Map of regions where those whose native language is Hungarian represent a majority (dark blue) or a substantial minority (light blue).Based on recent censuses and on the CIA World Factbook 2014.[3]
It is also spoken byHungarian diaspora communities worldwide, especially in North America (particularly theUnited States andCanada) andIsrael. With 14 million speakers, it is the Uralic family's most widely spoken language.[1]
Hungarian is a member of theUralic language family. Linguistic connections between Hungarian and other Uralic languages were noticed in the 1670s, and the family itself was established in 1717. Hungarian has traditionally been assigned to theUgric branch along with theMansi andKhanty languages ofwestern Siberia (Khanty–Mansia region ofNorth Asia),[4] but it is no longer clear that it is a valid group.[5][6][7][8][9] When theSamoyed languages were determined to be part of the family, it was thought at first thatFinnic and Ugric were closer to each other than to the Samoyed branch of the family, but that is now frequently questioned.[10][8][7]
Thename of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes ofUngrian/Ugrian, and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians asǪgry/Ǫgrove (sg.Ǫgrinŭ) seemed to confirm that.[11] Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of theTurkic tribeOnoğur (which means'ten arrows' or'ten tribes').[12][13][14]
There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian/aː/ corresponds toKhanty/o/ in certain positions, and Hungarian/h/ corresponds to Khanty/x/, while Hungarian final/z/ corresponds to Khanty final/t/. For example, Hungarianház[haːz]'house' vs. Khantyxot[xot]'house', and Hungarianszáz[saːz]'hundred' vs. Khantysot[sot]'hundred'. The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular.
The traditional view holds that the Hungarian language diverged from itsUgric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, inwestern Siberia east of the southernUrals.[15] In Hungarian, Iranian loanwords date back to the time immediately following the breakup ofUgric and probably span well over a millennium.[16] These includetehén 'cow' (cf.Avestandaénu);tíz 'ten' (cf. Avestandasa);tej 'milk' (cf. Persiandáje 'wet nurse'); andnád 'reed' (from lateMiddle Iranian; cf.Middle Persiannāy and Modern Persianney).
Archaeological evidence from present-day southernBashkortostan confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between theVolga River and theUral Mountains.[17] TheOnoğurs (andBulgars) later had a great influence on the language, especially between the 5th and 9th centuries. This layer of Turkic loans is large and varied (e.g.szó'word', fromTurkic; anddaru'crane', from the relatedPermic languages), and includes words borrowed fromOghur Turkic; e.g.borjú'calf' (cf.Chuvashpăru,părăv vs.Turkishbuzağı);[18]dél 'noon; south' (cf. Chuvashtĕl vs. Turkish dial.düš).[19] Many words related to agriculture,[20]state administration and even family relationships show evidence of such backgrounds.[citation needed] Hungariansyntax andgrammar were not influenced in a similarly dramatic way over these three centuries.[citation needed]
Funeral Sermon and Prayer, 12th centuryA page from the first book written completely in Hungarian, 1533
After thearrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin, the language came into contact with a variety ofspeech communities, among themSlavic,Turkic, andGerman. Turkic loans from this period come mainly from thePechenegs andCumanians, who settled in Hungary during the 12th and 13th centuries: e.g.koboz "cobza" (cf. Turkishkopuz 'lute');komondor "mop dog" (< *kumandur <Cuman). Hungarian borrowed 20% of words from neighbouringSlavic languages: e.g.tégla 'brick';mák 'poppy seed';szerda 'Wednesday';csütörtök 'Thursday'...;karácsony 'Christmas'.[21][22] These languages in turn borrowed words from Hungarian: e.g.Serbo-Croatianašov from Hungarianásó 'spade'. About 1.6 percent of theRomanianlexicon is of Hungarian origin.[23][24]
In the 21st century, studies support an origin of the Uralic languages, including early Hungarian, in eastern or centralSiberia, somewhere between theOb andYenisei rivers or near theSayan mountains in theRussian–Mongolian border region.[25] A 2019 study based on genetics, archaeology and linguistics, found that early Uralic speakers arrived in Europe from the east, specifically from eastern Siberia.[26]
Hungarian historian and archaeologistGyula László claims thatgeological data frompollen analysis seems to contradict the placing of the ancient Hungarian homeland near the Urals.[27]
Today, the consensus among linguists is that Hungarian is a member of theUralic family of languages.[28]
The classification of Hungarian as a Uralic/Finno-Ugric rather than aTurkic language continued to be a matter of impassioned political controversy throughout the 18th and into the 19th centuries. During the latter half of the 19th century, a competing hypothesis proposed a Turkic affinity of Hungarian, or, alternatively, that both the Uralic and the Turkic families formed part of asuperfamily ofUral–Altaic languages. Following an academic debate known asAz ugor-török háború ("the Ugric-Turkic war"), the Finno-Ugric hypothesis was concluded the sounder of the two, mainly based on work by the German linguistJosef Budenz.[29]
Hungarians did, in fact, absorb some Turkic influences during several centuries of cohabitation. The influence on Hungarians was mainly from the TurkicOghur speakers such asSabirs,Bulgars ofAtil,Kabars andKhazars. The Oghur tribes are often connected with the Hungarians whose exoethnonym is usually derived fromOnogurs (> (H)ungars), aTurkic tribal confederation.[30] The similarity between customs of Hungarians and theChuvash people, the only surviving member of the Oghur tribes, is visible. For example, the Hungarians appear to have learnedanimal husbandry techniques from the Oghur speakingChuvash people (or historicallySuvar people[31]), as a high proportion of words specific to agriculture and livestock are of Chuvash origin. A strong Chuvash influence was also apparent in Hungarianburial customs.
The first written accounts of Hungarian date to the 10th century, such as mostly Hungarian personal names and place names inDe Administrando Imperio, written in Greek by Eastern Roman EmperorConstantine VII.[32] No significant texts written inOld Hungarian script have survived, because the medium of writing used at the time, wood, is perishable.
The standard language lost itsdiphthongs, and severalpostpositions transformed intosuffixes, includingreá "onto" (the phraseuturea "onto the way" found in the 1055 text would later becomeútra). There were also changes in the system ofvowel harmony. At one time, Hungarian used sixverbtenses, while today only two or three are used.[35][note 1]
By the 17th century, the language already closely resembled its present-day form, although two of the past tenses remained in use. German, Italian and French loans also began to appear. Further Turkish words were borrowed during the period ofOttoman rule (1541 to 1699).
In the 19th century, a group of writers, most notablyFerenc Kazinczy, spearheaded a process ofnyelvújítás (language revitalization). Some words were shortened (győzedelem >győzelem, 'victory' or 'triumph'); a number ofdialectal words spread nationally (e.g.,cselleng 'dawdle'); extinct words were reintroduced (dísz, 'décor'); a wide range of expressions werecoined using the various derivative suffixes; and some other, less frequently used methods of expanding the language were utilized. This movement produced more than ten thousand words, most of which are used actively today.
In 2014 The proportion of Transylvanian students studying Hungarian exceeded the proportion of Hungarian students, which shows that the effects ofRomanianization are slowly getting reversed and regaining popularity.[36] The Dictate of Trianon resulted in a high proportion of Hungarians in the surrounding 7 countries, so it is widely spoken or understood. Although host countries are not always considerate of Hungarian language users,[37][38][39] communities are strong. TheSzeklers, for example, form their own region and have their own national museum, educational institutions, and hospitals.
Hungarian has about 13 million[50][51][52] native speakers, of whom more than 9.8 million live in Hungary. According to the 2011 Hungarian census, 9,896,333 people (99.6% of the total population) speak Hungarian, of whom 9,827,875 people (98.9%) speak it as a first language, while 68,458 people (0.7%) speak it as asecond language.[40] About 2.2 million speakers live in other areas that were part of theKingdom of Hungary before theTreaty of Trianon (1920). Of these, the largest group lives inTransylvania, the western half of present-dayRomania, where there are approximately 1.25 millionHungarians. There are large Hungarian communities also inSlovakia,Serbia andUkraine, and Hungarians can also be found inAustria,Croatia, andSlovenia, as well as about a million additional people scattered in other parts of the world. For example, there are more than one hundred thousand Hungarian speakers in theHungarian American community and 1.5 million with Hungarian ancestry[53] in theUnited States.
Thedialects of Hungarian identified byEthnologue are: Alföld, West Danube, Danube-Tisza, King's Pass Hungarian, Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian, Székely and West Hungarian. These dialects are, for the most part,mutually intelligible. The HungarianCsángó dialect, which is mentioned but not listed separately by Ethnologue, is spoken primarily inBacău County in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from otherHungarian people, and therefore preserved features that closely resemble earlier forms of Hungarian.
Hungarian has 14 vowel phonemes and 30 consonant phonemes (or 31, it depends on the dialect). The vowel phonemes can be grouped as pairs of short and long vowels such aso andó. Most of the pairs have an almost similar pronunciation and vary significantly only in their duration. However, pairsa/á ande/é differ both in closedness and length.
The soundvoiced palatal plosive/ɟ/, written⟨gy⟩, sounds similar to 'd' inBritish English 'duty'. It occurs in the name of the country, "Magyarország" (Hungary), pronounced/ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ/. It is one of threepalatal consonants, the others being⟨ty⟩ and⟨ny⟩. Historically, and mostly in some northern dialects (for example, the modern Palóc dialect), a fourth palatalized consonantʎ existed, written⟨ly⟩.
/ç/ and/ʝ/ are only found at the end of words in the vocative case after a voiceless/voiced consonant, both written "j", as in "kapj" (get!) or "varrj" (sew!), as an allophone of/j/.
/x/ is also rare, and it is mostly just an allophone of "h". It's spelled as "ch", and is from German loanwords, like the nameBach. A similar consonant is/ɦ/. It's also spelled as "h", and is also found in German loanwords, like achát (agate).
/ŋ/ is an uncommon consonant, written "ng." It mostly appears in loanwords from English such as "tréning" or "brending". And in native words like "ring" (to swing). "ng" is a digraph, however it is not officially in the hungarian alphabet.
A single 'r' is pronounced as analveolar tap (akkora 'of that size'), but a double 'r' is pronounced as analveolar trill (akkorra 'by that time'), like inSpanish andItalian.
Primary stress is always on the firstsyllable of a word, as in Finnish and the neighbouringSlovak andCzech. There is a secondary stress on other syllables in compounds:viszontlátásra ("goodbye") is pronounced/ˈvisontˌlaːtaːʃrɒ/. Elongated vowels in non-initial syllables may seem to be stressed to an English-speaker,[citation needed] as length and stress correlate in English.
Hungarian usesvowel harmony to attach suffixes to words. That means that most suffixes have two or three different forms, and the choice between them depends on the vowels of the head word. There are some minor and unpredictable exceptions to the rule.
Nouns have 18cases,[56] which are formed regularly with suffixes. The nominative case is unmarked (az alma 'the apple') and, for example, the accusative is marked with the suffix–t (az almát '[I eat] the apple'). Half of the cases express a combination of the source-location-target and surface-inside-proximity ternary distinctions (three times three cases); there is a separate case ending –ból /–ből meaning a combination of source and insideness: 'from inside of'.
Possession is expressed by a possessive suffix on the possessed object, rather than the possessor as in English (Peter's apple becomesPéter almája, literally 'Peter apple-his'). Noun plurals are formed with–k (az almák 'the apples'), but after a numeral, the singular is used (két alma 'two apples', literally 'two apple'; not*két almák).
Unlike English, Hungarian uses case suffixes and nearly alwayspostpositions instead of prepositions.
There are two types ofarticles in Hungarian, definite and indefinite, which roughly correspond to the equivalents in English.
Adjectives precede nouns (a piros alma 'the red apple') and have three degrees: positive (piros 'red'), comparative (pirosabb 'redder') and superlative (a legpirosabb 'the reddest').
If the noun takes the plural or a case, an attributive adjective is invariable:a piros almák 'the red apples'. However, a predicative adjective agrees with the noun:az almák pirosak 'the apples are red'. Adjectives by themselves can behave as nouns (and so can take case suffixes):Melyik almát kéred? – A pirosat. 'Which apple would you like? – The red one'.
The neutral word order issubject–verb–object (SVO). However, Hungarian is atopic-prominent language, and so has aword order that depends not only on syntax but also on thetopic–comment structure of the sentence (for example, what aspect is assumed to be known and what is emphasized).
A Hungarian sentence generally has the following order: topic, comment (or focus), verb and the rest.
The topic shows that the proposition is only for that particular thing or aspect, and it implies that the proposition is not true for some others. For example, in "Az almát János látja". ('It is John who sees the apple'. Literally 'The apple John sees.'), the apple is in the topic, implying that other objects may be seen by not him but other people (the pear may be seen by Peter). The topic part may be empty.
The focus shows the new information for the listeners that may not have been known or that their knowledge must be corrected. For example, "Én vagyok az apád". ('I am your father'. Literally, 'It is I who am your father'.), from the movieThe Empire Strikes Back, the pronoun I (én) is in the focus and implies that it is new information, and the listener thought that someone else is his father.
Although Hungarian is sometimes described as having free word order, different word orders are generally not interchangeable, and the neutral order is not always correct to use. The intonation is also different with different topic-comment structures. The topic usually has a rising intonation, the focus having a falling intonation. In the following examples, the topic is marked with italics, and the focus (comment) is marked with boldface.
János látja az almát. - 'John sees the apple'. Neutral sentence.
Jánoslátja az almát. - 'Johnsees the apple'. (Peter may not see the apple.)
János látja azalmát. - 'It is John who sees the apple'. (The listener may have thought that it is Peter.)
Látja János azalmát. - 'John does see the apple'. (The listener may have thought that John does not see the apple.)
János az almátlátja. - 'What John sees is the apple'. (It is the apple, not the pear, that John specifically sees. However, Peter may see the pear.)
Az almát látja János. - 'It is the apple that is seen by John'. (The pear may not be seen by John, but it may be smelled, for example.)
Az almát János látja. - 'It is by John that the apple is seen'. (It is not seen by Peter, but the pear may be seen by Peter, for example.)
Hungarian has a four-tiered system for expressing levels of politeness. From highest to lowest:
Ön (önözés): Use of this form in speech shows respect towards the person addressed, but it is also the common way of speaking in official texts and business communications. Here "you", the second person, is grammatically addressed in the third person.
Maga (magázás,magázódás): Use of this form serves to show that the speakers wish to distance themselves from the person they address. A boss could also address a subordinate asmaga. Aside from the differentpronoun it is grammatically the same as "önözés".
Néni/bácsi (tetszikezés): This is a somewhat affectionate way of expressing politeness and is grammatically the same as "önözés" or "magázódás", but adds a certain verb in auxiliary role "tetszik" ("like") to support the main verb of the sentence. For example, children are supposed to address adults who are not parents, close friends or close relatives by using "tetszik" ("you like"): "Hogy vagy?" ("How are you?") here becomes "Hogy tetszik lenni?" ("How do you like to be?"). The elderly, especially women, are generally addressed this way, even by adults.
Te (tegezés,tegeződés orpertu,per tu fromLatin): Used generally, i.e. with persons with whom none of the above forms of politeness is required, and, in religious contexts, to addressGod. The highest rank, theking, was traditionally addressed "per tu" by all, peasants and noblemen alike, though with Hungary not having had any crowned king since 1918, this practice survives only in folk tales and children's stories. Use of "tegezés" in the media and advertisements has become more frequent since the early 1990s. It is informal and is normally used in families, among friends, colleagues, among young people, and by adults speaking to children; it can be compared to addressing somebody by their first name in English. Perhaps prompted by the widespread use of English (a language withoutT–V distinctionin most contemporary dialects) on the Internet, "tegezés" is also becoming the standard way to address people over the Internet, regardless of politeness.
The four-tiered system has somewhat been eroded due to the recent expansion of "tegeződés" and "önözés".
Some anomalies emerged with the arrival of multinational companies who have addressed their customers in thete (least polite) form right from the beginning of their presence in Hungary. A typical example is the Swedish furniture shopIKEA, whose web site and other publications address the customers inte form. When a news site[57] asked IKEA—using thete form—why they address their customers this way, IKEA's PR Manager explained in his answer—using theön form—that their way of communication reflects IKEA's open-mindedness and the Swedish culture. However IKEA in France uses the polite (vous) form. Another example is the communication ofYettel Hungary (earlier Telenor, a mobile network operator) towards its customers. Yettel chose to communicate towards business customers in the politeön form while all other customers are addressed in the less politete form.
During the first early phase of Hungarianlanguage reforms (late 18th and early 19th centuries) more than ten thousand words were coined,[58] several thousand of which are still actively used today (see alsoFerenc Kazinczy, the leading figure of the Hungarian language reforms.) Kazinczy's chief goal was to replace existing words of German and Latin origins with newly created Hungarian words. As a result, Kazinczy and his later followers (the reformers) significantly reduced the formerly high ratio of words of Latin and German origins in the Hungarian language, which were related to social sciences, natural sciences, politics and economics, institutional names, fashion etc.Giving an accurate estimate for the total word count is difficult, since it is hard to define a "word" inagglutinating languages, due to the existence of affixed words and compound words. To obtain a meaningful definition of compound words, it is necessary to exclude compounds whose meaning is the mere sum of its elements. The largest dictionaries giving translations from Hungarian to another language contain 120,000 words and phrases[59] (but this may include redundant phrases as well, because of translation issues)[clarification needed]. The new desk lexicon of the Hungarian language contains 75,000 words,[59] and the Comprehensive Dictionary of Hungarian Language (to be published in 18 volumes in the next[clarification needed] twenty years) is planned to contain 110,000 words.[60] The default Hungarianlexicon is usually estimated to comprise 60,000 to 100,000 words.[61] (Independently of specific languages, speakers actively use at most 10,000 to 20,000 words,[62] with an averageintellectual using 25,000 to 30,000 words.[61]) However, all the Hungarianlexemes collected from technical texts, dialects etc. would total up to 1,000,000 words.[63]
Parts of the lexicon can be organized usingword-bushes[clarification needed] (see an example on the right). The words in these bushes share a common root, are related through inflection, derivation and compounding, and are usually broadly related in meaning.
The basic vocabulary shares several hundred word roots with otherUralic languages likeFinnish,Estonian,Mansi andKhanty. Examples are the verbél "live" (Finnishelää[64]), the numberskettő (2),három (3),négy (4) (cf.Mansiкитыгkitig,хурумkhurum,нилаnila,Finnishkaksi, kolme, neljä,[64]Estoniankaks, kolm, neli), as well asvíz 'water',kéz 'hand',vér 'blood',fej 'head' (cf. Finnish[64] and Estonianvesi, käsi, veri, Finnishpää,[64] Estonianpea orpää).
Words for elementary kinship and nature are more Ugric, lessr-Turkic and less Slavic. Words related to agriculture are about 50% r-Turkic and 50% Slavic; pastoral terms are more r-Turkic, less Ugric and less Slavic. Finally, Christian and state terminology is more Slavic and less r-Turkic. The Slavic is most probably proto-Slovakian or proto-Slovenian. This is easily understood in the Uralic paradigm, proto-Magyars were first similar to Ob-Ugors, who were mainly hunters, fishers and gatherers, but with some horses too. Then they accultured to Bulgarian r-Turks, so the older layer of agriculture words (wine, beer,wheat,barley etc.) are purely r-Turkic, and many terms of statesmanship and religion were, too.[65]
Except for a few Latin and Greek loanwords, these differences are unnoticed even by native speakers; the words have been entirely adopted into the Hungarian lexicon. There are an increasing number of English loanwords, especially in technical fields and slang as well.
Calculating the percentile fractions of the origins of various words within a language is an essentially meaningless and impossible exercise. There is no definite set number of words within a language that can be tallied up,[66] and other factors like the frequency of use and dialectal differences also affect the end result.[67] An approximate estimate of the number[67] of foreign loanwords[68][69] in Hungarian can be established, as well as the general frequency of their usage.[70]
According to estimates,[71] the most numerous loanwords come from Slavic languages[68] (1252 words of proven Slavic origin, around 484 universally used in all dialects of Hungarian, 694 in specific dialects only, and 74 obsolete words[72]).[73] An additional 382 words are classified as "possibly Slavic", 147 of them present in all dialects, 209 present in certain dialects, and 26 no longer in common use, bringing the final number of potentially Slavic loanwords in all dialects to 631, and the total number of potentially Slavic loanwords across all dialects to about 1634.[71]
The second largest group of loanwords are made up of Turkic loanwords, which can be divided into pre-Conquest, and Ottoman layers, with the pre-Conquest words making up the absolute majority of them. Due to centuries of cohabitation with Turkic peoples such as the Volga Bulgars and Khazars, the exact origin of certain words can be hard to pin down.[74] The number of Turkic loanwords can be difficult to enumerate from the pre-Conquest period due to a lack of written sources from R-Turkic languages from the period, and even later, but generally the number of Turkic loanwords are estimated to be between 300-500.[75]
The third largest group is made up of German loanwords, which number around 400.[68] These started appearing in the language as early as the 11th century, but became especially prominent during the Habsburg-era, starting in the 16th century.[76]
A much smaller but also much older layer of loanwords are Iranian loanwords,[77] which only number in the dozens but serve as an important layer of the vocabulary.[68] These words include tehén (cow), tej (milk), asszony (married woman, wife), vám (tax), vár (fortress), vásár (market), üveg (glass) etc.[77]
Other, mostly more technical, religious, or scholarly loanwords also numbering in the dozens are from Latin and Greek, while newer layers may include virtually any European language that Hungarian has been in contact with over the centuries.[68]
Compounds have been present in the language since theProto-Uralic era. Numerous ancient compounds transformed to base words during the centuries. Today, compounds play an important role in vocabulary.
A good example is the wordarc:
orr (nose) +száj (mouth) →orca (face) (colloquial until the end of the 19th century and still in use in some dialects) >arc (face)[78]
Compounds are made up of two base words: the first is the prefix, the latter is the suffix. A compound can besubordinative: the prefix is in logical connection with the suffix. If the prefix is the subject of the suffix, the compound is generally classified as asubjective one. There areobjective,determinative, andadjunctive compounds as well. Some examples are given below:
fa (tree, wood) +vágó (cutter) →favágó (lumberjack, literally "woodcutter")
Determinative:
új (new) +já (modification of-vá, -vé a suffix meaning "making it to something") +építés (construction) →újjáépítés (reconstruction, literally "making something to be new by construction")
Adjunctive:
sárga (yellow) +réz (copper) →sárgaréz (brass)
According to current orthographic rules, a subordinative compound word has to be written as a single word, without spaces; however, if a compound of three or more words (not counting one-syllable verbal prefixes) is seven or moresyllables long (not counting case suffixes), a hyphen must be inserted at the appropriate boundary to ease the determination of word boundaries for the reader.
Other compound words arecoordinatives: there is no concrete relation between the prefix and the suffix. Subcategories includereduplication (to emphasise the meaning;olykor-olykor'really occasionally'), twin words (where a base word and a distorted form of it makes up a compound:gizgaz, where the suffix 'gaz' means 'weed' and the prefixgiz is the distorted form; the compound itself means 'inconsiderable weed'), and such compounds which have meanings, but neither their prefixes, nor their suffixes make sense (for example,hercehurca 'complex, obsolete procedures').
A compound also can be made up by multiple (i.e., more than two) base words: in this case, at least one word element, or even both the prefix and the suffix, is a compound. Some examples:
There are two basic words for "red" in Hungarian: "piros" and "vörös" (variant: "veres"; compare with Estonian "verev" or Finnish "punainen"). (They are basic in the sense that one is not a sub-type of the other, as the English "scarlet" is of "red".) The word "vörös" is related to "vér", meaning "blood" (Finnish and Estonian "veri"). When they refer to an actual difference in colour (as on a colour chart), "vörös" usually refers to the deeper (darker or more red and less orange) hue of red. In English similar differences exist between "scarlet" and "red". While many languages have multiplenames for this colour, often Hungarian scholars assume that this is unique in recognizing two shades of red as separate and distinct "folk colours".[79]
However, the two words are also used independently of the above incollocations. "Piros" is learned by children first, as it is generally used to describe inanimate, artificial things, or things seen as cheerful or neutral, while "vörös" typically refers to animate or natural things (biological, geological, physical and astronomical objects), as well as serious or emotionally charged subjects.
When the rules outlined above are in contradiction, typical collocations usually prevail. In some cases where a typical collocation does not exist, the use of either of the two words may be equally adequate.
Examples:
Expressions where "red" typically translates to "piros": a red road sign, red traffic lights, the red line ofBudapest Metro, red (now called express) bus lines in Budapest, a holiday shown in red in the calendar, ruddy complexion, the red nose of a clown, some red flowers (those of a neutral nature, e.g.tulips), red peppers andpaprika, red card suits (hearts and diamonds), red stripes on a flag (but thered flag and its variants translate to "vörös"), etc.
Expressions where "red" typically translates to "vörös": a red railway signal (unlike traffic lights, see above),Red Sea,Red Square,Red Army,Red Baron,Erik the Red,red wine, red carpet (for receiving important guests), red hair or beard, red lion (the mythical animal), theRed Cross, the novelThe Red and the Black,redshift,red giant,red blood cells,red oak, some red flowers (those with passionate connotations, e.g. roses), red fox, names of ferric and other red minerals, red copper, rust, red phosphorus, the colour of blushing with anger or shame, the red nose of an alcoholic (in contrast with that of a clown, see above), the red posterior of ababoon, red meat, regular onion (not the red onion, which is "lila"),litmus paper (in acid), cities, countries, or other political entities associated withleftist movements (e.g.Red Vienna,Red Russia), etc.
The Hungarian words for brothers and sisters are differentiated based upon relative age. There is also a general word for "sibling":testvér, fromtest "body" andvér "blood"; i.e., originating from the same body and blood.
younger
elder
unspecified relative age
brother
öcs
báty
fivér or fiútestvér
sister
húg
nővér néne (archaic)
nővér or lánytestvér
sibling
kistestvér
(nagytestvér)
testvér
(There used to be a separate word for "elder sister",néne, but it has become obsolete [except to mean "aunt" in some dialects] and has been replaced by the generic word for "sister".)
In addition, there are separate prefixes for several ancestors and descendants:
parent
grandparent
great- grandparent
great-great- grandparent
great-great-great- grandparent
great-great-great-great-
grandparent
szülő
nagyszülő
déd(nagy)szülő
ük(nagy)szülő
szép(nagy)szülő (ORük-ük(nagy)szülő)
ó(nagy)szülő
(ORük-ük-ük(nagy)szülő)
child
grandchild
great- grandchild
great-great- grandchild
great-great-great- grandchild
great-great-great-great- grandchild
gyerek
unoka
dédunoka
ükunoka
szépunoka (ORük-ükunoka)
óunoka (ORük-ük-ükunoka)
The words for "boy" and "girl" are applied with possessive suffixes. Nevertheless, the terms are differentiated with different declension or lexemes:
boy/girl
(his/her) son/daughter
(his/her) lover, partner
male
fiú
fia
fiúja/barátja
female
lány
lánya
barátnője
Fia is only used in this, irregular possessive form; it has no nominative on its own (seeinalienable possession). However, the wordfiú can also take the regular suffix, in which case the resulting word (fiúja) will refer to a lover or partner (boyfriend), rather than a male offspring.
The wordfiú (boy) is also often noted as an extreme example of the ability of the language to add suffixes to a word, by formingfiaiéi, adding vowel-form suffixes only, where the result is quite a frequently used word:
"like those of you that are the very least possible to get desecrated"
Words of such length are not used in practice and are difficult to understand even for natives. They were invented to show, in a somewhat facetious way, the ability of the language to form long words (seeagglutinative language). They are not compound words but are formed by adding a series of one- and two-syllable suffixes (and a few prefixes) to a simple root ("szent", saint or holy).There is virtually no limit for the length of words, but when too many suffixes are added, the meaning of the word becomes less clear, and the word becomes hard to understand and will work like a riddle even for native speakers.
The English word best known as being of Hungarian origin is probablypaprika, from Serbo-Croatianpapar "pepper" and the Hungarian diminutive-ka. The most common, however, iscoach, fromkocsi, originallykocsi szekér "car from/in the style ofKocs". Others are:
The oldest surviving words written in Hungarian, from the founding declaration of theBenedictine Abbey of Tihany, 1055. It reads "feheruuaru rea meneh hodu utu rea" (in modern Hungarian "Fehérvárra menő hadi útra", meaning "to the military road going toFehérvár").Hungarian-language road signMedieval Hungarian book (a copy of theHussite Bible), 1466Street sign with a transcription to therunic writing system, used beforeSaint Stephen's State formation
The Hungarian language was originally written in right-to-leftOld Hungarian runes, superficially similar in appearance to the better-knownfuthark runes but unrelated. AfterStephen I of Hungary established theKingdom of Hungary in the year 1000, the old system was gradually discarded in favour of the Latin alphabet and left-to-right order. Although now not used at all in everyday life, the old script is still known and practised by some enthusiasts.
Modern Hungarian is written using an expandedLatin alphabet and has aphonemic orthography, i.e. pronunciation can generally be predicted from the written language. In addition to the standard letters of the Latin alphabet, Hungarian uses several modified Latin characters to represent the additional vowel sounds of the language. These include letters with acute accents(á, é, í, ó, ú) to represent long vowels, and umlauts (ö andü) and their long counterpartső andű to represent front vowels. Sometimes (usually as a result of a technical glitch on a computer)⟨ô⟩ or⟨õ⟩ is used for⟨ő⟩, and⟨û⟩ for⟨ű⟩. This is often due to the limitations of theLatin-1 / ISO-8859-1 code page. These letters are not part of the Hungarian language and are considered misprints. Hungarian can be properly represented with theLatin-2 / ISO-8859-2 code page, but thiscode page is not always available. (Hungarian is the only language using both⟨ő⟩ and⟨ű⟩.)Unicode includes them, and so they can be used on the Internet.
Additionally, the digraphs (letter pairs)⟨ny⟩,⟨ty⟩, and⟨gy⟩ are used to represent the palatal consonants/ɲ/,/c/, and/ɟ/ (roughly analogous to the "d+y" sounds in British "duke" or American "would you")—produced using a similar mechanism as the letter "d" when pronounced with the tongue pointing to thepalate.
Hungarian uses⟨s⟩ for/ʃ/ and⟨sz⟩ for/s/, which is the reverse ofPolish usage. The letter⟨zs⟩ is/ʒ/ and⟨cs⟩ is/t͡ʃ/. These digraphs are considered single letters in the alphabet. The letter⟨ly⟩ is also a "single letter digraph", but is pronounced like/j/ (English⟨y⟩) and appears mostly in old words. The letters⟨dz⟩ and⟨dzs⟩/d͡ʒ/ are exotic remnants and are hard to find even in longer texts. Some examples still in common use aremadzag ("string"),edzeni ("to train (athletically)") anddzsungel ("jungle").
Sometimes additional information is required for partitioning words with digraphs: házszám ("street number") =ház ("house") +szám ("number"), not an unintelligibleházs +zám.
Hungarian distinguishes between long and short vowels, with long vowels written with acutes. It also distinguishes between long and short consonants, with long consonants being doubled. For example,lenni ("to be"),hozzászólás ("comment"). The digraphs, when pronounced as long consonants, are written as trigraphs:⟨sz⟩ +⟨sz⟩ =⟨ssz⟩, e.g.művésszel ("with an artist"). But when a word is hyphenated at such a doubled digraph, the digraph is written out in full both before and after the hyphen. For example, ("with a bus"):
...busz-
szal...
When the first lexeme of a compound ends in a digraph and the second lexeme starts with the same digraph, both digraphs are written out:jegy +gyűrű =jegygyűrű ("engagement/wedding ring",jegy means "sign", "mark". The termjegyben lenni/járni means "to be engaged";gyűrű means "ring").
Almost all trigraphs found in Hungarian text are the result of doubled digraphs, but there are a few exceptions:tizennyolc ("eighteen") is a concatenation oftizen +nyolc. Hungarian hasminimal pairs of single vs. double consonants, for exampletol ("push") vs.toll ("feather" or "pen").
While to English speakers they may seem unusual at first, once the new orthography and pronunciation are learned, written Hungarian is almost completely phonemic (except for etymological spellings and "ly, j" representing/j/).
The Hungarian language uses the so-called easternname order, in which the surname (general, deriving from the family) comes first and thegiven name comes last. If a second given name is used, this follows the first given name.[citation needed]
For clarity, in foreign languages Hungarian names are usually represented in the western name order. Sometimes, however, especially in the neighbouring countries of Hungary – where there is asignificant Hungarian population – the Hungarian name order is retained, as it causes less confusion there.
For an example of foreign use, the birth name of the Hungarian-born physicist called the "father of thehydrogen bomb" wasTeller Ede, but he immigrated to the United States in the 1930s and thus became known asEdward Teller. Prior to the mid-20th century, given names were usually translated along with the name order; this is no longer as common. For example, the pianist usesAndrás Schiff when abroad, notAndrew Schiff (in HungarianSchiff András). If a second given name is present, it becomes a middle name and is usually written out in full, rather than truncated to an initial.
In modern usage, foreign names retain their order when used in Hungarian. Therefore:
AmikorKiss János Los Angelesben volt, láttaJohn Travoltát. (means: When János Kiss was inLos Angeles he saw John Travolta.)
The Hungarian nameKiss János is in the Hungarian name order (János is equivalent toJohn), but the foreign nameJohn Travolta remains in the western name order.
Before the 20th century, not only was it common to reverse the order of foreign personalities, they were also "Hungarianised":Goethe János Farkas (originallyJohann Wolfgang Goethe). This usage sounds odd today, when only a few well-known personalities are referred to using their Hungarianised names, includingVerne Gyula (Jules Verne),Marx Károly (Karl Marx),Kolumbusz Kristóf (Christopher Columbus; the last of these is also translated in English from the original Italian or possibly Ligurian).
Some native speakers disapprove of this usage; the names of certain historical religious personalities (including popes), however, are always Hungarianised by practically all speakers, such asLuther Márton (Martin Luther),Husz János (Jan Hus),Kálvin János (John Calvin); just like the names of monarchs, for example the king of Spain,Juan Carlos I is referred to asI. János Károly or the late queen of the UK,Elizabeth II would be referred to asII. Erzsébet.
Japanese names, which are usually written in western order in the rest of Europe, retain their original order in Hungarian, e. g.Kuroszava Akira instead ofAkira Kurosawa.
As in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, the Hungarian convention for date and time is to go from the general to the specific, starting with the year first, then month, then day.[80]
Although address formatting is increasingly being influenced by standard European conventions, the traditional Hungarian style is:
1052 Budapest, Deák Ferenc tér 1.
So the order is: 1) postcode 2) settlement (most general), 3) street/square/etc. (more specific), 4) house number (most specific). The house number may be followed by the storey and door numbers.[81]
Addresses on envelopes and postal parcels should be formatted and placed on the right side as follows:[81]
Name of the recipient Settlement Street address (up to door number if necessary) (HU-)postcode
The HU- part before the postcode is only for incoming postal traffic from foreign countries.
Note: The stress is always placed on the first syllable of each word. The remaining syllables all receive an equal, lesser stress. All syllables are pronounced clearly and evenly, even at the end of a sentence, unlike in English.
Minden emberi lény szabadon születik és egyenlő méltósága és joga van. Az emberek, ésszel és lelkiismerettel bírván, egymással szemben testvéri szellemben kell hogy viseltessenek.[82]
Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[83]
Formal, when addressing a stranger: "Good day!":Jó napot (kívánok)![joːnɒpotki:vaːnok].
Informal, when addressing a close acquaintance:Szia![siɒ]Szia is a version of the Latin origin loanwordServus.[87]
Good-bye!:Viszontlátásra![visontlaːtaːʃrɒ] (formal) (see above),Viszlát![vislaːt] (semi-informal),Szia! (informal: same stylistic remark as for "See you" or "Hello!" )
Excuse me:Elnézést![ɛlneːzeːʃt]
Please:
Kérem (szépen)[keːrɛmseːpɛn] (This literally means "I'm asking (it/you)nicely", as in GermanBitte schön. See next for a more common form of the polite request.)
Legyen szíves![lɛɟɛnsivɛʃ] (literally: "Be (so) kind!")
I would like ____, please:Szeretnék ____[sɛrɛtneːk] (this example illustrates the use of theconditional tense, as a common form of a polite request; it literally means "I would like".)
Sorry!:Bocsánat![botʃaːnɒt]
Thank you:Köszönöm[køsønøm]
that/this:az[ɒz],ez[ɛz]
How much?:Mennyi?[mɛɲːi]
How much does it cost?:Mennyibe kerül?[mɛɲːibɛkɛryl]
Yes:Igen[iɡɛn]
No:Nem[nɛm]
I do not understand:Nem értem[nɛmeːrtɛm]
I do not know:Nem tudom[nɛmtudom]
Where's the toilet?:
Hol (van) a vécé?[holvɒnɒveːtseː] (vécé/veːtseː is the Hungarian pronunciation of the English abbreviation of "Water Closet")
Hol (van) a mosdó?[holvɒnɒmoʒdoː] – more polite (and word-for-word) version
Do you speak English?:Beszél(sz) angolul?[bɛseːl/bɛseːlsɒŋɡolul] The fact ofasking is only shown by the proper intonation: continually rising until the penultimate syllable, then falling for the last one.
MagyarOK – Text book and exercise book for beginners. Szita, Szilvia; Pelcz, Katalin (2013). Pécs; Pécsi Tudományegyetem.MagyarOK websiteISBN978-963-7178-68-9.
Colloquial Hungarian – The complete course for beginners. Rounds, Carol H.; Sólyom, Erika (2002). London; New York: Routledge.ISBN0-415-24258-4.
This book gives an introduction to the Hungarian language in 15 chapters. The dialogues are available on CDs.
Teach Yourself Hungarian – A complete course for beginners. Pontifex, Zsuzsa (1993). London: Hodder & Stoughton. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Publishing.ISBN0-340-56286-2.
This is a complete course in spoken and written Hungarian. The course consists of 21 chapters with dialogues, culture notes, grammar and exercises. The dialogues are available on cassette.
These course books were developed by the University of Debrecen Summer School program for teaching Hungarian to foreigners. The books are written completely in Hungarian and therefore unsuitable for self study. There is an accompanying 'dictionary' with translations of the Hungarian vocabulary into English, German, and French for the words used in the first two books.
"NTC's Hungarian and English Dictionary" by Magay and Kiss.ISBN0-8442-4968-8 (You may be able to find a newer edition also. This one is 1996.)
Practical Hungarian grammar: [a compact guide to the basics of Hungarian grammar]. Törkenczy, Miklós (2002). Budapest: Corvina.ISBN963-13-5131-9.
Hungarian verbs and essentials of grammar: a practical guide to the mastery of Hungarian (2nd ed.). Törkenczy, Miklós (1999). Budapest: Corvina; Lincolnwood, [Ill.]: Passport Books.ISBN963-13-4778-8.
Hungarian: an essential grammar (2nd ed.). Rounds, Carol (2009). London; New York: Routledge.ISBN0-415-77737-2.
Hungarian: Descriptive grammar. Kenesei, István, Robert M. Vago, and Anna Fenyvesi (1998). London; New York: Routledge.ISBN0-415-02139-1.
Abondolo, Daniel Mario:Hungarian Inflectional Morphology. Akadémiai publishing. Budapest, 1988.ISBN9630546302
Balázs, Géza:The Story of Hungarian. A Guide to the Language. Translated by Thomas J. DeKornfeld. Corvina publishing. Budapest, 1997.ISBN9631343626
Stephanides, Éva H. (ed.):Contrasting English with Hungarian. Akadémiai publishing. Budapest, 1986.ISBN9630539500
Szende, Tamás (December 1994). "Hungarian".Journal of the International Phonetic Association.24 (2). Cambridge University Press:91–94.doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090.S2CID242632087.
^abKulonen, Ulla-Maija (2002). "Kielitiede ja suomen väestön juuret" [Linguistics and the roots of the Finnish population]. In Grünthal, Riho (ed.).Ennen, muinoin. Miten menneisyyttämme tutkitaan [In times gone by. How to study our past]. Tietolipas (in Finnish). Vol. 180.Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. pp. 104–108.ISBN978-951-746-332-4.
^abMichalove, Peter A. (2002). "The Classification of the Uralic Languages: Lexical Evidence from Finno-Ugric".Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen.57.
^Lebedynsky, Iaroslav,Les Nomades: Les peuples nomades de la steppe des origines aux invasions mongoles [The Nomads: the steppe nomad people from origins to Mongol invasions] (in French), p. 191.
^Sugar, P. F. (1996).A History of Hungary. University Press. p. 9.
^Maxwell, Alexander (2004). "Magyarization, language planning, and Whorf: The word uhor as a case study in linguistic relativism".Multilingua.23 (4):319–337.doi:10.1515/mult.2004.23.4.319.S2CID143937903.
^Marcantonio, Angela (2002).The Uralic Language Family: Facts, Myths and Statistics. Blackwell Publishing. p. 19.
^Abondolo, Daniel (1998). "Introduction".The Uralic Languages. London: Routledge. pp. 1–42.
^Abondolo, Daniel (1998). "Hungarian".The Uralic Languages. London: Routledge. p. 453.
^Kenesei, István; Bánréti, Zoltán, eds. (2004).A nyelv és a nyelvek [Language and languages] (in Hungarian) (5., jav., bőv. kiad ed.). Budapest:Akadémiai Kiadó. p. 134.ISBN978-963-05-7959-9.21% finnugor, 9,5% török, 20% szláv, 11% német, 6% latin és görög, 2,5% újlatin, 1% egyéb ismert eredetű és 30% bizonytalan eredetű. NOTE: these percentages add up to 101%.
^Sala, Marius (1988).Vocabularul reprezentativ al limbilor romanice [Representative vocabulary of the Romance languages]. Bucharest: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.
^Schulte, Kim (2009). "Loanwords in Romanian". In Haspelmath, Martin; Tadmor, Uri (eds.).Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. p. 239.
^Laszlo Gyula,The Magyars: Their Life and Civilization, (1996). On p. 37 he states: "This seemed to be an impeccable conclusion until attention was paid to the actual testimony of tree-pollen analyses, and these showed that the linguists had failed to take into account changes in the vegetation zones over the millennia. After analysis of the plant pollens in the supposed homeland of the Magyars, which were preserved in the soil, it became clear to scientists that thetaiga anddeciduous forests were only in contact during the second millennium B.C.E., which is much too late to affect Finno-Ugrian history. So the territory sought by the linguists as the location of the putative 'ancient homeland' never existed. At 5,000-6,000 B.C.E., the period at which the Uralic era has been dated, the taiga was still thousands of kilometres away from the Ural mountains and the mixed deciduous forest had only just begun its northward advance."
^Golden, Peter B. (1992).An introduction to the history of the Turkic peoples: Ethnogenesis and state-formation in medieval and early modern Eurasia and the Middle East. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. pp. 102–103.ISBN9783447032742.
^Danver, Steven L. (2013).Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues. Armonk, NY: Sharpe Reference, an imprint of M.E. Sharpe, Inc. p. 282.ISBN978-1317464006.
^ab"Országos adatok" [National data] (in Hungarian). Central Statistics Office. Retrieved8 October 2017.
^Széchely, István (3 January 2023)."Mintha városok ürültek volna ki" [As if cities had been emptied].Székelyhon (in Hungarian). Retrieved24 January 2023.
^Stojšin, S. (2015). Ethnic Diversity of Population in Vojvodina at the Beginning of the 21st Century. European Quarterlyof Political Attitudes and Mentalities, 4(2), 25-37.https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-428644
^Kálmán Szily presented approx. 10,000 words in his bookA magyar nyelvújítás szótára ("Dictionary of Hungarian language reform", vol. 1–2: 1902 and 1908), without aiming to be comprehensive.
^abA nyelv és a nyelvek ("Language and languages"), edited by István Kenesei. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2004,ISBN963-05-7959-6, p. 77.
Hungarian ↔ English created by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Computer and Automation Research InstituteMTA SZTAKI (also includes dictionaries for the following languages to and from Hungarian : German, French, Italian, Dutch, and Polish)
bab.la - Online Hungarian-English dictionary and language learning portal
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