Как пишется венгерский язык

Hungarian
magyar nyelv
Pronunciation	[ˈmɒɟɒr ˈɲɛlv]
Native to	Hungary and areas of east Austria, Croatia, Romania, northern Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, western Ukraine
Ethnicity	Hungarians
Native speakers	17 million (2003–2014)[1]
Language family	Uralic Finno-Ugric Ugric[2][3][4] Hungarian
Writing system	Latin (Hungarian alphabet) Hungarian Braille Old Hungarian script
Official status
Official language in	Hungary European Union Serbia (in Vojvodina) Austria (in Burgenland) Slovenia (in Prekmurje)
Recognised minority language in	Romania (in Transylvania) Croatia[5] Slovakia Moldova Ukraine (in Berehove, Mukachevo, Vynohradiv and Uzhhorod districts of Transcarpathian region (Zakarpattia Oblast))[citation needed]
Regulated by	Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Language codes
ISO 639-1	hu
ISO 639-2	hun
ISO 639-3	Either: hun – Modern Hungarian ohu – Old Hungarian
Linguist List	ohu Old Hungarian
Glottolog	hung1274
Linguasphere	41-BAA-a
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[6]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Hungarian (magyar nyelv (help·info)) is a Uralic language spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighbouring countries that used to belong to it. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by Hungarian communities in southern Slovakia, western Ukraine (Subcarpathia), central and western Romania (Transylvania), northern Serbia (Vojvodina), northern Croatia, northeastern Slovenia (Prekmurje), and eastern Austria.

It is also spoken by Hungarian diaspora communities worldwide, especially in North America (particularly the United States and Canada) and Israel. With 17 million speakers, it is the Uralic family’s largest member by number of speakers.

Classification[edit]

Hungarian is a member of the Uralic language family. Linguistic connections between Hungarian and other Uralic languages were noticed in the 1670s, and the family itself (then called Finno-Ugric) was established in 1717. Hungarian has traditionally been assigned to the Ugric branch along with the Mansi and Khanty languages of western Siberia (Khanty–Mansia region), but it is no longer clear that it is a valid group.^{[7][4][8][3][9]} When the Samoyed languages were determined to be part of the family, it was thought at first that Finnic and Ugric (Finno-Ugric) were closer to each other than to the Samoyed branch of the family, but that is now frequently questioned.^[2][3][8]

The name of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes of Ungrian/Ugrian, and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as Ǫgry/Ǫgrove (sg. Ǫgrinŭ) seemed to confirm that.^[10] Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the Turkic tribe Onoğur (which means «ten arrows» or «ten tribes»).^[11][12][13]

There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian /aː/ corresponds to Khanty /o/ in certain positions, and Hungarian /h/ corresponds to Khanty /x/, while Hungarian final /z/ corresponds to Khanty final /t/. For example, Hungarian ház [haːz] «house» vs. Khanty xot [xot] «house», and Hungarian száz [saːz] «hundred» vs. Khanty sot [sot] «hundred». The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular.

History[edit]

Prehistory[edit]

Scholarly consensus[edit]

The traditional view holds that the Hungarian language diverged from its Ugric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, in western Siberia east of the southern Urals.^[14] In Hungarian, Iranian loanwords date back to the time immediately following the breakup of Ugric and probably span well over a millennium.^[15] Among these include tehén ‘cow’ (cf. Avestan daénu); tíz ‘ten’ (cf. Avestan dasa); tej ‘milk’ (cf. Persian dáje ‘wet nurse’); and nád ‘reed’ (from late Middle Iranian; cf. Middle Persian nāy and Modern Persian ney).

Archaeological evidence from present-day southern Bashkortostan confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains.^[16] The Onoğurs (and Bulgars) 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», from Turkic; and daru «crane», from the related Permic languages), and includes words borrowed from Oghur Turkic; e.g. borjú «calf» (cf. Chuvash păru, părăv vs. Turkish buzağı);^[17] dél ‘noon; south’ (cf. Chuvash tĕl vs. Turkish dial. düš).^[18] Many words related to agriculture,^[19] state administration and even family relationships show evidence of such backgrounds.^{[citation needed]} Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in a similarly dramatic way over these three centuries.^{[citation needed]}

After the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin, the language came into contact with a variety of speech communities, among them Slavic, Turkic, and German. Turkic loans from this period come mainly from the Pechenegs and Cumanians, who settled in Hungary during the 12th and 13th centuries: e.g. koboz «cobza» (cf. Turkish kopuz ‘lute’); komondor «mop dog» (< *kumandur < Cuman). Hungarian borrowed 20% of words from neighbouring Slavic languages: e.g. tégla ‘brick’; mák ‘poppy seed’; szerda ‘Wednesday’; csütörtök ‘Thursday’…; karácsony ‘Christmas’.^[20][21] These languages in turn borrowed words from Hungarian: e.g. Serbo-Croatian ašov from Hungarian ásó ‘spade’. About 1.6 percent of the Romanian lexicon is of Hungarian origin.^[22][23]

In the 21st century, studies support an origin of the Uralic languages, including early Hungarian, in eastern or central Siberia, somewhere between the Ob and Yenisei river or near the Sayan mountains in the Russian–Mongolian border region.^[24] A 2019 study based on genetics, archaeology and linguistics, found that early Uralic speakers arrived in Europe from the east, specifically from eastern Siberia.^[25]

Alternative views[edit]

Hungarian historian and archaeologist Gyula László claims that geological data from pollen analysis seems to contradict the placing of the ancient Hungarian homeland near the Urals.^[26]

Historical controversy over origins[edit]

Today, the consensus among linguists is that Hungarian is a member of the Uralic family of languages.^[27]

The classification of Hungarian as a Uralic/Finno-Ugric rather than a Turkic 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 a superfamily of Ural–Altaic languages. Following an academic debate known as Az 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 linguist Josef Budenz.^[28]

Hungarians did, in fact, absorb some Turkic influences during several centuries of cohabitation. The influence on Hungarians was mainly from the Turkic Oghur speakers such as Sabirs, Bulgars of Atil, Kabars and Khazars. The Oghur tribes are often connected with the Hungarians whose exoethnonym is usually derived from Onogurs (> (H)ungars), a Turkic tribal confederation.^[29] The similarity between customs of Hungarians and the Chuvash people, the only surviving member of the Oghur tribes, is visible. For example, the Hungarians appear to have learned animal husbandry techniques from the Oghur speaking Chuvash people (or historically Suvar people^[30]), as a high proportion of words specific to agriculture and livestock are of Chuvash origin. A strong Chuvash influence was also apparent in Hungarian burial customs.

Old Hungarian[edit]

The first written accounts of Hungarian date to the 10th century, such as mostly Hungarian personal names and place names in De Administrando Imperio, written in Greek by Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII.^[31] No significant texts written in Old Hungarian script have survived, because the medium of writing used at the time, wood, is perishable.

The Kingdom of Hungary was founded in 1000 by Stephen I. The country became a Western-styled Christian (Roman Catholic) state, with Latin script replacing Hungarian runes. The earliest remaining fragments of the language are found in the establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany from 1055, intermingled with Latin text. The first extant text fully written in Hungarian is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer, which dates to the 1190s. Although the orthography of these early texts differed considerably from that used today, contemporary Hungarians can still understand a great deal of the reconstructed spoken language, despite changes in grammar and vocabulary.^{[citation needed]}

A more extensive body of Hungarian literature arose after 1300. The earliest known example of Hungarian religious poetry is the 14th-century Lamentations of Mary. The first Bible translation was the Hussite Bible in the 1430s.^[32][33]

The standard language lost its diphthongs, and several postpositions transformed into suffixes, including reá «onto» (the phrase utu rea «onto the way» found in the 1055 text would later become útra). There were also changes in the system of vowel harmony. At one time, Hungarian used six verb tenses, while today only two or three are used.^{[34][note 1]}

Modern Hungarian[edit]

In 1533, Kraków printer Benedek Komjáti published Letters of St. Paul in Hungarian ^[hu] (modern orthography: A Szent Pál levelei magyar nyelven), the first Hungarian-language book set in movable type.

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 of Ottoman rule (1541 to 1699).

In the 19th century, a group of writers, most notably Ferenc Kazinczy, spearheaded a process of nyelvújítás (language revitalization). Some words were shortened (győzedelem > győzelem, ‘victory’ or ‘triumph’); a number of dialectal words spread nationally (e.g., cselleng ‘dawdle’); extinct words were reintroduced (dísz, ‘décor’); a wide range of expressions were coined 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.

The 19th and 20th centuries saw further standardization of the language, and differences between mutually comprehensible dialects gradually diminished.

In 1920, Hungary signed the Treaty of Trianon, losing 71 percent of its territory and one-third of the ethnic Hungarian population along with it.

Today, the language holds official status nationally in Hungary and regionally in Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Austria and Slovenia.

Geographic distribution[edit]

Country	Speakers	Notes
Hungary	9,896,333	2011[35]
Romania (mainly Transylvania)	1,038,806	2021[36]
Slovakia	462,175	2021[37]
Serbia (mainly Vojvodina)	241,164	2011[38] [circular reference]
Ukraine (mainly Zakarpattia)	149,400	2001[39]
United States	117,973	2000[40]
Canada	75,555	2001[41]
Israel	70,000
Austria (mainly Burgenland)	22,000
Australia	20,883	2011[42]
Croatia	16,500
Slovenia (mainly Prekmurje)	9,240
Total	12–13 million

Source: National censuses, Ethnologue

Hungarian has about 13 million^[43][44][45] 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 a second language.^[35] About 2.2 million speakers live in other areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon (1920). Of these, the largest group lives in Transylvania, the western half of present-day Romania, where there are approximately 1.25 million Hungarians. There are large Hungarian communities also in Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine, and Hungarians can also be found in Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia, 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 the Hungarian American community and 1.5 million with Hungarian ancestry^[46] in the United States.

Official status[edit]

Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, and thus an official language of the European Union. Hungarian is also one of the official languages of Serbian province of Vojvodina and an official language of three municipalities in Slovenia: Hodoš, Dobrovnik and Lendava, along with Slovene. Hungarian is officially recognized as a minority or regional language in Austria, Croatia, Romania, Zakarpattia in Ukraine, and Slovakia. In Romania it is a recognized minority language used at local level in communes, towns and municipalities with an ethnic Hungarian population of over 20%.^[47]

Dialects[edit]

The dialects of Hungarian identified by Ethnologue 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 Hungarian Csángó dialect, which is mentioned but not listed separately by Ethnologue, is spoken primarily in Bacău County in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from other Hungarian people, and therefore preserved features that closely resemble earlier forms of Hungarian.

Phonology[edit]

Hungarian has 14 vowel phonemes and 25 consonant phonemes. The vowel phonemes can be grouped as pairs of short and long vowels such as o and ó. Most of the pairs have an almost similar pronunciation and vary significantly only in their duration. However, pairs a/á and e/é differ both in closedness and length.

Consonant phonemes of Hungarian^[48]

	Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n			ɲ
Stop	p	b	t	d		c	ɟ	k	ɡ
Affricate		t͡s	d͡z	t͡ʃ	d͡ʒ
Fricative	f	v	s	z	ʃ	ʒ			h
Trill			r
Approximant			l			j

Consonant length is also distinctive in Hungarian. Most consonant phonemes can occur as geminates.

The sound voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/, written ⟨gy⟩, sounds similar to ‘d’ in British English ‘duty’. It occurs in the name of the country, «Magyarország» (Hungary), pronounced /ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ/. It is one of three palatal consonants, the others being ⟨ty⟩ and ⟨ny⟩. Historically a fourth palatalized consonant ʎ existed, still written ⟨ly⟩.

A single ‘r’ is pronounced as an alveolar tap (akkora ‘of that size’), but a double ‘r’ is pronounced as an alveolar trill (akkorra ‘by that time’), like in Spanish and Italian.

Prosody[edit]

Primary stress is always on the first syllable of a word, as in Finnish and the neighbouring Slovak and Czech. 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.

Grammar[edit]

Hungarian is an agglutinative language. It uses various affixes, mainly suffixes but also some prefixes and a circumfix, to change a word’s meaning and its grammatical function.

Vowel harmony[edit]

Hungarian uses vowel 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[edit]

Nouns have 18 cases,^[49] 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 becomes Péter 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 always postpositions instead of prepositions.

There are two types of articles in Hungarian, definite and indefinite, which roughly correspond to the equivalents in English.

Adjectives[edit]

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’.

Verbs[edit]

Word order[edit]

The neutral word order is subject–verb–object (SVO). However, Hungarian is a topic-prominent language, and so has a word order that depends not only on syntax but also on the topic–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 movie The 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. Also, 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.
• János látja az almát. — ‘John sees the apple’. (Peter may not see the apple.)
• János látja az almát. — ‘It is John who sees the apple’. (The listener may have thought that it is Peter.)
• Látja János az almát. — ‘John does see the apple’. (The listener may have thought that John does not see the apple.)
• János az almát látja. — ‘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.)

Politeness[edit]

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 as maga. Aside from the different pronoun 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 or pertu, per tu from Latin): Used generally, i.e. with persons with whom none of the above forms of politeness is required, and, in religious contexts, to address God. The highest rank, the king, 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 without T–V distinction in 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 the te (least polite) form right from the beginning of their presence in Hungary. A typical example is the Swedish furniture shop IKEA, whose web site and other publications address the customers in te form. When a news site^[50] asked IKEA—using the te form—why they address their customers this way, IKEA’s PR Manager explained in his answer—using the ön 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 of Telenor (a mobile network operator) towards its customers. Telenor chose to communicate towards business customers in the polite ön form while all other customers are addressed in the less polite te form.

Vocabulary[edit]

Examples with ad

Hungarian	English
ad	gives
Derived terms with suffixes
adni	to give
adás	transmission, broadcast
adó	tax or transmitter
adózik	pays tax
adózó	taxpayer
adós	debtor
adósság	debt
adat	data
adakozik	gives (practise charity)
adalék	additive (ingredient)
adag	dose, portion
adomány	donation
adoma	anecdote
With verbal prefixes
átad	hands over
bead	hands in
elad	sells
felad	gives up, mails
hozzáad	augments, adds to
kiad	rents out, publishes, extradites
lead	loses weight, deposits (an object)
megad	repays (debt), calls (poker), grants (permission)
összead	adds (does mathematical addition)

During the first early phase of Hungarian language reforms (late 18th and early 19th centuries) more than ten thousand words were coined,^[51] several thousand of which are still actively used today (see also Ferenc 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» in agglutinating 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^[52] (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,^[52] 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.^[53] The default Hungarian lexicon is usually estimated to comprise 60,000 to 100,000 words.^[54] (Independently of specific languages, speakers actively use at most 10,000 to 20,000 words,^[55] with an average intellectual using 25,000 to 30,000 words.^[54]) However, all the Hungarian lexemes collected from technical texts, dialects etc. would total up to 1,000,000 words.^[56]

Parts of the lexicon can be organized using word-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 other Uralic languages like Finnish, Estonian, Mansi and Khanty. Examples are the verb él «live» (Finnish elää^[57]), the numbers kettő (2), három (3), négy (4) (cf. Mansi китыг kitig, хурум khurum, нила nila, Finnish kaksi, kolme, neljä,^[57] Estonian kaks, kolm, neli), as well as víz ‘water’, kéz ‘hand’, vér ‘blood’, fej ‘head’ (cf. Finnish^[57] and Estonian vesi, käsi, veri, Finnish pää,^[57] Estonian pea or pää).

Words for elementary kinship and nature are more Ugric, less r-Turkic and less Slavic. Agricultural words 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 and/or -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.^[58]

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.

Another source^[59] differs in that loanwords in Hungarian are held to constitute about 45% of bases in the language. Although the lexical fraction of native words in Hungarian is 55%, their use accounts for 88.4% of all words used (the fraction of loanwords used being just 11.6%). Therefore, the history of Hungarian has come, especially since the 19th century, to favor neologisms from original bases, whilst still having developed as many terms from neighboring languages in the lexicon.

Word formation[edit]

Words can be compounds or derived. Most derivation is with suffixes, but there is a small set of derivational prefixes as well.

Compounds[edit]

Compounds have been present in the language since the Proto-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 word arc:

orr (nose) + száj (mouth) → orca (face) (colloquial until the end of the 19th century and still in use in some dialects) > arc (face)^[60]

Compounds are made up of two base words: the first is the prefix, the latter is the suffix. A compound can be subordinative: the prefix is in logical connection with the suffix. If the prefix is the subject of the suffix, the compound is generally classified as a subjective one. There are objective, determinative, and adjunctive compounds as well. Some examples are given below:

Subjective:

menny (heaven) + dörgés (rumbling) → mennydörgés (thundering)

Nap (Sun) + sütötte (lit by) → napsütötte (sunlit)

Objective:

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 more syllables 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 are coordinatives: there is no concrete relation between the prefix and the suffix. Subcategories include reduplication (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 prefix giz 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:

elme [mind; standalone base] + (gyógy [medical] + intézet [institute]) → elmegyógyintézet (asylum)

(hadi [militarian] + fogoly [prisoner]) + (munka [work] + tábor [camp]) → hadifogoly-munkatábor (work camp of prisoners of war)

Noteworthy lexical items[edit]

Points of the compass[edit]

Hungarian words for the points of the compass are directly derived from the position of the Sun during the day in the Northern Hemisphere.

• North = észak (from «éj(szaka)», ‘night’), as the Sun never shines from the north
• South = dél (‘noon’), as the Sun shines from the south at noon
• East = kelet (‘rising’), as the Sun rises in the east
• West = nyugat (‘setting’), as the Sun sets in the west

Two words for «red»[edit]

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 and/or more red and less orange) hue of red. In English similar differences exist between «scarlet» and «red». While many languages have multiple names for this colour, often Hungarian scholars assume that this is unique in recognizing two shades of red as separate and distinct «folk colours».^[61]

However, the two words are also used independently of the above in collocations. «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 of Budapest 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 and paprika, red card suits (hearts and diamonds), red stripes on a flag (but the red 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), the Red Cross, the novel The 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 a baboon, red meat, regular onion (not the red onion, which is «lila»), litmus paper (in acid), cities, countries, or other political entities associated with leftist movements (e.g. Red Vienna, Red Russia), etc.

Kinship terms[edit]

The Hungarian words for brothers and sisters are differentiated based upon relative age. There is also a general word for «sibling»: testvér, from test «body» and vér «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 (OR ük-ük(nagy)szülő)	ó(nagy)szülő (OR ük-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 (OR ük-ükunoka)	óunoka (OR ük-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 (see inalienable possession). However, the word fiú 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 word fiú (boy) is also often noted as an extreme example of the ability of the language to add suffixes to a word, by forming fiaiéi, adding vowel-form suffixes only, where the result is quite a frequently used word:

fiú	boy
fia	his/her son
fiai	his/her sons
fiáé	his/her son’s (singular object)
fiáéi	his/her son’s (plural object)
fiaié	his/her sons’ (singular object)
fiaiéi	his/her sons’ (plural object)

Extremely long words[edit]

• megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

Partition to root and suffixes with explanations:

meg-	verb prefix; in this case, it means «completed»
szent	holy (the word root)
-ség	like English «-ness», as in «holiness»
-t(e)len	variant of «-tlen», noun suffix expressing the lack of something; like English «-less», as in «useless»
-ít	constitutes a transitive verb from an adjective
-het	expresses possibility; somewhat similar to the English modal verbs «may» or «can»
-(e)tlen	another variant of «-tlen»
-ség	(see above)
-es	constitutes an adjective from a noun; like English «-y» as in «witty»
-ked	attached to an adjective (e.g. «strong»), produces the verb «to pretend to be (strong)»
-és	constitutes a noun from a verb; there are various ways this is done in English, e.g. «-ance» in «acceptance»
-eitek	plural possessive suffix, second-person plural (e.g. «apple» → «your apples», where «your» refers to multiple people)
-ért	approximately translates to «because of», or in this case simply «for»

Translation: «for your [plural] repeated pretending to be indesecratable»

The above word is often considered to be the longest word in Hungarian, although there are longer words like:

• legeslegmegszentségteleníttethetetlenebbjeitekként

leges-leg-meg-szent-ség-telen-ít-tet-het-etlen-ebb-je-i-tek-ként

«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 (see agglutinative 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.

Hungarian words in English[edit]

The English word best known as being of Hungarian origin is probably paprika, from Serbo-Croatian papar «pepper» and the Hungarian diminutive -ka. The most common, however, is coach, from kocsi, originally kocsi szekér «car from/in the style of Kocs». Others are:

• shako, from csákó, from csákósüveg «peaked cap»
• sabre, from szablya
• heyduck, from hajdúk, plural of hajdú «brigand»
• tolpatch, from talpas «foot-soldier», apparently derived from talp «sole».

Writing system[edit]

The Hungarian language was originally written in right-to-left Old Hungarian runes, superficially similar in appearance to the better-known futhark runes but unrelated. After Stephen I of Hungary established the Kingdom 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 expanded Latin alphabet and has a phonemic 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 and ü) and their long counterparts ő and ű 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 the Latin-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 the Latin-2 / ISO-8859-2 code page, but this code 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 letter pairs ⟨ny⟩, ⟨ty⟩, and ⟨gy⟩ 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 the palate.

Hungarian uses ⟨s⟩ for /ʃ/ and ⟨sz⟩ for /s/, which is the reverse of Polish 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 are madzag («string»), edzeni («to train (athletically)») and dzsungel («jungle»).

Sometimes additional information is required for partitioning words with digraphs: házszám («street number») = ház («house») + szám («number»), not an unintelligible házs + 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 doubled, become trigraphs: ⟨sz⟩ + ⟨sz⟩ = ⟨ssz⟩, e.g. művésszel («with an artist»). But when the digraph occurs at the end of a line, all of the letters are written out. 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 term jegyben lenni/járni means «to be engaged»; gyűrű means «ring»).

Usually a trigraph is a double digraph, but there are a few exceptions: tizennyolc («eighteen») is a concatenation of tizen + nyolc. There are doubling minimal pairs: tol («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/).

Word order[edit]

The word order is basically from general to specific. This is a typical analytical approach and is used generally in Hungarian.

Name order[edit]

The Hungarian language uses the so-called eastern name order, in which the surname (general, deriving from the family) comes first and the given name comes last. If a second given name is used, this follows the first given name.^{[citation needed]}

Hungarian names in foreign languages[edit]

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 a significant 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 the hydrogen bomb» was Teller Ede, but he immigrated to the United States in the 1930s and thus became known as Edward 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 uses András Schiff when abroad, not Andrew Schiff (in Hungarian Schiff 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.

Foreign names in Hungarian[edit]

In modern usage, foreign names retain their order when used in Hungarian. Therefore:

• Amikor Kiss János Los Angelesben volt, látta John Travoltát. (means: When János Kiss was in Los Angeles he saw John Travolta.)

The Hungarian name Kiss János is in the Hungarian name order (János is equivalent to John), but the foreign name John 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 (originally Johann Wolfgang Goethe). This usage sounds odd today, when only a few well-known personalities are referred to using their Hungarianised names, including Verne Gyula (Jules Verne), Marx Károly (Karl Marx), Kolumbusz Kristóf (Christopher Columbus; note that 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 as Luther 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 as I. János Károly or the late queen of the UK, Elizabeth II would be referred to as II. 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 of Akira Kurosawa.

Date and time[edit]

The Hungarian convention for date and time is to go from the generic to the specific: 1. year, 2. month, 3. day, 4. hour, 5. minute, (6. second)

The year and day are always written in Arabic numerals, followed by a full stop. The month can be written by its full name or can be abbreviated, or even denoted by Roman or Arabic numerals. Except for the first case (month written by its full name), the month is followed by a full stop. Usually, when the month is written in letters, there is no leading zero before the day. On the other hand, when the month is written in Arabic numerals, a leading zero is common, but not obligatory. Except at the beginning of a sentence, the name of the month always begins with a lower-case letter.

Hours, minutes, and seconds are separated by a colon (H:m:s). Fractions of a second are separated by a full stop from the rest of the time. Hungary generally uses the 24-hour clock format, but in verbal (and written) communication 12-hour clock format can also be used. See below for usage examples.

Date and time may be separated by a comma or simply written one after the other.

• 2020. február 9. 16:23:42 or 2020. február 9., 16:23:42
• 2020. febr. 9.
• 2020. 02. 09. or 2020. 2. 9. (rarely)
• 2020. II. 9.

Date separated by hyphen is also spreading, especially on datestamps. Here – just like the version separated by full stops – leading zeros are in use.

• 2020-02-09

When only hours and minutes are written in a sentence (so not only «displaying» time), these parts can be separated by a full stop (e.g. «Találkozzunk 10.35-kor.» – «Let’s meet at 10.35.»), or it is also regular to write hours in normal size, and minutes put in superscript (and not necessarily) underlined (e.g. «A találkozó 10³⁵-kor kezdődik.» or «A találkozó 10³⁵-kor kezdődik.» – «The meeting begins at 10.35.»).

Also, in verbal and written communication it is common to use «délelőtt» (literally «before noon») and «délután» (lit. «after noon») abbreviated as «de.» and «du.» respectively. Délelőtt and délután is said or written before the time, e.g. «Délután 4 óra van.» – «It’s 4 p.m.». However e.g. «délelőtt 5 óra» (should mean «5 a.m.») or «délután 10 óra» (should mean «10 p.m.») are never used, because at these times the sun is not up, instead «hajnal» («dawn»), «reggel» («morning»), «este» («evening») and «éjjel» («night») is used, however there are no exact rules for the use of these, as everybody uses them according to their habits (e.g. somebody may have woken up at 5 a.m. so he/she says «Reggel 6-kor ettem.» – «I had food at *morning 6.», and somebody woke up at 11 a.m. so he/she says «Hajnali 6-kor még aludtam.» – «I was still sleeping at *dawn 6.»). Roughly, these expressions mean these times:

Expression	Approximate time
Hajnal	4–6 a.m.
Reggel	6–9 a.m.
Délelőtt (de.)	9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Dél*	=12 p.m. (=»noon»)
Délután (du.)	12–6 p.m.
Este	6–11 p.m.
Éjjel	11 p.m. – 4 a.m.
Éjfél*	=12 a.m. (=»midnight»)

• * «Dél» and «éjfél» mean these exact times, so using time after them is incorrect. So there is no «Éjfél 0-kor még buliztunk» («We were still partying at *midnight 0.») or «Dél 12-kor süt a nap.» («The sun shines at *noon 12.»). Instead «Éjfélkor még buliztunk.» and «Délben süt a nap.» is correct. (More confusingly, one can say «Déli 12-kor süt a nap.», meaning «The sun shines at 12 of noon.», i.e. «The sun shines at 12, which is the 12 of daytime.») «Délen süt a nap» on the other hand means «The sun shines in the south», as Dél means both noon and south.

Addresses[edit]

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.^[62]

Addresses on envelopes and postal parcels should be formatted and placed on the right side as follows:^[62]

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.

Vocabulary examples[edit]

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.

Example text[edit]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Hungarian:

Minden emberi lény szabadon születik és egyenlő méltósága és joga van. Az emberek, ésszel és lelkiismerettel bírván, egymással szemben testvéri szellemben kell hogy viseltessenek.^[63]

Article 1 of the Universal 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.^[64]

Numbers[edit]

Source: Wiktionary^[65]

English	Hungarian	IPA
one hundred	száz	/ˈsaːz/
one thousand	ezer	/ˈɛzɛr/
two thousand	kétezer (kettőezer)	/ˈkeːtɛzɛr/ (/ˈkettøːɛzɛr/)
two thousand (and) nineteen (2019)	kétezer-tizenkilenc (kettőezertizenkilenc)	/ˈkeːtɛzɛrtizɛŋkilɛnt͡s/ (/ˈkettøːɛzɛrtizɛŋkilɛnt͡s/)
one million	egymillió	/ˈɛɟmilːiʲoː/
one billion	egymilliárd	/ˈɛɟmilːiʲaːrd/

Time[edit]

Days of the week

English	Hungarian	IPA
Monday	hétfő	/ˈheːtføː/
Tuesday	kedd	/ˈkɛdː/
Wednesday	szerda	/ˈsɛrdɒ/
Thursday	csütörtök	/ˈt͡ʃytørtøk/
Friday	péntek	/ˈpeːntɛk/
Saturday	szombat	/ˈsombɒt/
Sunday	vasárnap	/ˈvɒʃaːrnɒp/

Source: Wiktionary^{[66][unreliable source?]}

Months of the year

English	Hungarian	IPA
January	január	/ˈjɒnuaːr/
February	február	/ˈfɛbruaːr/
March	március	/ˈmaːrt͡siʲuʃ/
April	április	/ˈaːpriliʃ/
May	május	/ˈmaːjuʃ/
June	június	/ˈjuːniʲuʃ/
July	július	/ˈjuːliʲuʃ/
August	augusztus	/ˈɒuɡustuʃ/
September	szeptember	/ˈsɛptɛmbɛr/
October	október	/ˈoktoːbɛr/
November	november	/ˈnovɛmbɛr/
December	december	/ˈdɛt͡sɛmbɛr/

Source:Wiktionary^{[67][unreliable source?]}

Conversation[edit]

• Hungarian (person, language): magyar [mɒɟɒr]
• Hello!:
  • Formal, when addressing a stranger: «Good day!»: Jó napot (kívánok)! [joːnɒpot ki:vaːnok].
  • Informal, when addressing a close acquaintance: Szia! [siɒ] Szia is a version of the Latin origin loanword Servus.^[68]
• 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) [keːrɛm seːpɛn] (This literally means «I’m asking (it/you) nicely«, as in German Bitte schön. See next for a more common form of the polite request.)
  • Legyen szíves! [lɛɟɛn sivɛʃ] (literally: «Be (so) kind!»)
• I would like ____, please: Szeretnék ____ [sɛrɛtneːk] (this example illustrates the use of the conditional 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? [mɛɲːibɛ kɛryl]
• Yes: Igen [iɡɛn]
• No: Nem [nɛm]
• I do not understand: Nem értem [nɛm eːrtɛm]
• I do not know: Nem tudom [nɛm tudom]
• Where’s the toilet?:
  • Hol (van) a vécé? [hol vɒn ɒ veːtseː] (vécé/veːtseː is the Hungarian pronunciation of the English abbreviation of «Water Closet»)
  • Hol (van) a mosdó? [hol vɒn ɒ moʒdoː] – more polite (and word-for-word) version
• generic toast: Egészségünkre! [ɛɡeːʃːeːɡyŋkrɛ] (literally: «To our health!»)
• juice: gyümölcslé [ɟymøltʃleː]
• water: víz [viːz]
• wine: bor [bor]
• beer: sör [ʃør]
• tea: tea [tɛɒ]
• milk: tej [tɛj]
• Do you speak English?: Beszél(sz) angolul? [bɛseːl / bɛseːls ɒŋɡolul] Note that the fact of asking is only shown by the proper intonation: continually rising until the penultimate syllable, then falling for the last one.
• I love you: Szeretlek [sɛrɛtlɛk]
• Help!: Segítség! [ʃɛɡiːtʃeːɡ]
• It is needed: kell
• I need to go: Mennem kell

Recorded examples[edit]

• A Hungarian speaker recorded in Taiwan

• A bilingual speaker of Hungarian and Swabian, recorded in Perbál, Hungary

• A native Icelandic speaker speaking Hungarian

See also[edit]

• Hungarian grammar
• Hungarian verbs
• Hungarian noun phrase
• Hungarian phonology
• History of the Hungarian language
• Regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and other Uralic languages
• Hungarian dialects
• Hungarian Cultural Institute
• List of English words of Hungarian origin
• BABEL Speech Corpus
• Magyar szótár (Dictionary of the Hungarian Language)
• Szabadkai Friss Újság (1901), Hungarian language daily newspaper

Bibliography[edit]

Courses[edit]

• MagyarOK – Text book and exercise book for beginners. Szita, Szilvia; Pelcz, Katalin (2013). Pécs; Pécsi Tudományegyetem. MagyarOK website ISBN 978-963-7178-68-9.
• Colloquial Hungarian – The complete course for beginners. Rounds, Carol H.; Sólyom, Erika (2002). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24258-4.

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. ISBN 0-340-56286-2.

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.

• Hungarolingua 1 – Magyar nyelvkönyv. Hoffmann, István; et al. (1996). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-083-8
• Hungarolingua 2 – Magyar nyelvkönyv. Hlavacska, Edit; et al. (2001). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-03-6698-3
• Hungarolingua 3 – Magyar nyelvkönyv. Hlavacska, Edit; et al. (1999). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-083-8

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. ISBN 0-8442-4968-8 (You may be able to find a newer edition also. This one is 1996.)

Grammars[edit]

• Gyakorló magyar nyelvtan / A Practical Hungarian grammar (2009, 2010). Szita Szilvia, Görbe Tamás. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. 978 963 05 8703 7.
• A practical Hungarian grammar (3rd, rev. ed.). Keresztes, László (1999). Debrecen: Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-300-4.
• Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language (1882). Ignatius Singer. London: Trübner & Co.
• Practical Hungarian grammar: [a compact guide to the basics of Hungarian grammar]. Törkenczy, Miklós (2002). Budapest: Corvina. ISBN 963-13-5131-9.
• 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. ISBN 963-13-4778-8.
• Hungarian: an essential grammar (2nd ed.). Rounds, Carol (2009). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-77737-2.
• Hungarian: Descriptive grammar. Kenesei, István, Robert M. Vago, and Anna Fenyvesi (1998). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-02139-1.
• Hungarian Language Learning References (including the short reviews of three of the above books)
• Noun Declension Tables – HUNGARIAN. Budapest: Pons. Klett. ISBN 978-963-9641-04-4
• Verb Conjugation Tables – HUNGARIAN. Budapest: Pons. Klett. ISBN 978-963-9641-03-7

Others[edit]

• Abondolo, Daniel Mario: Hungarian Inflectional Morphology. Akadémiai publishing. Budapest, 1988. ISBN 9630546302
• Balázs, Géza: The Story of Hungarian. A Guide to the Language. Translated by Thomas J. DeKornfeld. Corvina publishing. Budapest, 1997. ISBN 9631343626
• Stephanides, Éva H. (ed.): Contrasting English with Hungarian. Akadémiai publishing. Budapest, 1986. ISBN 9630539500
• Szende, Tamás (December 1994). «Hungarian». Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. 24 (2): 91–94. doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090. S2CID 242632087.

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Free downloadable Hungarian teaching and learning material
• Introduction to Hungarian
• Hungarian Profile
• List of formative suffixes in Hungarian
• The relationship between the Finnish and the Hungarian languages
• Hungarian Language Review at How-to-learn-any-language.com
• «The Hungarian Language: A Short Descriptive Grammar» by Beáta Megyesi (PDF document)
• The old site of the Indiana University Institute of Hungarian Studies (various resources)
• Hungarian Language Learning References on the Hungarian Language Page (short reviews of useful books)
• One of the oldest Hungarian texts – A Halotti Beszéd (The Funeral Oration)
• WikiLang – Hungarian Page (Hungarian grammar / lessons, in English)
• Hungarian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary’s Swadesh-list appendix)
• Basic Hungarian language course (book + audio files) USA Foreign Service Institute (FSI)
• Old Hungarian Corpus

Encyclopaedia Humana Hungarica[edit]

• Introduction to the History of the Language; The Pre-Hungarian Period; The Early Hungarian Period; The Old Hungarian Period
• The Linguistic Records of the Early Old Hungarian Period; The Linguistic System of the Age
• The Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language of the Old Hungarian Period
• The Late Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language
• The First Half of the Middle Hungarian Period; Turkish Loan Words

Dictionaries[edit]

• Hungarian ↔ English created by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Computer and Automation Research Institute MTA 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
• English-Hungarian-Finnish – three-language freely editable online dictionary
• Collection of Hungarian Technical Dictionaries
• Hungarian bilingual dictionaries
• Hungarian-English dictionary
• English-Hungarian dictionary
• Hungarian Verb Conjugation

Hungarian
magyar nyelv
Pronunciation	[ˈmɒɟɒr ˈɲɛlv]
Native to	Hungary and areas of east Austria, Croatia, Romania, northern Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, western Ukraine
Ethnicity	Hungarians
Native speakers	17 million (2003–2014)[1]
Language family	Uralic Finno-Ugric Ugric[2][3][4] Hungarian
Writing system	Latin (Hungarian alphabet) Hungarian Braille Old Hungarian script
Official status
Official language in	Hungary European Union Serbia (in Vojvodina) Austria (in Burgenland) Slovenia (in Prekmurje)
Recognised minority language in	Romania (in Transylvania) Croatia[5] Slovakia Moldova Ukraine (in Berehove, Mukachevo, Vynohradiv and Uzhhorod districts of Transcarpathian region (Zakarpattia Oblast))[citation needed]
Regulated by	Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Language codes
ISO 639-1	hu
ISO 639-2	hun
ISO 639-3	Either: hun – Modern Hungarian ohu – Old Hungarian
Linguist List	ohu Old Hungarian
Glottolog	hung1274
Linguasphere	41-BAA-a
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[6]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Hungarian (magyar nyelv (help·info)) is a Uralic language spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighbouring countries that used to belong to it. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by Hungarian communities in southern Slovakia, western Ukraine (Subcarpathia), central and western Romania (Transylvania), northern Serbia (Vojvodina), northern Croatia, northeastern Slovenia (Prekmurje), and eastern Austria.

It is also spoken by Hungarian diaspora communities worldwide, especially in North America (particularly the United States and Canada) and Israel. With 17 million speakers, it is the Uralic family’s largest member by number of speakers.

Classification[edit]

Hungarian is a member of the Uralic language family. Linguistic connections between Hungarian and other Uralic languages were noticed in the 1670s, and the family itself (then called Finno-Ugric) was established in 1717. Hungarian has traditionally been assigned to the Ugric branch along with the Mansi and Khanty languages of western Siberia (Khanty–Mansia region), but it is no longer clear that it is a valid group.^{[7][4][8][3][9]} When the Samoyed languages were determined to be part of the family, it was thought at first that Finnic and Ugric (Finno-Ugric) were closer to each other than to the Samoyed branch of the family, but that is now frequently questioned.^[2][3][8]

The name of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes of Ungrian/Ugrian, and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as Ǫgry/Ǫgrove (sg. Ǫgrinŭ) seemed to confirm that.^[10] Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the Turkic tribe Onoğur (which means «ten arrows» or «ten tribes»).^[11][12][13]

There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian /aː/ corresponds to Khanty /o/ in certain positions, and Hungarian /h/ corresponds to Khanty /x/, while Hungarian final /z/ corresponds to Khanty final /t/. For example, Hungarian ház [haːz] «house» vs. Khanty xot [xot] «house», and Hungarian száz [saːz] «hundred» vs. Khanty sot [sot] «hundred». The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular.

History[edit]

Prehistory[edit]

Scholarly consensus[edit]

The traditional view holds that the Hungarian language diverged from its Ugric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, in western Siberia east of the southern Urals.^[14] In Hungarian, Iranian loanwords date back to the time immediately following the breakup of Ugric and probably span well over a millennium.^[15] Among these include tehén ‘cow’ (cf. Avestan daénu); tíz ‘ten’ (cf. Avestan dasa); tej ‘milk’ (cf. Persian dáje ‘wet nurse’); and nád ‘reed’ (from late Middle Iranian; cf. Middle Persian nāy and Modern Persian ney).

Archaeological evidence from present-day southern Bashkortostan confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains.^[16] The Onoğurs (and Bulgars) 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», from Turkic; and daru «crane», from the related Permic languages), and includes words borrowed from Oghur Turkic; e.g. borjú «calf» (cf. Chuvash păru, părăv vs. Turkish buzağı);^[17] dél ‘noon; south’ (cf. Chuvash tĕl vs. Turkish dial. düš).^[18] Many words related to agriculture,^[19] state administration and even family relationships show evidence of such backgrounds.^{[citation needed]} Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in a similarly dramatic way over these three centuries.^{[citation needed]}

After the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin, the language came into contact with a variety of speech communities, among them Slavic, Turkic, and German. Turkic loans from this period come mainly from the Pechenegs and Cumanians, who settled in Hungary during the 12th and 13th centuries: e.g. koboz «cobza» (cf. Turkish kopuz ‘lute’); komondor «mop dog» (< *kumandur < Cuman). Hungarian borrowed 20% of words from neighbouring Slavic languages: e.g. tégla ‘brick’; mák ‘poppy seed’; szerda ‘Wednesday’; csütörtök ‘Thursday’…; karácsony ‘Christmas’.^[20][21] These languages in turn borrowed words from Hungarian: e.g. Serbo-Croatian ašov from Hungarian ásó ‘spade’. About 1.6 percent of the Romanian lexicon is of Hungarian origin.^[22][23]

In the 21st century, studies support an origin of the Uralic languages, including early Hungarian, in eastern or central Siberia, somewhere between the Ob and Yenisei river or near the Sayan mountains in the Russian–Mongolian border region.^[24] A 2019 study based on genetics, archaeology and linguistics, found that early Uralic speakers arrived in Europe from the east, specifically from eastern Siberia.^[25]

Alternative views[edit]

Hungarian historian and archaeologist Gyula László claims that geological data from pollen analysis seems to contradict the placing of the ancient Hungarian homeland near the Urals.^[26]

Historical controversy over origins[edit]

Today, the consensus among linguists is that Hungarian is a member of the Uralic family of languages.^[27]

The classification of Hungarian as a Uralic/Finno-Ugric rather than a Turkic 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 a superfamily of Ural–Altaic languages. Following an academic debate known as Az 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 linguist Josef Budenz.^[28]

Hungarians did, in fact, absorb some Turkic influences during several centuries of cohabitation. The influence on Hungarians was mainly from the Turkic Oghur speakers such as Sabirs, Bulgars of Atil, Kabars and Khazars. The Oghur tribes are often connected with the Hungarians whose exoethnonym is usually derived from Onogurs (> (H)ungars), a Turkic tribal confederation.^[29] The similarity between customs of Hungarians and the Chuvash people, the only surviving member of the Oghur tribes, is visible. For example, the Hungarians appear to have learned animal husbandry techniques from the Oghur speaking Chuvash people (or historically Suvar people^[30]), as a high proportion of words specific to agriculture and livestock are of Chuvash origin. A strong Chuvash influence was also apparent in Hungarian burial customs.

Old Hungarian[edit]

The first written accounts of Hungarian date to the 10th century, such as mostly Hungarian personal names and place names in De Administrando Imperio, written in Greek by Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII.^[31] No significant texts written in Old Hungarian script have survived, because the medium of writing used at the time, wood, is perishable.

The Kingdom of Hungary was founded in 1000 by Stephen I. The country became a Western-styled Christian (Roman Catholic) state, with Latin script replacing Hungarian runes. The earliest remaining fragments of the language are found in the establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany from 1055, intermingled with Latin text. The first extant text fully written in Hungarian is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer, which dates to the 1190s. Although the orthography of these early texts differed considerably from that used today, contemporary Hungarians can still understand a great deal of the reconstructed spoken language, despite changes in grammar and vocabulary.^{[citation needed]}

A more extensive body of Hungarian literature arose after 1300. The earliest known example of Hungarian religious poetry is the 14th-century Lamentations of Mary. The first Bible translation was the Hussite Bible in the 1430s.^[32][33]

The standard language lost its diphthongs, and several postpositions transformed into suffixes, including reá «onto» (the phrase utu rea «onto the way» found in the 1055 text would later become útra). There were also changes in the system of vowel harmony. At one time, Hungarian used six verb tenses, while today only two or three are used.^{[34][note 1]}

Modern Hungarian[edit]

In 1533, Kraków printer Benedek Komjáti published Letters of St. Paul in Hungarian ^[hu] (modern orthography: A Szent Pál levelei magyar nyelven), the first Hungarian-language book set in movable type.

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 of Ottoman rule (1541 to 1699).

In the 19th century, a group of writers, most notably Ferenc Kazinczy, spearheaded a process of nyelvújítás (language revitalization). Some words were shortened (győzedelem > győzelem, ‘victory’ or ‘triumph’); a number of dialectal words spread nationally (e.g., cselleng ‘dawdle’); extinct words were reintroduced (dísz, ‘décor’); a wide range of expressions were coined 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.

The 19th and 20th centuries saw further standardization of the language, and differences between mutually comprehensible dialects gradually diminished.

In 1920, Hungary signed the Treaty of Trianon, losing 71 percent of its territory and one-third of the ethnic Hungarian population along with it.

Today, the language holds official status nationally in Hungary and regionally in Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Austria and Slovenia.

Geographic distribution[edit]

Country	Speakers	Notes
Hungary	9,896,333	2011[35]
Romania (mainly Transylvania)	1,038,806	2021[36]
Slovakia	462,175	2021[37]
Serbia (mainly Vojvodina)	241,164	2011[38] [circular reference]
Ukraine (mainly Zakarpattia)	149,400	2001[39]
United States	117,973	2000[40]
Canada	75,555	2001[41]
Israel	70,000
Austria (mainly Burgenland)	22,000
Australia	20,883	2011[42]
Croatia	16,500
Slovenia (mainly Prekmurje)	9,240
Total	12–13 million

Source: National censuses, Ethnologue

Hungarian has about 13 million^[43][44][45] 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 a second language.^[35] About 2.2 million speakers live in other areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon (1920). Of these, the largest group lives in Transylvania, the western half of present-day Romania, where there are approximately 1.25 million Hungarians. There are large Hungarian communities also in Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine, and Hungarians can also be found in Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia, 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 the Hungarian American community and 1.5 million with Hungarian ancestry^[46] in the United States.

Official status[edit]

Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, and thus an official language of the European Union. Hungarian is also one of the official languages of Serbian province of Vojvodina and an official language of three municipalities in Slovenia: Hodoš, Dobrovnik and Lendava, along with Slovene. Hungarian is officially recognized as a minority or regional language in Austria, Croatia, Romania, Zakarpattia in Ukraine, and Slovakia. In Romania it is a recognized minority language used at local level in communes, towns and municipalities with an ethnic Hungarian population of over 20%.^[47]

Dialects[edit]

The dialects of Hungarian identified by Ethnologue 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 Hungarian Csángó dialect, which is mentioned but not listed separately by Ethnologue, is spoken primarily in Bacău County in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from other Hungarian people, and therefore preserved features that closely resemble earlier forms of Hungarian.

Phonology[edit]

Hungarian has 14 vowel phonemes and 25 consonant phonemes. The vowel phonemes can be grouped as pairs of short and long vowels such as o and ó. Most of the pairs have an almost similar pronunciation and vary significantly only in their duration. However, pairs a/á and e/é differ both in closedness and length.

Consonant phonemes of Hungarian^[48]

	Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n			ɲ
Stop	p	b	t	d		c	ɟ	k	ɡ
Affricate		t͡s	d͡z	t͡ʃ	d͡ʒ
Fricative	f	v	s	z	ʃ	ʒ			h
Trill			r
Approximant			l			j

Consonant length is also distinctive in Hungarian. Most consonant phonemes can occur as geminates.

The sound voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/, written ⟨gy⟩, sounds similar to ‘d’ in British English ‘duty’. It occurs in the name of the country, «Magyarország» (Hungary), pronounced /ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ/. It is one of three palatal consonants, the others being ⟨ty⟩ and ⟨ny⟩. Historically a fourth palatalized consonant ʎ existed, still written ⟨ly⟩.

A single ‘r’ is pronounced as an alveolar tap (akkora ‘of that size’), but a double ‘r’ is pronounced as an alveolar trill (akkorra ‘by that time’), like in Spanish and Italian.

Prosody[edit]

Primary stress is always on the first syllable of a word, as in Finnish and the neighbouring Slovak and Czech. 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.

Grammar[edit]

Hungarian is an agglutinative language. It uses various affixes, mainly suffixes but also some prefixes and a circumfix, to change a word’s meaning and its grammatical function.

Vowel harmony[edit]

Hungarian uses vowel 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[edit]

Nouns have 18 cases,^[49] 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 becomes Péter 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 always postpositions instead of prepositions.

There are two types of articles in Hungarian, definite and indefinite, which roughly correspond to the equivalents in English.

Adjectives[edit]

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’.

Verbs[edit]

Word order[edit]

The neutral word order is subject–verb–object (SVO). However, Hungarian is a topic-prominent language, and so has a word order that depends not only on syntax but also on the topic–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 movie The 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. Also, 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.
• János látja az almát. — ‘John sees the apple’. (Peter may not see the apple.)
• János látja az almát. — ‘It is John who sees the apple’. (The listener may have thought that it is Peter.)
• Látja János az almát. — ‘John does see the apple’. (The listener may have thought that John does not see the apple.)
• János az almát látja. — ‘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.)

Politeness[edit]

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 as maga. Aside from the different pronoun 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 or pertu, per tu from Latin): Used generally, i.e. with persons with whom none of the above forms of politeness is required, and, in religious contexts, to address God. The highest rank, the king, 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 without T–V distinction in 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 the te (least polite) form right from the beginning of their presence in Hungary. A typical example is the Swedish furniture shop IKEA, whose web site and other publications address the customers in te form. When a news site^[50] asked IKEA—using the te form—why they address their customers this way, IKEA’s PR Manager explained in his answer—using the ön 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 of Telenor (a mobile network operator) towards its customers. Telenor chose to communicate towards business customers in the polite ön form while all other customers are addressed in the less polite te form.

Vocabulary[edit]

Examples with ad

Hungarian	English
ad	gives
Derived terms with suffixes
adni	to give
adás	transmission, broadcast
adó	tax or transmitter
adózik	pays tax
adózó	taxpayer
adós	debtor
adósság	debt
adat	data
adakozik	gives (practise charity)
adalék	additive (ingredient)
adag	dose, portion
adomány	donation
adoma	anecdote
With verbal prefixes
átad	hands over
bead	hands in
elad	sells
felad	gives up, mails
hozzáad	augments, adds to
kiad	rents out, publishes, extradites
lead	loses weight, deposits (an object)
megad	repays (debt), calls (poker), grants (permission)
összead	adds (does mathematical addition)

During the first early phase of Hungarian language reforms (late 18th and early 19th centuries) more than ten thousand words were coined,^[51] several thousand of which are still actively used today (see also Ferenc 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» in agglutinating 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^[52] (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,^[52] 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.^[53] The default Hungarian lexicon is usually estimated to comprise 60,000 to 100,000 words.^[54] (Independently of specific languages, speakers actively use at most 10,000 to 20,000 words,^[55] with an average intellectual using 25,000 to 30,000 words.^[54]) However, all the Hungarian lexemes collected from technical texts, dialects etc. would total up to 1,000,000 words.^[56]

Parts of the lexicon can be organized using word-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 other Uralic languages like Finnish, Estonian, Mansi and Khanty. Examples are the verb él «live» (Finnish elää^[57]), the numbers kettő (2), három (3), négy (4) (cf. Mansi китыг kitig, хурум khurum, нила nila, Finnish kaksi, kolme, neljä,^[57] Estonian kaks, kolm, neli), as well as víz ‘water’, kéz ‘hand’, vér ‘blood’, fej ‘head’ (cf. Finnish^[57] and Estonian vesi, käsi, veri, Finnish pää,^[57] Estonian pea or pää).

Words for elementary kinship and nature are more Ugric, less r-Turkic and less Slavic. Agricultural words 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 and/or -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.^[58]

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.

Another source^[59] differs in that loanwords in Hungarian are held to constitute about 45% of bases in the language. Although the lexical fraction of native words in Hungarian is 55%, their use accounts for 88.4% of all words used (the fraction of loanwords used being just 11.6%). Therefore, the history of Hungarian has come, especially since the 19th century, to favor neologisms from original bases, whilst still having developed as many terms from neighboring languages in the lexicon.

Word formation[edit]

Words can be compounds or derived. Most derivation is with suffixes, but there is a small set of derivational prefixes as well.

Compounds[edit]

Compounds have been present in the language since the Proto-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 word arc:

orr (nose) + száj (mouth) → orca (face) (colloquial until the end of the 19th century and still in use in some dialects) > arc (face)^[60]

Compounds are made up of two base words: the first is the prefix, the latter is the suffix. A compound can be subordinative: the prefix is in logical connection with the suffix. If the prefix is the subject of the suffix, the compound is generally classified as a subjective one. There are objective, determinative, and adjunctive compounds as well. Some examples are given below:

Subjective:

menny (heaven) + dörgés (rumbling) → mennydörgés (thundering)

Nap (Sun) + sütötte (lit by) → napsütötte (sunlit)

Objective:

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 more syllables 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 are coordinatives: there is no concrete relation between the prefix and the suffix. Subcategories include reduplication (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 prefix giz 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:

elme [mind; standalone base] + (gyógy [medical] + intézet [institute]) → elmegyógyintézet (asylum)

(hadi [militarian] + fogoly [prisoner]) + (munka [work] + tábor [camp]) → hadifogoly-munkatábor (work camp of prisoners of war)

Noteworthy lexical items[edit]

Points of the compass[edit]

Hungarian words for the points of the compass are directly derived from the position of the Sun during the day in the Northern Hemisphere.

• North = észak (from «éj(szaka)», ‘night’), as the Sun never shines from the north
• South = dél (‘noon’), as the Sun shines from the south at noon
• East = kelet (‘rising’), as the Sun rises in the east
• West = nyugat (‘setting’), as the Sun sets in the west

Two words for «red»[edit]

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 and/or more red and less orange) hue of red. In English similar differences exist between «scarlet» and «red». While many languages have multiple names for this colour, often Hungarian scholars assume that this is unique in recognizing two shades of red as separate and distinct «folk colours».^[61]

However, the two words are also used independently of the above in collocations. «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 of Budapest 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 and paprika, red card suits (hearts and diamonds), red stripes on a flag (but the red 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), the Red Cross, the novel The 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 a baboon, red meat, regular onion (not the red onion, which is «lila»), litmus paper (in acid), cities, countries, or other political entities associated with leftist movements (e.g. Red Vienna, Red Russia), etc.

Kinship terms[edit]

The Hungarian words for brothers and sisters are differentiated based upon relative age. There is also a general word for «sibling»: testvér, from test «body» and vér «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 (OR ük-ük(nagy)szülő)	ó(nagy)szülő (OR ük-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 (OR ük-ükunoka)	óunoka (OR ük-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 (see inalienable possession). However, the word fiú 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 word fiú (boy) is also often noted as an extreme example of the ability of the language to add suffixes to a word, by forming fiaiéi, adding vowel-form suffixes only, where the result is quite a frequently used word:

fiú	boy
fia	his/her son
fiai	his/her sons
fiáé	his/her son’s (singular object)
fiáéi	his/her son’s (plural object)
fiaié	his/her sons’ (singular object)
fiaiéi	his/her sons’ (plural object)

Extremely long words[edit]

• megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

Partition to root and suffixes with explanations:

meg-	verb prefix; in this case, it means «completed»
szent	holy (the word root)
-ség	like English «-ness», as in «holiness»
-t(e)len	variant of «-tlen», noun suffix expressing the lack of something; like English «-less», as in «useless»
-ít	constitutes a transitive verb from an adjective
-het	expresses possibility; somewhat similar to the English modal verbs «may» or «can»
-(e)tlen	another variant of «-tlen»
-ség	(see above)
-es	constitutes an adjective from a noun; like English «-y» as in «witty»
-ked	attached to an adjective (e.g. «strong»), produces the verb «to pretend to be (strong)»
-és	constitutes a noun from a verb; there are various ways this is done in English, e.g. «-ance» in «acceptance»
-eitek	plural possessive suffix, second-person plural (e.g. «apple» → «your apples», where «your» refers to multiple people)
-ért	approximately translates to «because of», or in this case simply «for»

Translation: «for your [plural] repeated pretending to be indesecratable»

The above word is often considered to be the longest word in Hungarian, although there are longer words like:

• legeslegmegszentségteleníttethetetlenebbjeitekként

leges-leg-meg-szent-ség-telen-ít-tet-het-etlen-ebb-je-i-tek-ként

«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 (see agglutinative 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.

Hungarian words in English[edit]

The English word best known as being of Hungarian origin is probably paprika, from Serbo-Croatian papar «pepper» and the Hungarian diminutive -ka. The most common, however, is coach, from kocsi, originally kocsi szekér «car from/in the style of Kocs». Others are:

• shako, from csákó, from csákósüveg «peaked cap»
• sabre, from szablya
• heyduck, from hajdúk, plural of hajdú «brigand»
• tolpatch, from talpas «foot-soldier», apparently derived from talp «sole».

Writing system[edit]

The Hungarian language was originally written in right-to-left Old Hungarian runes, superficially similar in appearance to the better-known futhark runes but unrelated. After Stephen I of Hungary established the Kingdom 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 expanded Latin alphabet and has a phonemic 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 and ü) and their long counterparts ő and ű 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 the Latin-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 the Latin-2 / ISO-8859-2 code page, but this code 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 letter pairs ⟨ny⟩, ⟨ty⟩, and ⟨gy⟩ 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 the palate.

Hungarian uses ⟨s⟩ for /ʃ/ and ⟨sz⟩ for /s/, which is the reverse of Polish 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 are madzag («string»), edzeni («to train (athletically)») and dzsungel («jungle»).

Sometimes additional information is required for partitioning words with digraphs: házszám («street number») = ház («house») + szám («number»), not an unintelligible házs + 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 doubled, become trigraphs: ⟨sz⟩ + ⟨sz⟩ = ⟨ssz⟩, e.g. művésszel («with an artist»). But when the digraph occurs at the end of a line, all of the letters are written out. 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 term jegyben lenni/járni means «to be engaged»; gyűrű means «ring»).

Usually a trigraph is a double digraph, but there are a few exceptions: tizennyolc («eighteen») is a concatenation of tizen + nyolc. There are doubling minimal pairs: tol («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/).

Word order[edit]

The word order is basically from general to specific. This is a typical analytical approach and is used generally in Hungarian.

Name order[edit]

The Hungarian language uses the so-called eastern name order, in which the surname (general, deriving from the family) comes first and the given name comes last. If a second given name is used, this follows the first given name.^{[citation needed]}

Hungarian names in foreign languages[edit]

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 a significant 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 the hydrogen bomb» was Teller Ede, but he immigrated to the United States in the 1930s and thus became known as Edward 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 uses András Schiff when abroad, not Andrew Schiff (in Hungarian Schiff 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.

Foreign names in Hungarian[edit]

In modern usage, foreign names retain their order when used in Hungarian. Therefore:

• Amikor Kiss János Los Angelesben volt, látta John Travoltát. (means: When János Kiss was in Los Angeles he saw John Travolta.)

The Hungarian name Kiss János is in the Hungarian name order (János is equivalent to John), but the foreign name John 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 (originally Johann Wolfgang Goethe). This usage sounds odd today, when only a few well-known personalities are referred to using their Hungarianised names, including Verne Gyula (Jules Verne), Marx Károly (Karl Marx), Kolumbusz Kristóf (Christopher Columbus; note that 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 as Luther 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 as I. János Károly or the late queen of the UK, Elizabeth II would be referred to as II. 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 of Akira Kurosawa.

Date and time[edit]

The Hungarian convention for date and time is to go from the generic to the specific: 1. year, 2. month, 3. day, 4. hour, 5. minute, (6. second)

The year and day are always written in Arabic numerals, followed by a full stop. The month can be written by its full name or can be abbreviated, or even denoted by Roman or Arabic numerals. Except for the first case (month written by its full name), the month is followed by a full stop. Usually, when the month is written in letters, there is no leading zero before the day. On the other hand, when the month is written in Arabic numerals, a leading zero is common, but not obligatory. Except at the beginning of a sentence, the name of the month always begins with a lower-case letter.

Hours, minutes, and seconds are separated by a colon (H:m:s). Fractions of a second are separated by a full stop from the rest of the time. Hungary generally uses the 24-hour clock format, but in verbal (and written) communication 12-hour clock format can also be used. See below for usage examples.

Date and time may be separated by a comma or simply written one after the other.

• 2020. február 9. 16:23:42 or 2020. február 9., 16:23:42
• 2020. febr. 9.
• 2020. 02. 09. or 2020. 2. 9. (rarely)
• 2020. II. 9.

Date separated by hyphen is also spreading, especially on datestamps. Here – just like the version separated by full stops – leading zeros are in use.

• 2020-02-09

When only hours and minutes are written in a sentence (so not only «displaying» time), these parts can be separated by a full stop (e.g. «Találkozzunk 10.35-kor.» – «Let’s meet at 10.35.»), or it is also regular to write hours in normal size, and minutes put in superscript (and not necessarily) underlined (e.g. «A találkozó 10³⁵-kor kezdődik.» or «A találkozó 10³⁵-kor kezdődik.» – «The meeting begins at 10.35.»).

Also, in verbal and written communication it is common to use «délelőtt» (literally «before noon») and «délután» (lit. «after noon») abbreviated as «de.» and «du.» respectively. Délelőtt and délután is said or written before the time, e.g. «Délután 4 óra van.» – «It’s 4 p.m.». However e.g. «délelőtt 5 óra» (should mean «5 a.m.») or «délután 10 óra» (should mean «10 p.m.») are never used, because at these times the sun is not up, instead «hajnal» («dawn»), «reggel» («morning»), «este» («evening») and «éjjel» («night») is used, however there are no exact rules for the use of these, as everybody uses them according to their habits (e.g. somebody may have woken up at 5 a.m. so he/she says «Reggel 6-kor ettem.» – «I had food at *morning 6.», and somebody woke up at 11 a.m. so he/she says «Hajnali 6-kor még aludtam.» – «I was still sleeping at *dawn 6.»). Roughly, these expressions mean these times:

Expression	Approximate time
Hajnal	4–6 a.m.
Reggel	6–9 a.m.
Délelőtt (de.)	9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Dél*	=12 p.m. (=»noon»)
Délután (du.)	12–6 p.m.
Este	6–11 p.m.
Éjjel	11 p.m. – 4 a.m.
Éjfél*	=12 a.m. (=»midnight»)

• * «Dél» and «éjfél» mean these exact times, so using time after them is incorrect. So there is no «Éjfél 0-kor még buliztunk» («We were still partying at *midnight 0.») or «Dél 12-kor süt a nap.» («The sun shines at *noon 12.»). Instead «Éjfélkor még buliztunk.» and «Délben süt a nap.» is correct. (More confusingly, one can say «Déli 12-kor süt a nap.», meaning «The sun shines at 12 of noon.», i.e. «The sun shines at 12, which is the 12 of daytime.») «Délen süt a nap» on the other hand means «The sun shines in the south», as Dél means both noon and south.

Addresses[edit]

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.^[62]

Addresses on envelopes and postal parcels should be formatted and placed on the right side as follows:^[62]

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.

Vocabulary examples[edit]

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.

Example text[edit]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Hungarian:

Minden emberi lény szabadon születik és egyenlő méltósága és joga van. Az emberek, ésszel és lelkiismerettel bírván, egymással szemben testvéri szellemben kell hogy viseltessenek.^[63]

Article 1 of the Universal 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.^[64]

Numbers[edit]

Source: Wiktionary^[65]

English	Hungarian	IPA
one hundred	száz	/ˈsaːz/
one thousand	ezer	/ˈɛzɛr/
two thousand	kétezer (kettőezer)	/ˈkeːtɛzɛr/ (/ˈkettøːɛzɛr/)
two thousand (and) nineteen (2019)	kétezer-tizenkilenc (kettőezertizenkilenc)	/ˈkeːtɛzɛrtizɛŋkilɛnt͡s/ (/ˈkettøːɛzɛrtizɛŋkilɛnt͡s/)
one million	egymillió	/ˈɛɟmilːiʲoː/
one billion	egymilliárd	/ˈɛɟmilːiʲaːrd/

Time[edit]

Days of the week

English	Hungarian	IPA
Monday	hétfő	/ˈheːtføː/
Tuesday	kedd	/ˈkɛdː/
Wednesday	szerda	/ˈsɛrdɒ/
Thursday	csütörtök	/ˈt͡ʃytørtøk/
Friday	péntek	/ˈpeːntɛk/
Saturday	szombat	/ˈsombɒt/
Sunday	vasárnap	/ˈvɒʃaːrnɒp/

Source: Wiktionary^{[66][unreliable source?]}

Months of the year

English	Hungarian	IPA
January	január	/ˈjɒnuaːr/
February	február	/ˈfɛbruaːr/
March	március	/ˈmaːrt͡siʲuʃ/
April	április	/ˈaːpriliʃ/
May	május	/ˈmaːjuʃ/
June	június	/ˈjuːniʲuʃ/
July	július	/ˈjuːliʲuʃ/
August	augusztus	/ˈɒuɡustuʃ/
September	szeptember	/ˈsɛptɛmbɛr/
October	október	/ˈoktoːbɛr/
November	november	/ˈnovɛmbɛr/
December	december	/ˈdɛt͡sɛmbɛr/

Source:Wiktionary^{[67][unreliable source?]}

Conversation[edit]

• Hungarian (person, language): magyar [mɒɟɒr]
• Hello!:
  • Formal, when addressing a stranger: «Good day!»: Jó napot (kívánok)! [joːnɒpot ki:vaːnok].
  • Informal, when addressing a close acquaintance: Szia! [siɒ] Szia is a version of the Latin origin loanword Servus.^[68]
• 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) [keːrɛm seːpɛn] (This literally means «I’m asking (it/you) nicely«, as in German Bitte schön. See next for a more common form of the polite request.)
  • Legyen szíves! [lɛɟɛn sivɛʃ] (literally: «Be (so) kind!»)
• I would like ____, please: Szeretnék ____ [sɛrɛtneːk] (this example illustrates the use of the conditional 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? [mɛɲːibɛ kɛryl]
• Yes: Igen [iɡɛn]
• No: Nem [nɛm]
• I do not understand: Nem értem [nɛm eːrtɛm]
• I do not know: Nem tudom [nɛm tudom]
• Where’s the toilet?:
  • Hol (van) a vécé? [hol vɒn ɒ veːtseː] (vécé/veːtseː is the Hungarian pronunciation of the English abbreviation of «Water Closet»)
  • Hol (van) a mosdó? [hol vɒn ɒ moʒdoː] – more polite (and word-for-word) version
• generic toast: Egészségünkre! [ɛɡeːʃːeːɡyŋkrɛ] (literally: «To our health!»)
• juice: gyümölcslé [ɟymøltʃleː]
• water: víz [viːz]
• wine: bor [bor]
• beer: sör [ʃør]
• tea: tea [tɛɒ]
• milk: tej [tɛj]
• Do you speak English?: Beszél(sz) angolul? [bɛseːl / bɛseːls ɒŋɡolul] Note that the fact of asking is only shown by the proper intonation: continually rising until the penultimate syllable, then falling for the last one.
• I love you: Szeretlek [sɛrɛtlɛk]
• Help!: Segítség! [ʃɛɡiːtʃeːɡ]
• It is needed: kell
• I need to go: Mennem kell

Recorded examples[edit]

• A Hungarian speaker recorded in Taiwan

• A bilingual speaker of Hungarian and Swabian, recorded in Perbál, Hungary

• A native Icelandic speaker speaking Hungarian

See also[edit]

• Hungarian grammar
• Hungarian verbs
• Hungarian noun phrase
• Hungarian phonology
• History of the Hungarian language
• Regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and other Uralic languages
• Hungarian dialects
• Hungarian Cultural Institute
• List of English words of Hungarian origin
• BABEL Speech Corpus
• Magyar szótár (Dictionary of the Hungarian Language)
• Szabadkai Friss Újság (1901), Hungarian language daily newspaper

Bibliography[edit]

Courses[edit]

• MagyarOK – Text book and exercise book for beginners. Szita, Szilvia; Pelcz, Katalin (2013). Pécs; Pécsi Tudományegyetem. MagyarOK website ISBN 978-963-7178-68-9.
• Colloquial Hungarian – The complete course for beginners. Rounds, Carol H.; Sólyom, Erika (2002). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24258-4.

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. ISBN 0-340-56286-2.

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.

• Hungarolingua 1 – Magyar nyelvkönyv. Hoffmann, István; et al. (1996). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-083-8
• Hungarolingua 2 – Magyar nyelvkönyv. Hlavacska, Edit; et al. (2001). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-03-6698-3
• Hungarolingua 3 – Magyar nyelvkönyv. Hlavacska, Edit; et al. (1999). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-083-8

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. ISBN 0-8442-4968-8 (You may be able to find a newer edition also. This one is 1996.)

Grammars[edit]

• Gyakorló magyar nyelvtan / A Practical Hungarian grammar (2009, 2010). Szita Szilvia, Görbe Tamás. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. 978 963 05 8703 7.
• A practical Hungarian grammar (3rd, rev. ed.). Keresztes, László (1999). Debrecen: Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-300-4.
• Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language (1882). Ignatius Singer. London: Trübner & Co.
• Practical Hungarian grammar: [a compact guide to the basics of Hungarian grammar]. Törkenczy, Miklós (2002). Budapest: Corvina. ISBN 963-13-5131-9.
• 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. ISBN 963-13-4778-8.
• Hungarian: an essential grammar (2nd ed.). Rounds, Carol (2009). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-77737-2.
• Hungarian: Descriptive grammar. Kenesei, István, Robert M. Vago, and Anna Fenyvesi (1998). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-02139-1.
• Hungarian Language Learning References (including the short reviews of three of the above books)
• Noun Declension Tables – HUNGARIAN. Budapest: Pons. Klett. ISBN 978-963-9641-04-4
• Verb Conjugation Tables – HUNGARIAN. Budapest: Pons. Klett. ISBN 978-963-9641-03-7

Others[edit]

• Abondolo, Daniel Mario: Hungarian Inflectional Morphology. Akadémiai publishing. Budapest, 1988. ISBN 9630546302
• Balázs, Géza: The Story of Hungarian. A Guide to the Language. Translated by Thomas J. DeKornfeld. Corvina publishing. Budapest, 1997. ISBN 9631343626
• Stephanides, Éva H. (ed.): Contrasting English with Hungarian. Akadémiai publishing. Budapest, 1986. ISBN 9630539500
• Szende, Tamás (December 1994). «Hungarian». Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. 24 (2): 91–94. doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090. S2CID 242632087.

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Free downloadable Hungarian teaching and learning material
• Introduction to Hungarian
• Hungarian Profile
• List of formative suffixes in Hungarian
• The relationship between the Finnish and the Hungarian languages
• Hungarian Language Review at How-to-learn-any-language.com
• «The Hungarian Language: A Short Descriptive Grammar» by Beáta Megyesi (PDF document)
• The old site of the Indiana University Institute of Hungarian Studies (various resources)
• Hungarian Language Learning References on the Hungarian Language Page (short reviews of useful books)
• One of the oldest Hungarian texts – A Halotti Beszéd (The Funeral Oration)
• WikiLang – Hungarian Page (Hungarian grammar / lessons, in English)
• Hungarian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary’s Swadesh-list appendix)
• Basic Hungarian language course (book + audio files) USA Foreign Service Institute (FSI)
• Old Hungarian Corpus

Encyclopaedia Humana Hungarica[edit]

• Introduction to the History of the Language; The Pre-Hungarian Period; The Early Hungarian Period; The Old Hungarian Period
• The Linguistic Records of the Early Old Hungarian Period; The Linguistic System of the Age
• The Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language of the Old Hungarian Period
• The Late Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language
• The First Half of the Middle Hungarian Period; Turkish Loan Words

Dictionaries[edit]

• Hungarian ↔ English created by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Computer and Automation Research Institute MTA 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
• English-Hungarian-Finnish – three-language freely editable online dictionary
• Collection of Hungarian Technical Dictionaries
• Hungarian bilingual dictionaries
• Hungarian-English dictionary
• English-Hungarian dictionary
• Hungarian Verb Conjugation

Морфемный разбор слова:

Однокоренные слова к слову:

Венгерский язык

Венгрия
Региональный или локальный официальный язык:
Сербия :

Румыния :

Венге́рский язы́к (magyar, magyar nyelv, устаревшее название — мадья́рский язык (от самоназвания венгров — magyarok, модёрок)) — язык венгров, принадлежащий к финно-угорской семье языков (уральские языки), внутри которой он, вместе с мансийским и хантыйским языками, составляет угорскую группу.

В Европе его отдалённо родственными языками являются финский и эстонский, однако до конца XIX века факт принадлежности венгерского языка к финно-угорским подвергался сомнению. С другой стороны, большее количество общих корней обнаруживается в языках проживающих на территории России финно-угорских народов — коми, марийском, мордовском и удмуртском.

Содержание

История [ | ]

Венгерский язык — один из немногих неиндоевропейских языков современной Европы со значительным количеством говорящих. Около 900—1000 годов н. э. венгерские племена, переселившиеся из Сибири и Урала, заселяют среднедунайскую равнину, а также Прикарпатье (Трансильванию), где оседают близкие венграм секеи и чангоши. В отличие от мигрировавших по равнине за три-четыре века до этого славянских племён, венгерское вторжение было относительно поздним и носило довольно воинственный характер, осуществляясь в условиях острой конкуренции за ресурсы со славянами (с севера и юга), с немцами (на западе) и валахами (румынами) на востоке. В ходе контактов с этими народами венгры, как и валахи (румыны), переняли много славянских лексических элементов, составляющих около пятой части всей лексики современного венгерского языка. В XII—XIII веках Венгерское королевство окончательно подчиняет ряд славянских земель.

Поражение Венгрии в войне с Турцией в 1526 году приводит к церковному разброду и Венгерской реформации, которая продлилась полтора века. Реформация приводит к возникновению и росту печатной литературы на венгерском языке, большая часть которой публиковалась с целью оспорить те или иные католические постулаты. Известный деятель реформации Матьяш Деваи выпустил первый печатный труд на венгерском языке — «Венгерскую орфографию».

В период между 1541 и 1699 годами значительная часть венгров проживает в условиях турецкого господства. Тюркское влияние в венгерском языке, где уже до этого имелся мощный тюркский субстрат, становится ещё более заметным. Трансильвания остаётся полунезависимой, в ней активно развивается венгерская протестантская литература. Наконец, небольшая часть венгерских земель находится под властью австрийской короны.

После включения в состав Австрийской империи и последовавших сразу после этого репрессий против протестантов венгерский язык испытывает сильное немецкое влияние, но постепенно восстанавливает господствующие позиции в качестве единственного официального языка Транслейтании (венгерской части Австро-Венгрии). Период между 1867 и 1918 годами по праву можно считать золотым веком венгерского языка, когда он исполняет функцию лингва франка на обширных пространствах Центральной Европы от Карпат до Адриатического моря. Заметно увеличивается доля владеющих венгерским как в качестве первого, так и второго языка (среди невенгров показатель владения им вырос с 5,6 % в 1880 году до 15,3 % в 1915). Многие города Трансильвании стали почти полностью венгроязычными (например, Клуж-Напока, или, по-венгерски, Коложвар). На венгерский язык перешли многие евреи, немцы и цыгане в Венгрии, в том числе трансильванские саксы; в меньшей степени — другие народы: румыны, словаки, сербы и хорваты, русины и словенцы.

И всё же ассимиляция этих народов была затруднена сильным отличием венгерского языка от языков соседних народов, его тенденцией создавать собственную лексику вместо инкорпорации заимствованных слов. К концу XIX века усиливаются ассимиляционное давление и гонения на местные национальные языки меньшинств королевства со стороны венгерской верхушки. Трианонский договор привёл к значительному сокращению собственно венгерской территории. После 1918 года в целом наблюдается значительное сокращение использования венгерского языка за пределами Венгрии в её современных границах — главным образом, в Словакии, Закарпатье, Трансильвании и Воеводине.

Венгерская литература [ | ]

Первый дошедший до нас письменный памятник на венгерском языке — «Надгробная речь и молитва» (Halotti beszéd és könyörgés) создан около 1200 г. При этом до 2-й половины XVI в. для записи текстов венгры пользовались в основном латинским и немецким языками. Немецкий язык до сих пор остаётся самым распространённым иностранным языком среди венгров. Вплоть до середины XX века значительное количество венгров владело им как вторым. С пробуждением национального самосознания в XVI и XVII вв. венгры отдают всё большее предпочтение родному языку.

Письменность [ | ]

Современный венгерский язык использует латиницу. Согласно общему мнению, переход на латинское письмо был обусловлен принятием венграми христианства. Известно, что до этого использовались венгерские руны (rovás írás, роваш ираш), о чём свидетельствуют найденные на территории компактного проживания венгерского этноса секеи (Székely) в конце прошлого столетия артефакты.

Алфавит [ | ]

Венгерский язык
Самоназвание	magyar nyelv
Страны	Венгрия, Румыния, Словакия, Украина, Сербия, Хорватия, Австрия, Словения
Официальный статус

Буква	Название	Фонема
A a	a	[ ɒ ]
Á á	á	[ a: ]
B b	bé	[ b ]
C c	cé	[ ʦ ]
Cs cs	csé	[ ʧ ]
D d	dé	[ d ]
Dz dz	dzé	[ ʣ ]
Dzs dzs	dzsé	[ ʤ ]
E e	e	[ ɛ ]
É é	é	[ e: ]
F f	ef	[ f ]
G g	gé	[ g ]
Gy gy	gyé	[ ɟ ]
H h	há	[ h ]
I i	i	[ i ]
Í í	í	[ i: ]
J j	jé	[ j ]
K k	ká	[ k ]
L l	el	[ l ]
Ly ly	el ipszilon	[ j ]
M m	em	[ m ]
N n	en	[ n ]
Ny ny	eny	[ ɲ ]
O o	o	[ o ]
Ó ó	ó	[ o: ]
Ö ö	ö	[ ø ]
Ő ő	ő	[ ø: ]
P p	pé	[ p ]
R r	er	[ r ]
S s	es	[ ʃ ]
Sz sz	esz	[ s ]
T t	té	[ t ]
Ty ty	tyé	[ c ]
U u	u	[ u ]
Ú ú	ú	[ u: ]
Ü ü	ü	[ y ]
Ű ű	ű	[ y: ]
V v	vé	[ v ]
Z z	zé	[ z ]
Zs zs	zsé	[ ʒ ]
Только для записи слов иностранного происхождения
Q q	kú
W w	dupla vé
X x	iksz
Y y	ipszilon

Лингвистическая характеристика [ | ]

Фонетика и фонология [ | ]

Гласные [ | ]

В венгерском языке 14 гласных звуков. Дифтонгов нет (в отличие от родственного финского языка или соседних немецкого и словацкого), однако присутствуют дифтонгоиды (ó, ő, ű могут произноситься с призвуком u; é — с призвуком i). Нет также редуцированных звуков как в русском или английском языках. Гласные в венгерском языке произносятся чётче, чем в русском; слоги звучат более отчётливо. Вообще, венгерский язык отличается чёткой, сильной артикуляцией.

Различаются краткие (a, e, i, o, ö, u, ü) и долгие (á, é, í, ó, ő, ú, ű) гласные, причём иногда одинаковые слова, которые различаются лишь долготой гласных, имеют совершенно разные значения, например: vad «дикий» — vád «обвинение»; tör «ломает» — tőr «кинжал». Пары гласных a/á и e/é различаются не только по долготе, но и по подъёму (иначе, «закрытости» гласных).

Различаются гласные заднего (a, á, o, ó, u, ú) и переднего (e, é, i, í, ö, ő, ü, ű) рядов, причём по этому признаку все гласные слова должны быть однородны (так называемое свойство сингармонизма по ряду, для европейских языков редкое): barnulásotokról «о вашем загаре», zöldülésetekről «о вашем позеленении», в связи с чем большинство суффиксов существует, как минимум, в двух вариантах.

Особая венгерская гласная фонема a — /ɒ/, имеющая аналоги в татарском и, долгий вариант, в персидском языках, представляет затруднения для иностранцев, изучающих венгерский язык. Артикуляционно она близка к такому же звуку в современном татарском языке, однако там [ɒ] появляется лишь как вариант фонемы в определённых условиях (например, первый слог или первый из нескольких звуков а в слове), в то время как в венгерском это постоянная фонема. Некоторые исследователи (Габдулхай Ахатов, Рона-Таш, Людмила Аюпова) считают её «остаточным явлением», унаследованным от нахождения правенгерского языка в поволжском (волго-камском) языковом союзе.

Согласные [ | ]

Консонантизм венгерского языка характеризуется также использованием мягких согласных звуков (ny [н’], ty [т’], gy [д’]), неаспирированных взрывных согласных (произносимых без «h» звуков p, t, k, в противоположность германским языкам) и возможностью сочетания твёрдых согласных с гласными переднего ряда (то есть возможны сочетания ne, ti и т. д., а не только nye, tyi — в противоположность, например, русскому языку, где сочетания «де», «те», «не», «ле» произносятся почти всегда мягко).

Просодия [ | ]

Ударение в венгерском языке — силовое, падающее всегда на первый слог (как и в иных финно-угорских языках, за исключением удмуртского, а также в некоторых славянских языках, как например, в словацком). Для русскоязычных может представлять затруднение независимость долготы гласных и ударения, потому может ошибочно показаться, что ударение иногда падает в середину или конец слова (в заимствованиях из венгерского такой сдвиг ударения иногда возможен: Балато́н вместо исходного Ба́латон и т. п.).

Морфология [ | ]

Венгерский язык является синтетическим языком. Агглютинативный характер даёт возможность накопления суффиксов; грамматический род отсутствует. Имеются определённый и неопределённый артикли.

Венгерский язык обладает своеобразной системой притяжательных суффиксов, примыкающих к именам (так называемое притяжательное склонение имён, также свойственное тюркским и тунгусо-маньчжурским языкам): könyvem «моя книга»; könyved «твоя книга»; könyve «его/её книга».

В венгерском языке имеется несколько грамматических форм одной и той же морфемы как следствие сингармонизма — как в случае корней слов, так и в области богатой системы суффиксов (точнее, аффиксов). Примеры: falon «на стене»; képen «на картине»; tükrön «на зеркале».

В современном языке употребляется только 2 глагольных времени — настоящее и прошедшее. Для выражения будущего времени используется глагол совершенного вида в настоящем времени или конструкция со вспомогательным глаголом fog. В диалектах встречаются архаические формы прошедшего времени, например, mondta volt (Трансильвания). Отсутствует глагол владения, характерный для индоевропейской семьи, вместо него употребляется сочетание nekem van (valami), подобное русскому «у меня есть (кое-что)». Различается переходное («предметное, объектное») и непереходное («субъектное») спряжение глаголов: Olvasom a könyvet («Я читаю книгу»), Olvasok («Я читаю»). Исходной формой глагола считается форма единственного числа третьего лица. Инфинитив может иметь притяжательную форму (látnom, látnod, látnia и т. д.).

Множественное число существительных, в зависимости от гласных в слове, образуется при помощи окончаний -k, -ok, -ak и -ek: erdő «лес» — erdők «леса́»; madár «птица» — madarak «птицы»; férfi «мужчина» — férfiak «мужчины»; város «город» — városok «городá»; ember «человек» — emberek «люди».

Язык обладает богатой системой падежей. Венгерские прилагательные в отличие от, например, прибалтийско-финских, по падежам не изменяются.

Падежи [ | ]

Падежи, которые могут употребляться с любыми словами (на примере слова ház

Падеж	Аффиксы падежа	Значение падежа	Пример в ед.ч.	Пример во мн.ч.	Перевод	Предложения
Номинатив	—	субъект	ház	házak	«дом»	Еz a ház magas. — «Этот дом высокий»
Аккузатив	-t/-at/-ot/-et/-öt	объект	házat	házakat	«дом»	Vettem egy házat. — «Я купил дом»
Инессив	-ban/-ben	(где?) в…	házban	házakban	«в доме»	A család egy szép házban lakik. — «Семья живёт в красивом доме»
Иллатив	-ba/-be	(куда?) в…	házba	házakba	«в дом»	Lépj be a házba! — «Войди в дом!»
Суперессив	-n/-on/-en/-ön	(где?) на…	házon	házakon	«на доме»	A házon meglátszott az idő vasfoga. — «Следы времени остались на доме»
Сублатив	-ra/-re	(куда?) на…	házra	házakra	«на дом»	Egy fehér galamb szállt a házra. — «Белый голубь сел на дом»
Адессив	-nál/-nél	(где?) у…	háznál	házaknál	«у дома»	Megálltunk a háznál. — «Мы остановились у дома»
Аллатив	-hoz/-hez/-höz	(куда?) к…	házhoz	házakhoz	«к дому»	Odamentek a házhoz. — «Они подошли к дому»
Элатив	-ból/-ből	(откуда?) из…	házból	házakból	«из дома»	Kisétált a házból. — «Он вышел из дома»
Делатив	-ról/-ről	(откуда?) с…	házról	házakról	«с дома»	A házról levették a zászlót. — «С дома сняли флаг»
(о чём?) о…	«о доме»	Sokat mesélt a házról. — «Она много рассказывала о доме»
Аблатив	-tól/-től	(откуда?) от…	háztól	házaktól	«от дома»	A háztól nem messze egy kutat találtam. — «Недалеко от дома я нашёл колодец»
Датив	-nak/-nek	(кому?)	háznak	házaknak	«дому»	Búcsút intett a szülői háznak. — «На прощание он помахал рукой родительскому дому»
Генетив	-nak a/-nek a	(чей?)	háznak a	házaknak a	«дома»	Ennek a háznak a fala is üvegből volt. — «Даже стены этого дома были из стекла»
Терминалис	-ig	(до чего/скольки?) до…	házig	házakig	«до дома»	Két és fél kilométer az iskolától a házig. — «От школы до дома — два с половиной километра»
Инструменталис-комитатив	-val/-vel	(чем? с чем?) с…	házzal	házakkal	«с домом»	Mi legyen a házzal? — «Что делать с домом?»
Эссив-формалис	-ként	в качестве…, как…	házként	házakként	«в качестве дома»	Ez a nyaraló családi házként van nyilvántartva. — «Эта дача зарегистрирована как семейный дом»
Транслатив-фактив	-vá/-vé	(во что?)	házzá	házakká	«в дом»	Közösségi házzá alakult át az egykori mozi. — «Бывший кинотеатр преобразовался в общественный дом»
Каузалис-финалис	-ért	(для чего? за что?)	házért	házakért	«за дом»	Mennyit fizettél a házért? — «Сколько ты платил за дом?»

«дом») Падежи, употребляющиеся не со всеми словами

Падеж	Аффиксы падежа	Значение падежа	Пример	Перевод	Предложения
Эссив-модалис	-ul/-ül	как?	magyarul	«по-венгерски»	Hogy van ez magyarul? — «Как это будет по-венгерски?»
Формалис	-képp(en)	(каким образом?)	másképpen	«другим способом»	Én másképpen oldanám meg a feladatot. — «Я бы решил задачу по-другому»
Темпоралис	-kor	(когда?) в…	tízkor	«в десять часов»	A vonat tízkor érkezik. — «Поезд прибывает в 10 часов»
Социатив	-stul/-stül	вместе с…	családostul	«вместе с семьёй»	Családostul költözött külföldre a magyar hegedűművész. — «Венгерский скрипач переехал за границу вместе с семьёй»
Дистрибутив	-nként	в каждый…	fejenként	«на каждого, на душу»	A rafting ára fejenként 12000 Ft. — «Стоимость рафтинга — 12000 форинтов с человека»
Дистрибутив-темпоралис	-nta/-nte	еже-, каждый…	havonta	«ежемесячно»	A folyóirat havonta jelenik meg. — «Журнал выходит ежемесячно»
Локатив	-tt	(где?) в…	Pécsett	«в Пече»	Felhőszakadás volt Pécsett és Pétervárott. — «В Пече и Санкт-Петербурге прошёл проливной дождь»

Притяжательные суффиксы [ | ]

Единственное число	Значение	Лицо	Множественное число	Значение
-m/-om/-am/-em/-öm	«мой»	1	-im/-aim/-eim/-jaim/-jeim	«мои»
-d/-od/-ad/-ed/-öd	«твой»	2	-id/-aid/-eid/-jaid/-jeid	«твои»
-a/-e/-ja/-je	«его/её»	3	-i/-ai/-ei/-jai/-jei	«его»

Единственное число	Значение	Лицо	Множественное число	Значение
városom	«мой город»	1	városaim	«мои города»
városod	«твой город»	2	városaid	«твои города»
városa	«его/её город»	3	városai	«его/её города»

Единственное число	Значение	Лицо	Множественное число	Значение
-nk/-unk/-ünk	«наш»	1	ink/-aink/-eink/-jaink/-jeink	«наши»
-tok/-tek/-tök/-otok/-atok/-etek/-ötök	«ваш»	2	itok/-itek/-aitok/-eitek/-jaitok/-jeitek	«ваши»
-uk/-ük/-juk/-jük	«их»	3	-ik/-aik/-eik/-jaik/-jeik	«их»

Единственное число	Значение	Лицо	Множественное число	Значение
városunk	наш город	1	városaink	«наши города»
városotok	ваш город	2	városaitok	«ваши города»
városuk	их город	3	városaik	«их города»

Синтаксис [ | ]

В венгерском языке, как и в русском, одиночное существительное может выступать в роли сказуемого: Apám tanító («Мой отец — учитель»). В третьем лице настоящего времени, как и в русском языке, глагол-связка van «есть» выпадает: István tanuló («Стёпа — ученик»). Порядок слов в нейтральных предложениях — «SVO» (подлежащее — сказуемое — дополнение): Én megyek az iskolába «Я иду в школу (констатирую факт)», а в других зависит от фокуса предложения, который всегда располагается перед глаголом: Az iskolába megyek én «В шко́лу я иду (а не куда-то ещё)».

Лексика [ | ]

У славян были заимствованы такие слова, как например medve («медведь»), málna («малина»), mák («мак»). К славянским заимствованиям относится, в первую очередь, многочисленная лексика государственной и общественной жизни, термины земледелия и животноводства, рыболовства и охоты, названия ремёсел, разнообразная утварь жилища и домашнего хозяйства, предметы одежды, дни недели и т. д. Славянские заимствования, как правило, имеют неогублённую (сильную) «а» (á); в тюркских по происхождению словах «а» огублена (а).

К тюркским заимствованиям относятся такие слова, как например gyümölcsök («фрукты», ср. тюркск. йемиш/yemiş, чув. çимĕç) или alma («яблоко»).

Остальные 30 % словаря составляют слова неясного происхождения, которых настолько же много и в румынском языке. При этом, однако, нужно учитывать, что частотность исконной лексики выше, а потому разговорная и письменная речь состоит из угро-финских корней на 80—90 % (так же, как в современном английском языке: в словаре в целом преобладает романская лексика, а в речи — германская).

Источник

Hungarian
Hungarian: magyar
Pronunciation	[ˈmɒɟɒr]
Native to	Hungary and areas of  Romania  Serbia  Slovakia  Slovenia  Ukraine  Croatia  Austria  Israel  USA  Australia
Native speakers	14-15 million (2005)Template:Infobox language/ref
Language family	Uralic Ugric Hungarian
Writing system	Latin (Hungarian alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Hungary, European Union, Slovakia (regional language), Slovenia (regional language), Serbia (regional language), Austria (regional language), some official rights in Romania, Ukraine and Croatia
Regulated by	Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Language codes
ISO 639-1	hu
ISO 639-2	hun
ISO 639-3	hun
Regions of the Carpathian Basin where the Hungarian language is spoken
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Hungarian language
Closeup view of a Hungarian keyboard
Alphabet
ő ű cs dz dzs gy ly ny sz ty zs
Grammar
Noun phrases Verbs T-V distinction
History
Sound correspondences with other Uralic languages
Other features
Phonetics and phonology Vowel harmony Orthography (Old Hungarian script) Hungarian names Tongue-twisters
Hungarian and English
Hungarian pronunciation of English English words from Hungarian
Regulatory body
v • d • e

Hungarian (Hungarian: magyar  listen (help·info)) is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group, spoken by the Hungarians. It is the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe, according to the number of native speakers. Hungarian is the official language of Hungary and is also spoken by Hungarian communities in the seven neighboring countries and by diaspora communities worldwide.

The Hungarian name for the language is magyar [ˈmɒɟɒr], which is also occasionally used as an English word to refer to the Hungarian people as an ethnic group.

History[]

Main article: History of the Hungarian language

Classification[]

See also: Regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and other Uralic languages

Hungarian is a Uralic language, more specifically an Ugric language; the most closely related languages are Mansi and Khanty of western Siberia (see Khanty–Mansia). Connections between the Ugric and many other languages were noticed in the 1670s and established, along with the entire Uralic family, in 1717, although the classification of Hungarian continued to be a matter of political controversy into the 18th and even 19th centuries. The name of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes of Ungrian/Ugrian, and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as Ǫgry/Ǫgrove (sg. Ǫgrinŭ) seemed to confirm that.^[2] As to the source of this ethnonym in the Slavic languages, current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the Turkic tribe Onogur (which means «ten arrows» or «ten tribes»).^[3][4][5]

There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian /aː/ corresponds to Khanty /o/ in certain positions, and Hungarian /h/ corresponds to Khanty /x/, while Hungarian final /z/ corresponds to Khanty final /t/. For example, Hungarian ház [haːz] «house» vs. Khanty xot [xot] «house», and Hungarian száz [saːz] «hundred» vs. Khanty sot [sot] «hundred».

The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular.

Prehistory[]

It is thought that Hungarian separated from its closest relatives approximately 3000 years ago, probably in the vicinity of the Urals,^[6] so the history of the language begins around 1000 BC. The Hungarians gradually changed their way of living from settled hunters to nomadic cattle-raising, probably as a result of early contacts with Iranian nomads. Their most important animals included sheep and cattle. There are no written resources on the era, thus only a little is known about it. However, research has revealed some extremely early loanwords, such as szó (‘word’; from the Turkic languages) and daru (‘crane’, from the related Permic languages.)

A small number of anthropologists dispute this theory. Among others, Hungarian historian and archaeologist Gyula László claims that geological data from pollen analysis seems to contradict placing the ancient homeland of the Magyars near the Urals.^[7]

The Turkic languages later had a great influence on the language, especially between the 5th and the 9th centuries. Many words related to agriculture,^[8] to state administration or even to family relations have such backgrounds. Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in a similarly dramatic way during these 300 years.

The Hungarians migrated to the Carpathian Basin around 896 and came into contact with Slavic peoples – as well as with the Romance speaking Vlachs, borrowing many words from them (for example tégla – «brick», mák – «poppy», or karácsony – «Christmas»). In exchange, the neighbouring Slavic languages also contain some words of Hungarian origin (such as Serbian ašov – «spade»). 1.43% of the Romanian vocabulary is of Hungarian origin.^[9]

Old Hungarian[]

The first written accounts of Hungarian, mostly personal and place names, are dated back to the 10th century. Hungarians also had their own writing system, the Old Hungarian script, but no significant texts remain from that time, as the usual medium of writing, wooden sticks, is perishable.

The Kingdom of Hungary was founded in 1000, by Stephen I of Hungary. The country was a western-styled Christian (Roman Catholic) state, and Latin held an important position, as was usual in the Middle Ages. The Latin script was adopted to write the Hungarian language and Latin influenced the language. The first extant text of the language is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer, written in the 1190s. More extensive Hungarian literature arose after 1300. The earliest known example of Hungarian religious poetry is the Old Hungarian ‘Lamentations of Mary’ from the 14th century. The first Bible translation is the Hussite Bible from the 1430s.

The standard language lost its diphthongs, and several postpositions transformed into suffixes, such as reá ‘onto’ – 1055: utu rea ‘onto the way’; later: útra). Vowel harmony was also developed. At one time, Hungarian used six verb tenses; today, most commonly only two (the future not being counted as one, as it is formed with an auxiliary verb).

Modern Hungarian[]

The first printed Hungarian book was published in Kraków in 1533, by Benedek Komjáti. The work’s title is Az Szent Pál levelei magyar nyelven (In original spelling: Az zenth Paal leueley magyar nyeluen), i.e. The letters of Saint Paul in the Hungarian language. In the 17th century, the language was already very similar to its present-day form, although two of the past tenses were still used. German, Italian and French loans also appeared in the language by these years. Further Turkish words were borrowed during the Ottoman occupation of part of Hungary between 1541 and 1699.

In the 18th century, a group of writers, most notably Ferenc Kazinczy began the process of language renewal (Hungarian: nyelvújítás). Some words were shortened (győzedelem > győzelem, ‘triumph’ or ‘victory’); a number of dialectal words spread nationally (e. g. cselleng ‘dawdle’); extinct words were reintroduced (dísz ‘décor’); a wide range of expressions was coined 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.

The 19th and 20th centuries saw further standardization of the language, and differences between the mutually comprehensible dialects gradually lessened. In 1920, by signing the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary lost 71% of its territory, and along with these, 33% of the ethnic Hungarian population. Today, the language is official in Hungary, and regionally also in Romania, in Slovakia, and in Serbia.

Geographic distribution[]

Country	Speakers
Hungary	10,177,223 (2001 census)
Romania (mainly Transylvania)	1,443,970 (census 2002)
Slovakia	520,528 (census 2001)
Serbia (mainly Vojvodina)	293,299 (census 2002)
Ukraine (mainly Zakarpattia)	149,400 (census 2001)
United States	117,973 (census 2000)
Canada	75,555 (census 2001)
Israel	70,000
Austria (mainly Burgenland)	22,000
Croatia	16,500
Slovenia (mainly Prekmurje)	9,240
Total	12-13 million (in Carpathian Basin)

Source: National censuses, Ethnologue

Hungarian has about 14-15 million^[1][10][11] native speakers, of whom nearly 10 million live in present-day Hungary. About 2.5 million speakers live in areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon (1920). Of these, the largest group lives in Transylvania, the western half of present-day Romania, where there are approximately 1.4 million Hungarians. There are large Hungarian communities also in Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine, and Hungarians can also be found in Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia, 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 the Hungarian American community and 1.5 million with Hungarian ancestry^[12] in the United States.

Official status[]

Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, and thus an official language of the European Union. Hungarian is also one of the official languages of Vojvodina and an official language of three municipalities in Slovenia: Hodoš, Dobrovnik and Lendava, along with Slovene. Hungarian is officially recognized as a minority or regional language in Austria, Croatia, Romania, Zakarpattia in Ukraine, and Slovakia. In Romania it is an official language at local level in all communes, towns and municipalities with an ethnic Hungarian population of over 20%.

Dialects[]

The dialects of Hungarian identified by Ethnologue 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 Hungarian Csángó dialect, which is mentioned but not listed separately by Ethnologue, is spoken primarily in Bacău County in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from other Hungarian people, and they therefore preserved a dialect closely resembling an earlier form of Hungarian.

Phonology[]

Main article: Hungarian phonology

Hungarian has 14 vowel phonemes and 25 consonant phonemes. The vowel phonemes can be grouped as pairs of short and long vowels, e.g. o and ó. Most of these pairs have a similar pronunciation, only varying significantly in their duration. However, the pairs <a>/<á> and <e>/<é> differ both in closedness and length.

Consonant phonemes of Hungarian^[13]

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Plosive	p  b		t  d			k  ɡ
Affricate			t͡s  d͡z	t͡ʃ  d͡ʒ	c͡ç  ɟ͡ʝ
Fricative		f  v	s  z	ʃ  ʒ			h
Trill			r
Approximant					j
Lateral			l

Consonant length is also distinctive in Hungarian. Most of the consonant phonemes can occur as geminates.

The sound voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/, written <gy>, sounds similar to ‘d’ in British English ‘duty’ (in fact, more similar to ‘d’ in French ‘dieu’, or to the Macedonian phoneme ‘ѓ’ as in ‘ѓакон’). It occurs in the name of the country, «Magyarország» (Hungary), pronounced /ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ/.

Primary stress is always on the first syllable of a word, as with its cousin Finnish and neighboring languages, Slovak (standard dialect) and Czech. There is secondary stress on other syllables in compounds, e.g. viszontlátásra («goodbye») pronounced /ˈvisontˌlaːtaːʃrɒ/. Elongated vowels in non-initial syllables may seem to be stressed to the ear of an English speaker, since length and stress correlate in English.

Front-back vowel harmony is an important feature of Hungarian phonology.

Single /r/s are tapped, like the Spanish pero; double /r/s are trilled, like the Spanish perro.

Grammar and syntax[]

Main article: Hungarian grammar

See also: Hungarian grammar (verbs)

Hungarian is an agglutinative language. It uses various affixes, including suffixes, prefixes and a circumfix to define a word’s meaning and grammatical function. Unlike English, Hungarian has no prepositions, only postpositions.

There are two types of articles in Hungarian:

• definite: a before words beginning with consonants and az before vowels (behaving just like the indefinite article ’a(n)’ in English)
• indefinite: egy, literally ‘one’.

Nouns can have up to eighteen cases. Some cases are grammatical, such as the unmarked nominative (as in az alma ‘the apple’) and the accusative, marked with the suffix –t (as in az almát). Hungarian does not have a genitive case. The dative case serves the function of the genitive. Unlike English, Hungarian uses postpositions, as in az alma mellett ‘next to the apple’. Noun plurals are formed using the suffix –k (az almák ‘the apples’).

Adjectives precede nouns, as in a piros alma ‘the red apple’. They have three degrees, including base (piros ‘red’), comparative (pirosabb ‘redder’), and superlative ( a legpirosabb ‘reddest’). If the noun takes the plural or a case, the adjective, used attributively, does not agree with it: a piros almák ‘the red apples’. However, when the adjective is used in a predicative sense, it must agree with the noun: az almák pirosak ‘the apples are red’. Adjectives take cases when they are used without nouns: Melyik almát kéred? – A pirosat. ‘Which apple would you like? – The red one.’

Verbs developed a complex conjugation system over many centuries. Every Hungarian verb has two conjugations (definite and indefinite), at least two tenses (past and present-future), and three moods (indicative, conditional and imperative), two numbers (singular or plural), and three persons (first, second and third). Two different conjugations are the most characteristic: the «definite» conjugation is used for a transitive verb with a definite direct object. The «indefinite» conjugation is used for an intransitive verb or for a transitive verb with an indefinite direct object. These rules, however, do not apply everywhere. The following examples demonstrate this system:

János lát. ‘John can see.’ (indefinite: he has the ability of vision)

János lát egy almát. ‘John sees an apple.’ (indefinite: it does not matter which apple)

János látja az almát. ‘John sees the apple.’ (definite: John sees the specific apple that was talked about earlier)

Present tense is unmarked, while past is formed using the suffix –t or sometimes –tt: lát ‘sees’; látott ‘saw’, past.
Futurity may be expressed in either of two ways: with the present tense, most commonly used when the sentence also defines the time of the future event, for example János pénteken moziba megy – literally ‘John on Friday into cinema goes’, i.e. ‘On Friday, John will go to the cinema’; or using the auxiliary verb fog (En:‘will’) together with the verb’s infinitive (formed using –ni): János moziba fog menni – ‘John will go to the cinema.’ This is sometimes counted as a tense, especially by non-specialist publications.

The indicative mood is used in all tenses and is always unmarked. The conditional mood is used only with present and past tenses. The imperative mood is used only with the present tense.

Verbs have verbal prefixes. Most of them define direction of movement (as lemegy «goes down», felmegy «goes up»). Some verbal prefixes give an aspect to the verb, such as the prefix meg-, which defines a finite action.

Hungarian word order is free, but more semantical than syntactical. Because the object is indicated with a suffix and not its place in a phrase, it and the subject can appear before or after the verb, depending on emphasis.

János lát egy almát. ‘John sees an apple.’ (when it is important to stress that it’s John, not someone else, who sees an apple; or when no special stress is required)

János egy almát lát. (or even Egy almát lát János) ‘John an apple sees.’ (when it is important that it’s an apple John sees, and not something else. The same emphasis could be translated as ‘What John sees is an apple.’)

Politeness[]

Main article: T-V distinction#Hungarian

Hungarian has a four-tiered system for expressing levels of politeness.

• 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 speaker wishes to distance himself/herself from the person he/she addresses. A boss could also address a subordinate as «maga». Aside from the different pronoun it is grammatically the same as «önözés».
• Néni/bácsi (tetszikezés): This way of politeness is grammatically the same as «önözés» or «magázódás», but adds a certain phrase, an additional verb «tetszik» («like») to support the main verb of the sentence. For example children are supposed to address adults who are not close friends by using «tetszik» («you like») as a sort of an auxiliary verb with all other verbs. «Hogy vagy?» («How are you?») here becomes «Hogy tetszik lenni?» («How do you like to be?»). The elderly are generally addressed this way, even by adults. When using this way of speaking, one will not use normal greetings, but can only say «(kezét) csókolom» («I kiss (your hand)»). This way of speaking is perceived as somewhat awkward in certain situations and sometimes creates impossible grammatical structures, but is still widely in use. In such cases the smooth solution is usually using the simple «önözés» formula without «tetszik». Another problem created by this form is that when children grow up into their 20s or 30s, they are not sure of how to address family friends that are their parents’ age, but whom they have known since they were young. «Tetszik» would make these people feel too old, but «tegeződés» seems too familiar. There are two ways to avoid this dilemma: one is to use the «tegeződés» in grammatical structures, but show the respect in the title: «John bácsi, hogy vagy?», and the other is using «önözés» to show respect in grammatical structures, while marking the person in a friendly, closer way with the title «bátyám» («brother»).
• Te (tegezés, tegeződés or pertu, per tu from Latin): Used generally, i.e. with persons with whom none of the above forms of politeness is required. Interestingly, the highest rank, the king was traditionally addressed «per tu» by all, peasants and noblemen alike, though with Hungary not having 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, adults speaking to children; can be compared to addressing somebody by their first name in English. Perhaps prompted by the widespread use of English (a language without T-V distinction) 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».

Lexicon[]

Examples with ad

Hungarian	English
Derived terms
ad	to give
adás	transmission
adó	tax or transmitter
adózik	to pay tax
adózó	taxpayer
adós	debtor
adósság	debt
adat	data
adakozik	to give (practise charity)
adalék	additive (ingredient)
adag	dose, portion
adomány	donation
adoma	anecdote
With verbal prefixes
átad	to hand over
bead	to hand in
elad	to sell
felad	to give up, to mail
hozzáad	to augment, to add to
kiad	to rent out, to publish, to extradite
lead	to lose weight, to deposit (an object)
megad	to repay (debt), to call (poker), to grant (permission)
összead	to add (to do mathematical addition)

Giving an accurate estimate for the total word count is difficult, since it is hard to define what to call «a word» in agglutinating languages, due to the existence of affixed words and compound words. To have a meaningful definition of compound words, we have to exclude such compounds whose meaning is the mere sum of its elements. The largest dictionaries from Hungarian to another language contain 120,000 words and phrases^[14] (but this may include redundant phrases as well, because of translation issues). The new desk lexicon of the Hungarian language contains 75,000 words^[14] and the Comprehensive Dictionary of Hungarian Language (to be published in 18 volumes in the next twenty years) will contain 110,000 words.^[15] The default Hungarian lexicon is usually estimated to comprise 60,000 to 100,000 words.^[16] (Independently of specific languages, speakers actively use at most 10,000 to 20,000 words,^[17] with an average intellectual using 25-30 thousand words.^[16]) However, all the Hungarian lexemes collected from technical texts, dialects etc. would all together add up to 1,000,000 words.^[18]

Hungarian words are built around so-called word-bushes. (See an example on the right.) Thus, words with similar meaning often arise from the same root.

The basic vocabulary shares a couple of hundred word roots with other Uralic languages like Finnish, Estonian, Mansi and Khanty. Examples of such include the verb él ‘live’ (Finnish elää^[19]), the numbers kettő ‘two’, három ‘three’, négy ‘four’ (cf. Mansi китыг kitig, хурум khurum, нила nila,
Finnish kaksi, kolme, neljä,^[19] Estonian kaks, kolm, neli, ), as well as víz ‘water’, kéz ‘hand’, vér ‘blood’, fej ‘head’ (cf. Finnish^[19] and Estonian vesi, käsi, veri, Finnish pää,^[19] Estonian pea or ‘pää).

Except for a few Latin and Greek loan-words, 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 loan-words, especially in technical fields.

Another source ^[21] differs in that loanwords in Hungarian are held to constitute about 45% of bases in the language. Although the lexical percentage of native words in Hungarian is 55%, their use accounts for 88.4% of all words used (the percentage of loanwords used being just 11.6%). Therefore the history of Hungarian has come, especially since the 19th century, to favor neologisms from original bases, whilst still having developed as many terms from neighboring languages in the lexicon.

Word formation[]

Words can be compounds or derived. Most derivation is with suffixes, but there is a small set of derivational prefixes as well.

Compounds[]

Compounds have been present in the language since the Proto-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 word arc:

orr (nose) + száj (mouth) → orca (face) (colloquial until the end of the 19th century and still in use in some dialects) → arc (face)^[22]

Compounds are made up of two base words: the first is the prefix, the latter is the suffix. A compound can be subordinative: the prefix is in logical connection with the suffix. If the prefix is the subject of the suffix, the compound is generally classified as a subjective one. There are objective, determinative, and adjunctive compounds as well. Some examples are given below:

Subjective:

menny (heaven) + dörög (rumble) → mennydörög (thundering)

nap (Sun) + sütötte (baked by) → napsütötte (sunlit)

Objective:

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 the length of a compound of three or more words (not counting one-syllable verbal prefixes) is seven or more syllables 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 are coordinatives: there is no concrete relation between the prefix and the suffix. Subcategories include word duplications (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 prefix giz 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 ‘long-lasting, frusteredly done deed’).

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:

elme [mind; standalone base] + (gyógy [medical] + intézet [institute]) → elmegyógyintézet (asylum)

(hadi [militarian] + fogoly [prisoner]) + (munka [work] + tábor [camp]) → hadifogoly-munkatábor (work camp of prisoners of war)

Noteworthy lexical items[]

Points of the compass[]

Hungarian words for the points of the compass are directly derived from the position of the Sun during the day in the Northern hemisphere.

• North = észak (from «éj(szaka)», ‘night’), as the Sun never shines from the North
• South = dél (‘noon’), as the Sun shines from the South at noon
• East = kelet (‘rise’), as the Sun rises in the East
• West = nyugat (‘set’), as the Sun sets in the West

Two words for «red»[]

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 «veri»). When they refer to an actual difference in color (as on a color chart), «vörös» usually refers to the deeper (darker and/or more red and less orange) hue of red. In English similar differences exist between «scarlet» and «red». While many languages have multiple names for this color, often Hungarian scholars assume this is unique in recognizing two shades of red as separate and distinct «folk colours.»^[23]

However, the two words are also used independently of the above in collocations. «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 of Budapest 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 and paprika, red card suits (hearts and diamonds), red stripes on a flag, etc.
• Expressions where «red» typically translates to «vörös»: 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), the Red Cross, the novel The 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 a baboon, red meat, litmus paper (in acid), cities, countries, or other political entities associated with leftist movements (e.g. Red Vienna, Red Russia), etc.

Kinship terms[]

The Hungarian words for brothers and sisters are differentiated based upon relative age. There is also a general word for sibling, testvér, from test = body and vér = blood—i.e. originating from the same body and blood.

	younger	elder	unspecified relative age
brother	öcs	báty	fivér or fiútestvér
sister	húg	nővér	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 up to the eleventh ancestors and tenth descendants (although there are ambiguities and dialectical differences affecting the prefixes for the fourth (and above) ancestors):
Apa (father) -> Nagyapa (grandfather) -> Dédapa (great-grandfather) -> Dédnagyapa (great-great-grandfather) Ükapa (great-great-great-grandfather)
Üknagyapa (great-great-great-great-grandfather) -> Szépapa (great-great-great-great-great-grandfather)-> Szépnagyapa (great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather) -> Óapa (great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather) -> Ónagyapa (8X great-grandfather) -> Ősapa (9X great-grandfather) -> Ősnagyapa (10X great-grandfather) -> Boldogapa (11X great-grandfather) -> Boldognagyapa (12X great-grandfather)

parent	grandparent	great- grandparent	great-great- grandparent	great-great-great- grandparent
szülő	nagyszülő	dédszülő	ükszülő	szépszülő (OR ük-ükszülő)
child	grandchild	great- grandchild	great-great- grandchild	great-great-great- grandchild
gyerek	unoka	dédunoka	ükunoka	szépunoka (OR 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	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 (see inalienable possession). However, the word fiú 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 word fiú (boy) is also often noted as an extreme example of the ability of the language to add suffixes to a word, by forming fiaiéi, adding vowel-form suffixes only, where the result is quite a frequently used word:

fiú	boy
fia	his/her son
fiai	his/her sons
fiáé	his/her son’s (singular object)
fiáéi	his/her son’s (plural object)
fiaié	his/her sons’ (singular object)
fiaiéi	his/her sons’ (plural object)

Extremely long words[]

• megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

Partition to root and suffixes with explanations:

meg-	verb prefix; in this case, it means «completed»
szent	holy (the word root)
-ség	like English «-ness», as in «holiness»
-t(e)len	variant of «-tlen», noun suffix expressing the lack of something; like English «-less», as in «useless»
-ít	constitutes a transitive verb from an adjective
-het	expresses possibility; somewhat similar to the English modal verbs «may» or «can»
-(e)tlen	another variant of «-tlen»
-ség	(see above)
-es	constitutes an adjective from a noun; like English «-y» as in «witty»
-ked	attached to an adjective (e.g. «strong»), produces the verb «to pretend to be (strong)»
-és	constitutes a noun from a verb; there are various ways this is done in English, e.g. «-ance» in «acceptance»
-eitek	plural possessive suffix, second-person plural (e.g. «apple» -> «your apples», where «your» refers to multiple people)
-ért	approximately translates to «because of», or in this case simply «for»

Translation: «for your [plural] repeated pretending to be indesecrable»

The above word is often considered to be the longest word in Hungarian, although there are longer words like:

• legeslegmegszentségteleníttethetetlenebbjeitekként

leg|es|leg|meg|szent|ség|telen|ít|tet|het|etlen|ebb|je|i|tek|ként

«like those of you that are the very least possible to get desecrated»

These words are not used in practice, but when spoken they are easily understood by natives. They were invented to show, in a somewhat facetious way, the ability of the language to form long words (see agglutinative language). They are not compound words—they are formed by adding a series of one and two-syllable suffixes (and a few prefixes) to a simple root («szent», saint).
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.

Writing system[]

Main article: Hungarian alphabet

The Hungarian language was originally written in Old Hungarian runes, superficially similar in appearance to the better-known futhark runes but unrelated. When Stephen I of Hungary established the Kingdom of Hungary in the year 1000, the old system was gradually discarded in favour of the Latin alphabet. Although now not used at all in everyday life, the old script is still known and practiced by some enthusiasts.

Modern Hungarian is written using an expanded Latin alphabet, and has a phonemic 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 and ü) and their long counterparts ő and ű 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 the Latin-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 the Latin-2 / ISO-8859-2 code page, but this code 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 letter pairs <ny>, <ty>, and <gy> represent the palatal consonants /ɲ/, /c/, and /ɟ/ (a little like the «d+y» sounds in British «duke» or American «would you») – a bit like saying «d» with your tongue pointing to your upper palate. (In other words, if Hungarian orthography was totally consistent, <gy> would have been written as <dy> instead.)

Hungarian uses <s> for /ʃ/ and <sz> for /s/, which is the reverse of Polish 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 are madzag («string»), edzeni («to train (athletically)») and dzsungel («jungle»).

Sometimes additional information is required for partitioning words with digraphs: házszám («street number») = ház («house») + szám («number»), not an unintelligible házs + 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 doubled, become trigraphs: <sz>+<sz>=<ssz>, e.g. művésszel («with an artist»). But when the digraph occurs at the end of a line, all of the letters are written out. 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 term «jegyben lenni/járni» means «to be engaged»; «gyűrű» means «ring»).

Usually a trigraph is a double digraph, but there are a few exceptions: tizennyolc («eighteen») is a concatenation of tizen + nyolc. There are doubling minimal pairs: tol («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.

Order of words[]

Basic rule is that the order is from general to specific. This is a typical analytical approach and is used generally in Hungarian.

Name order[]

Main article: Hungarian names

The Hungarian language uses the so-called eastern name order, in which the family name (general, deriving from the family) comes first and the given name (specific, relates to the person) comes last. If a second given name is used, this follows the first given name. This is comparable to the Anglo-Saxon custom of middle names.

Hungarian names in foreign languages[]

For clarity, in foreign languages Hungarian names are usually represented in the western name order. Sometimes, however, especially in the neighboring countries of Hungary – where there is a significant 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, the «father of the hydrogen bomb» was Teller Ede, but he became known internationally as Edward 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 uses András Schiff when abroad, not Andrew Schiff (in Hungarian Schiff 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.

Foreign names in Hungarian[]

In modern usage, foreign names retain their order when used in Hungarian. Therefore:

• Amikor Kiss János Los Angelesben volt, látta John Travoltát.

The Hungarian name Kiss János is in the Hungarian name order (János means John), but the foreign name John 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 «Hungarianized»: Goethe János Farkas (originally Johann Wolfgang Goethe). This usage sounds odd today, when only a few well-known personalities are referred to using their Hungarianized names, including Verne Gyula (Jules Verne), Marx Károly (Karl Marx), Kolumbusz Kristóf (Christopher Columbus, note that it is also translated in English).

Some native speakers disapprove of this usage; the names of certain historical religious personalities (including popes), however, are always Hungarianized by practically all speakers, such as Luther 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 as I. János Károly or the queen of the UK, Elizabeth II is referred to as II. Erzsébet.

Japanese names, which are usually written in western order in the rest of Europe, retain their original order in Hungarian.

Date and time[]

The Hungarian convention for date and time is to go from the generic to the specific: 1. year, 2. month, 3. day, 4. hour, 5. minute, (6. second)

The year and day are always written in Arabic numerals, followed by a full stop. The month can be written by its full name or can be abbreviated, or even denoted by Roman or Arabic numerals. Except for the first case (month written by its full name), the month is followed by a full stop. Usually, when the month is written in letters, there is no leading zero before the day. On the other hand, when the month is written in Arabic numerals, a leading zero is common, but not obligatory. Except at the beginning of a sentence, the name of the month always begins with a lower-case letter.

Hours, minutes, and seconds are separated by a colon (H:m:s). Fractions of a second are separated by a full stop from the rest of the time. Hungary generally uses the 24-hour clock format, but in verbal (and written) communication 12-hour clock format can also be used. See below for usage examples.

Date and time may be separated by a comma or simply written one after the other.

• 2008. február 9. 16:23:42 or 2008. február 9., 16:23:42
• 2008. feb. 9.
• 2008. 02. 09. or 2008. 2. 9. (rarely)
• 2008. II. 9.

Date separated by hyphen is also spreading, especially on datestamps. Here – just like the version separated by full stops – leading zeros are in use.

• 2008-02-09

When only hours and minutes are written in a sentence (so not only «displaying» time), these parts can be separated by a full stop (e.g. «Találkozzunk 10.35-kor.» – «Let’s meet at 10.35.»), or it is also regular to write hours in normal size, and minutes put in superscript (and not necessarily) underlined (e.g. «A találkozó 10³⁵-kor kezdődik.» or «A találkozó 10³⁵-kor kezdődik.» – «The meeting begins at 10.35.»).

Also, in verbal and written communication it is common to use «délelőtt» (literally «before noon») and «délután» (lit. «after noon») abbreviated as «de.» and «du.» respectively. Délelőtt and délután is said or written before the time, e.g. «Délután 4 óra van.» – «It’s 4 p.m.». However e.g. «délelőtt 5 óra» (should mean «5 a.m.») or «délután 10 óra» (should mean «10 p.m.») are never used, because at these times the sun is not up, instead «hajnal(i)» («dawn»), «reggel» («morning»), «este» («evening») and «éjjel» («night») is used, however there is no exact rules for the use of these, as everybody use them according to their habits (e.g. somebody may has woken up at 5 a.m. so he/she says «Reggel 6-kor ettem.» – «I had food at *morning 6.», and somebody woke up at 11 a.m. so he/she says «Hajnali 6-kor még aludtam.» – «I was still sleeping at *dawn 6.»). Roughly, these expressions mean these times:

Expression	Approximate time
Hajnal(i)	4–6 a.m.
Reggel	6–9 a.m.
Délelőtt (de.)	9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Dél*	=12 p.m. (=»noon»)
Délután (du.)	12–6 p.m.
Este	6–11 p.m.
Éjjel	11 p.m. – 4 a.m.
Éjfél*	=12 a.m. (=»midnight»)

• * «Dél» and «éjfél» mean these exact times, so using time after them is incorrect. So there is no «Éjfél 0-kor még buliztunk» («We were still partying at *midnight 0.») or «Dél 12-kor süt a nap.» («The sun shines at *noon 12.»). Instead «Éjfélkor még buliztunk.» and «Délben süt a nap.» is correct.

Addresses[]

Although address formatting is increasingly being influenced by Indo-European conventions, traditional Hungarian style is:

1052 Budapest,
Deák tér 1.

So the order is 1. postcode, 2., city (most general) 3., street (more specific) 4., house number (most specific). Note that addresses on envelopes should be formatted as follows: Name of recipient/City/Street Address/postcode.

Vocabulary examples[]

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.

• Hungarian (person, language): magyar [mɒɟɒr]
• Hello!:
  • Formal, when addressing a stranger: «Good day!»: Jó napot (kívánok)! [joːnɒpot kivaːnok].
  • Informal, when addressing someone you know very well: Szia! [siɒ]
• Good-bye!: Viszontlátásra! (formal) (see above), Viszlát! [vislaːt] (semi-informal), Szia! (informal: same stylistic remark as for «Hello!» )
• Excuse me: Elnézést! [ɛlneːzeːʃt]
• Please:
  • Kérem (szépen) [keːrɛm seːpɛn] (This literally means «I’m asking (it/you) nicely«, as in German Danke schön, «I thank (you) nicely«. See next for a more common form of the polite request.)
  • Legyen szíves! [lɛɟɛn sivɛʃ] (literally: «Be (so) kind!»)
• I would like ____, please: Szeretnék ____ [sɛrɛtneːk] (this example illustrates the use of the conditional 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? [mɛɲːibɛ kɛryl]
• Yes: Igen [iɡɛn]
• No: Nem [nɛm]
• I do not understand: Nem értem [nɛm eːrtɛm]
• I do not know: Nem tudom [nɛm tudom]
• Where’s the toilet?:
  • Hol van a vécé? [hol vɒn ɒ veːtseː] (vécé/veːtseː is the Hungarian pronouncation of the English abbreviation of «Water Closet»)
  • Hol van a mosdó? [hol vɒn ɒ moʒdoː] – more polite (and word-for-word) version
• generic toast: Egészségünkre! [ɛɡeːʃːeːɡyŋkrɛ] (literally: «To our health!»)
• juice: gyümölcslé [ɟymøltʃleː]
• water: víz [viːz]
• wine: bor [bor]
• beer: sör [ʃør]
• tea: tea [tɛɒ]
• milk: tej [tɛj]
• Do you speak English?: Beszél(sz) angolul? [bɛseːl / bɛseːls ɒŋɡolul] Note that the fact of asking is only shown by the proper intonation: continually rising until the penultimate syllable, then falling for the last one.
• I love you: Szeretlek [sɛrɛtlɛk]
• Help!: Segítség! [ʃɛɡiːtʃeːɡ]
• It is needed: kell
• I need to go: Mennem kell

Controversy over origins[]

Mainstream linguistics has demonstrated that Hungarian is part of the Uralic family of languages, related ultimately to languages such as Finnish and Estonian, although it is particularly close to Khanty and Mansi languages located near the Ural Mountains.

• For many years (from 1869), it was a matter of dispute whether Hungarian was a Finno-Ugric/Uralic language, or was more closely related to the Turkic languages, a controversy known as the «Ugric-Turkish war», or whether indeed both the Uralic and the Turkic families formed part of a superfamily of «Ural–Altaic languages«. Hungarians did absorb some Turkic influences during several centuries of co-habitation. For example, it appears that the Hungarians learned animal breeding techniques from the Turkic Chuvash, as a high proportion of words specific to agriculture and livestock are of Chuvash origin. There was also a strong Chuvash influence in burial customs. Furthermore, all Ugric languages, not just Hungarian, have Turkic loanwords related to horse riding.
• A fringe theory that is well-known is that the Hungarian language is a descendant of Sumerian. Some nationalist linguists and historians (like Ida Bobula, Ferenc Badiny Jós, dr Tibor Baráth and others) have published this theory.^[24] There are some artifacts which they claim support this view (like the Tartaria tablets). Mainstream linguists reject the Sumerian theory as pseudoscience.
• Hungarian has often been claimed to be related to Hunnish, since Hungarian legends and histories show close ties between the two peoples; also, the name Hunor is preserved in legends and (along with a few Hunnic-origin names, such as Attila) is still used as a given name in Hungary. Many people share the belief that the Székelys, a Hungarian ethnic group living in Romania, are descended from the Huns. However, the link with Hunnish has no linguistic foundation since most linguists consider the Hunnic language to be part of the Turkic language family.

There have been attempts, dismissed by mainstream linguists, to show that Hungarian is related to other languages including Hebrew, Egyptian, Etruscan, Basque, Persian, Pelasgian, Greek, Chinese, Sanskrit, English, Tibetan, Magar, Quechua, Armenian, Japanese and at least 42 other languages.^[25]

Comparison of some Finno-Ugric words[]

Wiktionary: Swadesh lists for Finno-Ugric languages

Hungarian	Finnish	Estonian	Mordvinic (Erzya dialect)	Komi-Permyak	English meaning	# by the Swadesh-list
én	minä	mina	мон mon	ме me	I, myself, me	1
te	sinä, te (formal)	sina, teie (formal)	тон ton	тэ te	you/thou	2
mi	me	meie, me	минь miń	ми mi	we	4
ti	te	teie, te	тынь tyń	ти ti	you (plural)	5
ez/itt	tämä/täällä	see	те te	тайö tajö	this/here	7
az/ott	tuo/tuolla	too	што što	сійö sijö	that/there	8
ki?	kuka?	kes?	кие? kije?	коді? kodi?	who?	11
mi?	mikä?	mis?	мезе? meze?	мый? myj?	what?	12
egy	yksi	üks	вейке vejke	öтік ötik	one	22
kettő	kaksi	kaks	кавто kavto	кык kyk	two	23
három	kolme	kolm	колмо kolmo	куим kuim	three	24
négy	neljä	neli	ниле nile	нёль ńol	four	25
öt	viisi	viis	вете vete	вит vit	five	26
nej	nainen ‘woman’	naine	ни ni	гöтыр götyr	wife	40
anya	äiti	ema	(тиринь) ава (tiriń) ava	мам mam	mother	42
fa	puu	puu	чувто čuvto	пу pu	tree, wood	51
vér	veri	veri	верь veŕ	вир vir	blood	64
haj	hius, hiukset	juuksed	черь čeŕ	юрси jursi	hair	71
fej	pää	pea	пря pŕa	юр jur	head	72
fül	korva	kõrv	пиле pile	пель peĺ	ear	73
szem	silmä	silm	сельме seĺme	син sin	eye	74
orr	nenä	nina	судо sudo	ныр nyr	nose	75
száj	suu	suu	курго kurgo	вом vom	mouth	76
fog	hammas	hammas	пей pej	пинь piń	tooth	77
láb	jalka	jalg	пильге piĺge	кок kok	foot	80
kéz	käsi	käsi	кедь ked́	ки ki	hand	83
szív/szűny	sydän	süda	седей sedej	сьöлöм śölöm	heart	90
inni	juoda	jooma	симемс simems	юны juny	to drink	92
tudni	tietää	teadma	содамс sodams	тöдны tödny	to know	103
élni	elää	elama	эрямс eŕams	овны ovny	to live	108
víz	vesi	vesi	ведь ved́	ва va	water	150
kő	kivi	kivi	кев kev	из iz	stone	156
ég/menny	taivas	taevas	менель meneĺ	енэж jenezh	sky/heaven	162
szél	tuuli	tuul	варма varma	тöв töv	wind	163
tűz	tuli	tuli	тол tol	би bi	fire	167
éj	yö	öö	ве ve	вой voj	night	177

See also[]

• History of the Hungarian language
• Hungarian Cultural Institute
• List of English words of Hungarian origin
• Magyar szótár – A Dictionary of the Hungarian Language (a book review)

Bibliography[]

Courses[]

• Colloquial Hungarian – The complete course for beginners. Rounds, Carol H.; Sólyom, Erika (2002). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24258-4.

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. ISBN 0-340-56286-2.

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.

• Hungarolingua 1 – Magyar nyelvkönyv. Hoffmann, István; et al. (1996). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-083-8
• Hungarolingua 2 – Magyar nyelvkönyv. Hlavacska, Edit; et al. (2001). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-03-6698-3
• Hungarolingua 3 – Magyar nyelvkönyv. Hlavacska, Edit; et al. (1999). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-083-8

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. There is an accompanying ‘dictionary’ for each book with translations of the Hungarian vocabulary into English, German, and French.

• «NTC’s Hungarian and English Dictionary» by Magay and Kiss. ISBN 0-8442-4968-8 (You may be able to find a newer edition also. This one is 1996.)

Grammars[]

• A practical Hungarian grammar (3rd, rev. ed.). Keresztes, László (1999). Debrecen: Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-300-4.
• Practical Hungarian grammar: [a compact guide to the basics of Hungarian grammar]. Törkenczy, Miklós (2002). Budapest: Corvina. ISBN 963-13-5131-9.
• 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. ISBN 963-13-4778-8.
• Hungarian: an essential grammar. Rounds, Carol (2001). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-22612-0.
• Hungarian: Descriptive grammar. Kenesei, István, Robert M. Vago, and Anna Fenyvesi (1998). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-02139-1.
• Hungarian Language Learning References (including the short reviews of three of the above books)
• Noun Declension Tables – HUNGARIAN. Budapest: Pons. Klett. ISBN 978-963-9641-04-4
• Verb Conjugation Tables – HUNGARIAN. Budapest: Pons. Klett. ISBN 978-963-9641-03-7

References[]

External links[]

• Ethnologue report for Hungarian
• Hungarian phrasebook at Wikitravel
• Introduction to Hungarian
• Hungarian Profile
• List of formative suffixes in Hungarian
• The relationship between the Finnish and the Hungarian languages
• Hungarian Language Review at How-to-learn-any-language.com
• «The Hungarian Language: A Short Descriptive Grammar» by Beáta Megyesi (PDF document)
• The old site of the Indiana University Institute of Hungarian Studies (various resources)
• Hungarian Language Learning References on the Hungarian Language Page (short reviews of useful books)
• One of the oldest Hungarian texts – A Halotti Beszéd (The Funeral Oration)
• A short English–Hungarian–Japanese phraselist(renewal) incl.sound file
• WikiLang – Hungarian Page (Hungarian grammar / lessons, in English)
• Hungarian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary’s Swadesh-list appendix)

Encyclopaedia Humana Hungarica[]

• Introduction to the History of the Language; The Pre-Hungarian Period; The Early Hungarian Period; The Old Hungarian Period
• The Linguistic Records of the Early Old Hungarian Period; The Linguistic System of the Age
• The Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language of the Old Hungarian Period
• The Late Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language
• The First Half of the Middle Hungarian Period; Turkish Loan Words

Dictionaries[]

• Hungarian Dictionary: from Webster’s Dictionary
• Hungarian ↔ English created by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Computer and Automation Research Institute MTA SZTAKI (also includes dictionaries for the following languages to and from Hungarian : German, French, Italian, Dutch, and Polish)
• English-Hungarian-Finnish – three-language freely editable online dictionary
• Collection of Hungarian Technical Dictionaries
• Hungarian–English False friends (False friend)
• Hungarian slang
• Hungarian bilingual dictionaries
• Hungarian-English dictionary
• English-Hungarian dictionary
• Hungarian Verb Conjugation

Template:Uralic languages