characteristic features of Hungarian music and the words of their songs are mostly Hungarian, with some dialect differences. The anthem of the Csángós refers to Csángó Hungarians multiple times. The Csángós did not take part in the language reforms of the Age of Enlightenment, or the bourgeois transformation that created the modern consciousness of nationhood (cf. Halász 1992, Kósa 1998). They did not have a noble stratum or intelligentsia (cf. Kósa 1981) that could have fashioned their consciousness as Hungarians (Halász 1992: 11). They were "saved" (Kósa 1998: 339) from "assimilation" with the Romanians by virtue of their Roman Catholic religion, which distinguished them from the majority Greek Orthodox society.

In 2001 the Romanian authorities banned the teaching of the Hungarian language in private houses in the village of Cleja, despite the recommendation of the Council of Europe. From 1990, parents in Cleja, Pustiana and Lespezi requested several times that their children have the opportunity of learning the Hungarian language at school, either as an optional language, or as their native language, in 1 4 lessons a week. At best their petition was registered, but in most cases it was ignored. Seeing the possibility of organizing Hungarian courses outside school, they gave up the humiliating process of writing requests without results. The MCSMSZ maintains its standpoint according to which the community should claim their legal rights, but the population is not so determined. Leaders of the school inspectorate in Bacău County, as well as the authorities and church, declared at a meeting that they were opposed to the official instruction of Hungarian in Csángó villages. In their opinion the Csángós are of Romanian origin, and sporadic requests for teaching Hungarian at schools reflect not a real parental demand, but Hungarian nationalist ambitions. In the village of Arini (Magyarfalu in Hungarian) the village mayor and the Romanian only teachers of the state school, filed a complaint with the local police about the "unlawful teaching activities" of Gergely Csoma. Csoma teaches Hungarian as an extracurricular activity to the children of Arini. Following the complaint, the local police started what Csángó activists have described as an intimidation campaign among the mothers of those children who are studying their maternal language with the said teacher. In 2008 members of the European Parliament sent a petition to the European Commission regarding the obstruction of Hungarian language education and the alleged intimidation of Csángó Hungarian pupils in Valea Mare (Nagypatak). The leader of the High Commission on Minority Affairs responded to the petition of László Tőkés MEP in a written notice that they would warn Romania to secure education in the mother tongue for the Csángós of Moldavia.

It is difficult to estimate the exact number of the Csángós because of the elusive nature and multiple factors (ethnicity, religion and language) of Csángó identity. As far as ethnic identification is concerned, in the census of 2002, 4,317 declared themselves Hungarians and 796 declared themselves Csángó in Bacău County, reaching a total of 5,794 out of the county's total population of 706,623. The report of the Council of Europe estimates a Csángó population ranging from 20,000 to as many as 260,000, based in the total Catholic population in the area, which may be an exaggeration as there also are Catholic ethnic Romanians. According to the most recent research executed between 2008 and 2010 by Vilmos Tánczos, famous Hungarian folklorist, there has been a sharp decline in the total number of Csángó speaking people in Eastern Romania. Tánczos set their number to roughly 43,000 people. Moreover, he found out that the most archaic version of Csángó language, the Northern Csángó was known and regularly used by only some 4,000 people, exclusively the older generation above the age of 50. It can be said, therefore, that the Csángó Hungarian dialect is at high risk of extinction. In fact, when applying the UNESCO Framework to measure language vitality, this dialect fits the category of "Severely Endangered".