Why do Hungarians ask questions in the negative?

Hungarians routinely offer and request things in the negative, and it is meant warmly. Nem kérsz egy kávét? (“Won’t you have a coffee?”) and Nincs kedved eljönni? (“Don’t you feel like coming?”) sound faintly gloomy translated word for word, but they are the polite default: phrasing the offer negatively leaves the other person an easy way out.

The same habit runs through questions to strangers — Nem tudja, merre van a posta?, “You wouldn’t know where the post office is?” — and through Hungarian modesty, where nem rossz (“not bad”) is genuine praise. Hungarians themselves list negative questions among the customs that puzzle foreigners, in the same breath as loud nose-blowing and dubbed films, which is exactly the set this creator promises to write about.