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Hungarian |
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| Finno-Ugric | Ugric | Official language in: Hungary , European Union Regional or Minority language in:  Austria ,  Croatia ,  Romania ,  Serbia ,  Slovakia ,  Slovenia ,  Ukraine |
Latin alphabet (Hungarian adaption) |
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| Sounds and Spelling Vowel Harmony Noun declension |
The stem of a noun in Hungarian suffixes a series of endings to express all of its relations to the other nouns, the stem however, as a general rule, does not change making each form of a noun 100% predictable given any other form (as long as vowel harmony is known). There are however some stem changes which occasionally occur, mostly they need to be learnt with the nouns but some can be predicted or eliminated based on the nature of the vowel. The exact criteria for many stem changes to occur are not yet known.
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Vowel Promotion
If the noun ends in “a” or “e”, the “a” and “e” are promoted to “á” and “é” respectively, making, for instance, kutya (dog) and kutyák (dogs). The reason for this is unclear, but, as you can see, many words take -ak or -ek as their plural, so, this helps distinguish between a word ending in a consonant and taking -ak or -ek and a word ending in -a or -e taking -k. This of course raises the obvious question: how to distinguish between a word ending in “a” or “e” taking -k and a word ending in “á” or “é” taking -k? Well simply put, Hungarian is loathe to end a word on “á” or “é” so that rarely happens except for words which are already inflected.
Vowel Demotion
Another interesting feature is that of vowel demotion.
- A demoting vowel word is one in which the final vowel becomes shorter i.e. a long vowel becomes a short vowel, and a short vowel disappears.
- Demotion only occurs when suffixing single consonant endings who take a linking vowel i.e. when suffixing a -VC ending.
Long vowel demotion
- generally the only vowels which can take place in long vowel demotion are <ú> <ű> <í> <é> (including historic <î>)
- In order to be demotable the final vowel must be followed by one and only one consonant
- generally the vowel of the suffix will be <e> or <a>
Examples:
- név -> nëvek (name)
Short vowel demotion
- Generally, the only demotable short vowels are <a> <o> <ö> and <ä>.
- Short vowels are much the same but a word can only have a demoting vowel if the word ends on -VCVC
Examples:
- bo.kor -> bo.ko.rok -> bok.rok (bush)
This examples shows a demoting vowel word with the short vowel <o>. Note that whith the addition of a new vowel, the final vowel <r> now moves to the next syllable. Since the second vowel has disappeared, the first <k> moves to the preceding syllable. In this way we now have two CVC syllables. This is why the word can only end on -VCVC and not -VCCVC.
- generally the vowel of the suffix will be the same as the demoted vowel, although there are exceptionss like jutalom jutalmak (reward).
Exceptionally demoting nouns
There are some weak demoting nouns which are demoting nouns, but unlike the default of strong demoting nouns, in the accusative they do not demote.
Others only demote in special circumstances like the 3rd person singular possessive enclitic. For instance ajtó ajtót ajtók ajtaja (door)
V-stems
There is another category of noun which appear at first glance to be demoting nouns. They are the V-stems, so named because they often take a -v- when suffixing a consonant. They also demote.
Examples:
- ló -> lovak (horse)
fű -> füvek (grass)
kő -> kövek (stone)
The real reason for this is that in Old Hungarian v was /w/ not /v/. After a short vowel it would form a diphthong:
Examples:
/ow/ -> /oʊ/
/uw/ -> /uʊ/
/ɒw/ -> /ɒʊ/
/yw/ -> /yʊ/
/øw/ -> /øʊ/
/æw/ -> /æʊ/
- note this doesn't work for neutral vowels /e/ /i/ who do not form diphthings with w, and words ending on /iw/ /ew/ today end on /iv/ /ev/ like szív and év but due to the mixup with /æ/ and /e/ it is unclear whether /e/ or /æ/ is unable to form diphthongs and if /æʊ/ forms diphthongs, whether it moves to /e:/ or not.
However, Hungarian does not have diphthongs so the diphthongs sound like simple long vowels to Hungarians. The only snag is that /ɒʊ/ over time became a long /o:/ which is the sound halfway between /ɒ/ and /ʊ/.
Examples:
/ow/ -> /oʊ/ -> /o:/
/uw/ -> /uʊ/ -> /u:/
/ɒw/ -> /ɒʊ/ -> /o:/
/yw/ -> /yʊ/ -> /y:/
/øw/ -> /øʊ/ -> /ø:/
/æw/ -> /æʊ/ -> /e:/
The reason that these words add a -v- today is that, in cases like the plural, the /w/ sound moved to the second syllable cf the Sounds and Spelling page. In this case the /w/ was pronounced independently of the preceding vowel
Examples:
- ló (low) /loʊ/ -> /lo:/
lovak /lo.wɒk/ -> /lo.vɒk/
This also explains the shift from the /o/ vowel to the /ɒ/ vowel in some words
Examples:
- szó (szaw) /sɒʊ/ -> /so:/
szavak (szawak) /sɒwɒk/ -> /sɒvɒk/
It should be noted that two words at least do not demote properly.
mű -> művek (consistent long vowel
odú -> odvak (double demotion). the reasons for these are that mű has műw as its true stem. Unlike the other V-stems it has a long vowels which could not become even longer when the /w/ was added. As such, when the /w/ moves to the next syllable and becomes a /v/, the long vowel remains long.
Odú on the other hand is the only V-stem word which is also a demoting word, and as such:
Examples:
oduw /o.duʊ/-> odwak /od.vɒk/
A second type of V-stem word also exists. Some words end not on vowel+w but consonant+w. Such words with front vowels today end in v such as
Examples:
- terw -> terv
elw -> elv
but in words which had a back vowel, the /w/ became a /u/. (this could not happen in front vowel words since /u/ is a back vowel and this woudl have broken vowel harmony.
Examples:
- darw -> daru
falw -> falu
hamw -> hamu
Nonetheless, both of these words will have a v in the plural
Examples:
- terv -> tervek
daru -> darvak (darw -> darwak)
Metathesis
Metathesis is a phenomenon whereby consonants in a noun change positions. Specifically, a word of three consonants can move the last consonant to right in front of the second consonant. If we were to number the consonants it would look like this: 1v2v3 becoming 1v32 where v stands for a vowel. This feature today happens only with three nouns which are given below with their plurals:
pehely (flake) becomes pelyhek
teher (load, burden) becomes terhek
Because there are only three such words, analysing them is pretty pointless, just remember these three words move the last consonant to before the h and add suffixes as normal, although the new stem does not incorporate the final -e, that is teher → terh- not “terhe-” making terhek not “terhék”
Metathesis occurs pretty much whenever the noun takes a consonant ending. A further example of this is teher becoming the adjective terhes (pregnant, lit. burdened) in the same way.
