Under the leadership of Janos KADAR in 1968, Hungary began liberalizing its economy, introducing so-called "goulash Communism." Hungary held its first multiparty elections in 1990 and initiated a free market economy. It joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.
The Hungarian language is a Finno-Ugric language, and has little relation to the other languages of Central Europe.
As one of a small number of modern European languages which do not belong to the Indo-European language family, it has always been of great interest to linguists. It is spoken in Hungary by approximately 10 million people and by around 3 million people living in neighbouring countries.
