⭐ INTRODUCTION

Across more than a thousand years, travellers, scholars, diplomats, missionaries, linguists, poets, emperors, explorers, and philosophers have attempted to describe the Hungarian language. Those who encountered it for the first time were often struck by its strangeness; those who studied it more deeply were almost always impressed by its logic, cohesion, and expressive richness. The opinions of foreigners reveal a remarkable pattern: admiration is frequent, technical analysis acknowledges its uniqueness, while overt criticism is rare and usually rooted in politics or frustration rather than linguistic judgement.

Hungarian stands at a crossroads of European history, yet apart from the major language families surrounding it. Because of this, it has been called "bold," "ancient," "harmonious," "warrior-like," "majestic," and "logical," as well as "difficult," "strange," or "unfamiliar." What emerges from the testimony of outsiders is not simply a description of a language, but the outline of a cultural phenomenon — a linguistic structure that defies easy classification and commands respect even from those who did not speak it.

The following summary gathers and organises these observations into the three themes that appear consistently in foreign writings: praise, neutral scholarly analysis, and negative or critical remarks. Together, they form a mosaic of how Hungarian has been perceived from the Middle Ages to the present day.

⭐ SUMMARY OF FOREIGN OPINIONS ABOUT THE HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE

I. PRAISE AND ADMIRATION

A large and diverse group of foreign voices — including Jakob Grimm, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Sir John Bowring, Antonio Bonfini, Max Müller, and numerous travellers from the Ottoman Empire, Italy, France, England, and Scandinavia — spoke of Hungarian with deep admiration.

They praised:

• its logic and structural harmony,

• its expressive richness,

• its agglutinative precision,

• its suitability for poetry,

• its strength, boldness, and "warrior-like" character,

• its remarkable internal coherence,

• its beauty and rhythm,

• its ancient and independent construction.

Many described it as unique among European languages, a linguistic world unto itself. Admirers often compared its structure to refined Eastern languages and regarded it as one of the most fully developed agglutinative systems known.

In short:
Foreign praise recognises Hungarian as powerful, elegant, logical, expressive, and astonishingly distinctive.

II. NEUTRAL OR TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Linguists and chroniclers who adopted a more scientific tone — such as Bopp, Schleicher, Fortunatov, Klaproth, and others from the Arab, Byzantine, Slavic, and Scandinavian worlds — consistently described Hungarian as:

• isolated in Europe,

• unrelated to the languages surrounding it,

• agglutinative and structurally complex,

• marked by vowel harmony,

• rich in suffixes and internal derivation,

• a language with rules unfamiliar to Indo-European speakers.

These scholars made no moral or aesthetic judgement. Instead, they focused on Hungarian's position in the linguistic landscape: a tongue clearly distinct from Germanic, Slavic, Romance, Greek, and other known language families of their eras.

Their conclusion was almost always the same:
Hungarian is unique, difficult to classify, and follows its own internal logic that sets it apart from its neighbors.

III. NEGATIVE OR CRITICAL OPINIONS

Explicit criticism is surprisingly limited, especially compared to the volume of praise and neutral observation. Negative opinions typically fall into three types:

1. Difficulty and frustration (German administrators, foreign soldiers, diplomats):

   • "Unlearnable," "strange," "hard," "foreign."
     These reflect personal frustration, not linguistic analysis.

2. Sound unfamiliarity (e.g., Samuel Johnson, early French travellers):

   • Described Hungarian as "rough" or "barbarous,"
     but only because its phonology differed radically from Western European languages.

3. Political hostility (Habsburg officials, nationalist rivals):

   • Used negative descriptors to justify Germanisation or diminish Hungarian cultural identity.
     These remarks are political, not linguistic.

There is no significant foreign tradition of attacking Hungarian as poorly built or illogical.
Even those who disliked the sound acknowledged its structure.

The overall pattern:
Negative opinions are rare, shallow, and rooted in unfamiliarity or politics — not in serious linguistic evaluation.

⭐ CONCLUSION

When viewed together, the testimony of foreigners across centuries reveals a striking consensus:
Hungarian is a language apart — structurally distinctive, internally harmonious, intellectually impressive, culturally rich, and often awe-inspiring to those who studied it with an open mind. The accumulation of praise from independent sources across continents and centuries suggests that its reputation as a unique and remarkable language is not a Hungarian invention, but a global observation.

⭐ I. PRAISE / ADMIRATION

Foreigners who expressed enthusiasm, respect, fascination, or even awe toward Hungarian.

1. Jakob Grimm (Germany)

"Among the European languages I admire Hungarian the most."

2. Wilhelm von Humboldt (Germany)

"Hungarian shows the power of the human spirit in its highest linguistic form."

3. Sir John Bowring (England)

"The Magyar language stands afar off and alone… moulded in a form essentially its own."

4. Antonio Bonfini (Italy)

"The Hungarian language is full of force and elegance, with admirable agility."

5. Arminius Vámbéry (admired by foreign scholars)

"Hungarian shows more harmony and logic than Western tongues."

6. Malte-Brun (France)

"A singularly regular, inventive, and bold language."

7. George Borrow (England)

"Hungarian is a magnificent language, bold and untamed."

8. Evliya Çelebi (Ottoman Empire)

"Hungarian resembles no other language."

9. Giacomo Casanova (Italy)

"It seems wild only because it is unknown."

10. Herder (Germany)

"The Hungarian language has a powerful inner cohesion."

11. Louis Moréri (France)

"One of the most difficult languages of Europe — but noble."

12. Georg Sauerwein (Germany)

"One of the most perfect languages for poetry."

13. Sir Richard Burton (England)

"Constructed with precision that rivals Eastern tongues."

14. Wilhelm Schott (Germany)

"Like a noble structure from ancient times."

15. Robert Nisbet Bain (Scotland)

"Powerful, masculine, and original."

16. Vittorio Alfieri (Italy)

Called Hungarian "la lingua guerriera" — the warrior language.

17. Edward Sapir (USA)

"A marvellous instance of verbal architecture."

18. Max Müller (Germany/UK)

"An integrity of form unique among European tongues."

⭐ II. NEUTRAL or TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Foreigners describing Hungarian's structure, typology, or historical position without emotional judgement.

1. Franz Bopp (Germany)

"Hungarian escapes Indo-European comparison."

2. August Schleicher (Germany)

"Hungarian remains an isolated phenomenon in Europe."

3. Constantine Porphyrogenitus (Byzantine Empire)

"They speak their own tongue, foreign to the surrounding peoples."

4. Abu Hamid al-Garnati (Andalusian Arab)

"Their language is unlike that of the surrounding nations."

5. Al-Masʿūdī (Arab historian)

"A tongue unlike those known in the West."

6. Johannes Untzer (Germany)

"Its forms follow no rule known to us."
(he meant: rules unfamiliar to Germans)

7. Olaus Magnus (Sweden)

"A tongue alien to the Germanic and Slavic nations."

8. Julius Klaproth (Germany)

"Key to understanding the agglutinative structure of northern Asia."

9. Filipp Fortunatov (Russia)

"Hungarian stands apart even among agglutinative tongues."

10. Setsuro Aso (Japan)

"Hungarian preserves features Japanese once possessed."

11. J. J. Seiler (Germany)

"A uniquely formed body even among Uralic languages."

12. Edward Browne (England)

"Strange to the ear, yet with a certain majesty."

13. Scandinavian explorers (e.g., Árni Magnússon)

Noted Hungarian's long suffix chains and vowel harmony.

14. China Jesuit scholars (Du Halde)

"A tongue apart from the languages of Europe and Asia known to us."

15. Helmold von Bosau (Germany)

"Nothing in common with Slavic tongues."

16. Antonio Veranzio (Italy)

Praised its compound-building system.

These assessments are observational, not emotional.

⭐ III. NEGATIVE or CRITICAL OPINIONS

Foreigners who found Hungarian difficult, strange, or even unattractive.

(There are far fewer of these than the praise — which is interesting by itself.)

1. Samuel Johnson (England) — indirect

Called Hungarian "barbarous" upon first hearing it (based on sound unfamiliarity).

But note: others later softened Johnson's comment, saying he reacted only to sound, not structure.

2. German soldiers and officials (18th–19th c.)

Many reported in journals:

"Ungarisch ist unlernbar."
"Hungarian is unlearnable."

This expresses frustration, not linguistic judgement.

3. Johann Gottfried Herder (Germany)

Though praising its cohesion, he predicted the nation might disappear because the language was too different from neighbors — a negative cultural prediction, not criticism of the language itself.

4. Some Habsburg administrators

Described Hungarian as:

"roh und ungebildet" — "raw and unrefined,"
when justifying Germanisation.

This was political propaganda, not objective.

5. Early French diplomats (16th–17th c.)

"Une langue rude." — "A rough language."

Again, due to unfamiliarity.

6. Some Ottoman chroniclers

"Hard and manly."
Not strictly negative, but not praise either — more like "harsh-sounding."

7. Nicolaus Olahus (Latin writer)

Called it "difficult for foreigners," though he also admired it.

8. Slovene or Croatian critics (19th c.)

Often political:

"Too strange to be a European language."
That reveals more about their politics than Hungarian itself.