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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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This page deals with the writing system and pronunciation of Hungarian. It is essencial to reading, writing and speaking Hungarian but doesn't presume any knowledge of Hungarian. It would, however, be beneficial to be familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet
Hungarian uses a modified version of the Latin alphabet (which English also uses) and employs nine letters with diacritic marks, eight digraphs (combinations of two letters) and one trigraph (combinations of three letters). It is nearly completely regular and mostly unambiguous except at morpheme boundaries.
the Hungarian alphabet (a magyar ábécé)
The Hungarian alphabet contains 44 "letters" including all 26 letters of the modern Latin alphabet (English alphabet). The 44 letters of the alphabet are:
a á b c cs d dz dzs e é f g gy h i í j k l ly m n ny o ó ö ő p q r s sz t ty u ú ü ű v w x y z zs
Each of the above monographs, digraphs, and the trigraph are considered “letters”. Each one used to be written with it's own glyph in rovás írás (old Hungarian “runic” script, lit. carving writing). The exceptions are dz and dzs which were introduced for Turkish loanwords, and q, w, x, and y which only adopted as part of the Latin alphabet, predominantly to write European loan words (and in the case of y to form digraphs). the “names” of the letters are:
a, á, bé, cé, csé, dé, dzé, dzsé, e, é, eff, gé, gyé, há, i, í, jé or pontos jé, ká, ell, ell ipszilon, emm, enn, nyé, o, ó, ö, ő, pé, kú (q), err, ess, essz, té, tyé, u, ú, ü, ű, vé, dupla vé (w), iksz (x), ipszilon (y), zé, zsé.
Although ly can technically be lyé, since it is now homophonic to jé, ly is refered to as ell ipszilon, and jé refers to j but when the distinction needs to be made between j and ly, j is called pontos jé or “dotted j”
the pronunciation (a kiejtés)
The hungarian consonants are shown in the following table
| Place of articulation → | Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Palatal | Velar | ||
| Manner of articulation ↓ | |||||||||
| Nasal | m m | n n | ɲ ny | (ŋ) ng | |||||
| Plosive | p b p b | t d t d | c ɟ ty gy | c ɟ k g | k g k g | ||||
| Fricative | f v f v | s z sz z | ʃ ʒ s zs | (ç) ch | (x) h, ch | h h | |||
| Affricate | ts dz c dz | tʃ dʒ cs dzs | |||||||
| Approximant | j j | ||||||||
| Trill | r r | ||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l l | (ʎ) ly | |||||||
m, n, ny, and ng are said as m, n, n in minion, and ng in sing respectively - /m/ /n/ /ɲ/ /ŋ/
although ng is not seen as its own letter in Hungarian but rather an n and a g, and is usually said as such i.e. /ŋg/, in speech it can become /ŋ/ but not across syllable boundaries. so enged (allow) is always /æŋ.gæd/ and not /æŋæd/.
b, d, and g are pronounced as their English variants - /b/ /d/ /ɟ/or/g/
p, t, and k are pronounced as in English but with less breath - /p/ /t/ /c/or/k/
Compare “spit” with “pit”, “stick” with “tick”, and “scar” with “car” (the former in each being correct)
ty and gy are said close to the t in “Tuesday” and d in “due” of Queen's English. - /c/ /ɟ/
Beware, the IPA symbols /c/ and /ɟ/ are used for two sets of sounds, one is the set found in Hungarian, Albanian, and a few others, while the other set refers to the k and g of “key” and “git” which are not the same as those in “car” and “gum”. Loosely, ty and gy are t+y and d+y sounds respectively, and are more aspirated, i.e. they should be said with a release of much more air than p, b, t, d, k, and g. At the same time, note that k and g change their prounciation based on the vowel following them. This isn't all that important to note usually because English speakers will naturally accomodate k and g and there is never an instance where distinguishing between /c/ and /k/ for instance is important. None the less, since Hungarian does employ both pronunciations of the /c/ and /ɟ/ symbols, it's important to know which is meant when.
f, v, sz, z, s, and zs correspond to the English f, v, s, z, sh, and s of pleasure - /f/ /v/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/
N.B. that sz represents the /s/ sound, and s represents the /ʃ/ (sh) sound. This is the direct opposite of orthographies like that of Polish, and counter intuitive to many. Scholars of German will appreciate that the sz digraph shares its origins with those of the German ß.
h corresponds to the English h /h/, but in the few instances that h ends a word like méh (bee), doh (dank), düh (rage), or potroh (thorax) it is said like the German Ach Laut, or Scottich Loch /x/.
c, cs, dz, and dzs are said like “ts”, “ch” “dz” and “j” respectively. - /ts/ /tʃ/ /dz/ /dʒ/
r is said trilled like the Spanish r when one is emphasising it, and children are taught to roll their r's, but in real speech it is more like a tap of the tongue against the roof of the mouth whilst making a light variant of the English r. Although most r sounds will be understood.
l is said as the English l
J and Ly (pontos jé és el-ipszilon)
J and ly both sound like y /j/
Once, ly used to sound like /ʎ/ l+y (as in million). It is said by some that there are differences in the pronunciation of j and ly, although others vehemently deny it. J/ly is one of the few ambiguities of Hungarian writing, and correctly identifying them from speech alone is often impossible. There are however two useful rules:
1/ if a word begins with a /j/ sound, it will be written with “j”. The sole exception is the word lyuk, which has as its synonym luk, originating from the German Lücke meaning a hole or gap.
2a/ if a /j/ sound can be replaced with a /l/ sound, and still be understood, chances are it is written with ly. E.g. Hülye (stupid), if said “hüle” could still be understood by a native.
This rule is however, difficult for non-native speakers to utilise, and so the converse might be more helpful.
2b/ if a /j/ can be replaced with a /l/ and now makes a different word, the /j/ is probably written with “j” e.g. - hajó (ship) and haló ((one who is) dying); jó (good) ló (horse)
loan words
Hungarian has, over time, borrowed words from other languages for its own use. Hungarian traditionally tries to pronounce words true to their perceived original pronunciation which can mean using a sound or sequence of sounds not usually found in Hungarian. In many cases the original spelling will be kept and the pronounciation learnt separate, usually, however, Hungarian will re-write loan words to fit Hungarian orthography (e.g. French rendez-vous becoming randevú), and in some cases both the Hungarian and original spellings can be seen.
Borrowings from German
CH – this should be pronounced either as /ç/ h+y in a syllable with e i ö or ü, or as /x/ in a syllable with a, o, and u.
E.g. pech (pity, shame), nachtkasztli (night stand)
W – most often found in words of German origin. In German it is pronounced as a “v”, and so it is in Hungarian. Many family names contain it as do some German words and phrases which are used in casual speech in Hungary
E.g. the expression was ist das
Although these letters exist in Hungarian, words directly borrowed from German which do not undergo a spelling change, will undergo a slight pronunciation change:
“S” will be said like the “s” of English, except before “t”, “p”, or in the trigraph “sch” where it becomes an English “sh”. Due to the fact that before p or t, s is pronounced in German as it is in Hungarian, the spelling of German words begining in sp or st often does not change. E.g. stimmelni (to make sense, be correct) from the verb stimmen, and its derivative stimmt.
“Z” is said like the Hungarian “c”.
“V” is said like f.
Borrowings from Greek and Latin
CH – (letter Χ χ) often becomes a k, e.g. in kémia (chemistry), where it has not, the ch is either a “k” or “h” like in pszichológia /psiholo:giɒ/ /psikolo:giɒ/ at the speaker's discretion.
PSZ - (letter Ψ ψ) is pronounced as “ps”
E.g. Pszichológia
q(u) – most often found in Words of Latin origin, It is usually said as “kv”.
E.g. the Roman name of Budapest Aquincum.
X – usually in words of Greek origin (letter Ξ ξ), where it is pronounced “ks” not like in English where it often becomes “z”
E.g. xenofób (xenophobe)
Y – usually in words of Greek origin (letter Υ υ), where it is pronounced like “i”, although in centuries past, nobles whose family names ended with -fi changed them to -ffy to seem more noble. Similar changes have happened to other names ending in -i and many names of slavic origin contain y.
Borrowings from Slavic
Although seeing slavic orthography is rare in Hungary many names of Polish origin can be found (Hungary and Poland have always had a special relationship)
CZ – is the most common slavic letter in Hungarian where it is pronounced like our cs
gemination (gemináta)
Gemination is a feature whereby a vowel is lengthened (see below) or a consonant is said twice. a geminate consonant is shown by writing it twice, for instance evvel (with this), ebben (in this), nevess (laugh!), or evett (eaten, he ate).
Evvel is said with one syllable ending in v, the other starting in it. really, it's one long v sound but emphasis is placed on it twice so it clearly sounds like two v's. This same principle applies to nearly all geminate consonants between two vowels.
A geminate consonant between vowels is made by producing one long vowel sound and placing emphasis on it twice
Ebben is a geminate b. B, like p, t, d, ty, gy, k, and g, is a plosive (sound made by building up pressure and releasing it one go), so it is not possible to pronounce one long sound and emphasise it twice. Instead, the sound is pronounced twice. The first is pronounced “unreleased” like the d at the end of “hid” (In speech the d is often not pronounced but instead you put your mouth in the position d requires and stop) and the second plosive is pronounced like one would normally say it.
Geminating a plosive between vowels is done by making an unreleased sound, pausing (but not releaving pressure), then releasing the sound.
At the end of a word, like in nevess, the geminate sound is said with more power and length, but isn't said as two sounds. A plosive like in evett is not lengthened, as plosives have no length, but is stronger than a single plosive and cannot be said unreleased.
A digraph which is geminated is written by doubling the first letter only.
E.g. Fattyú (bastard), or vesszél (lose!)
the vowels (a magánhangzók)
Hungarian has the following vowels: a á e é i í o ó ö ő u ú ü ű they occur in long/short pairs and the vowel length (gemination) is phonemic. That is, two words who differ only in vowel length can mean entirely different things e.g. örülök (I am happy) and őrülök (I am going mad).
Although the vowels in pairs aren't the same, that is to say, the long version is usually a bit more closed and fronted (closer to the ee of English), the distinction is small and often not even noted.
the sounds í ó ő ú ű are all but the same as their short counterparts i o ö u ü. Note the long sounds all have one or two acutes. The latter is known as Hungarumlaut or Ungarnumlaut meaning a Hungarian umlaut, as it is the umlaut diacritic (ö) adapted for Hungarian needs. It is only used in Hungarian and even then only on ő and ű. It may render in some places, either through poor fonts, or a lack of support for eastern European scripts, as a tilde (õ) or circumflex (ô) over the letter. This is wrong but unfortunately common. Rest assured, words with such characters are probably not foreign, they are just poorly written. (l'hôpital rule of french mathematics is a prime example of correct use of the circumflex in Hungarian)
- actually ő is ised in old handwritten Faroese to distinguish between two different forms of ö but that is non-standard.
i is said like “ee” - /i/
o is said like the “o” in “or” - /o/
ö is said similar to the “o” in “word” (without pronouncing the r) - /ø/
u is like the “oo” in “wood” and “hood” but not “food” - /u/
ü like “i” but with the lips pursed - /y/
A, á, e, and é represent 4 distinct sounds with “a” and “e” short, and “á” and “é” long.
e similar to the a in “am” - /æ/
é like the ai in “air” - /eː/
a is similar to the o in “on” - /ɑ/ or /ɒ/ (it is only partially rounded)
á like “ah” - /aː/
So Hungarian vowels today fall roughly into the following pattern
| openness | Front | Neutral | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| closed | üű | ií | uú |
| mid | öő | ëé | oó |
| open | e | aá |
N.B. vowels in standard Hungarian do not form diphthongs in native words. This means that two adjacent vowels are both pronounced independently, althought in spoken Hungarian often a slight /j/ is inserted between two adjacent vowels for ease of pronunciation. There is no glottal stop between vowels except when enunciating very clearly.
archaic vowels
In Hungarian there are many vowels which have long merged with other vowels. Although Hungarians no longer make any distinction between them in either writing or pronunciation, the language itself does. Merged vowels are responcible for many words who act outside of the rules because they act according to the rules of their original vowels despite being written and pronounced with a new vowel.
e
E and é represent two sounds as distinct as ö and í. The only problem is that this means é needs a short counterpart and e needs a long one. SInce neither of them have it, they were lumped together.
é represents the long /e:/ sound. the short counterpart is ë /e/. The ë symbol is not part of the standard orthography, but is used to talk about this sound, or write in dialects where this sound still exists. This sound is possibly the least controversial of all the lost sounds since:
- it is maintained in some dialects where, for instance, mëntek, mentëk, mëntëk, and mentek are four distinct words. In the standard language however, only three exist and are all pronounced identically.
- in rovásírás, the ancient Hungarian runic writing system, there was a rune for ë. Appart from some consonants who had both front and back vowels forms (i.e. a <ty> in rovásírás had one form for when it followed a back vowel, and an other for when it followed a front vowel) there are no runes representing sounds not used in the standard language (other than ly for which Hungarian still has a seperate spelling) , hence ë was the most recent sound to be lost and all other lost sounds died out before rovásírás was worked out.
gramatically the distinction is relevant not only because the use of ë or ä can distinguish between different words, but also because ä is a front vowel while ë is a neutral vowel which affects the vowels of suffixes.
the long counterpart of ä (which would be a̋) died out long before ë. What it merged with is unclear but unless it merged with ä, it probably caused some neutral or back vowel words to act like front vowel words.
In order to distinguish these two, historical /æ/ will be written as <ä> while historical /e/ will be written <ë>. The letter <e> will indicate the letter <e> as it is used in modern Hungarian where the distinction between ë and ä is either irrelevant or can't be established.
i
Modern Hungarian i (or rather, í) can represent the long lost /ɨ/ or /ɯ/ sound. There is no standard symbol for this sound since no dialects maintain it but here it will be written as <ı> in the short form (which is more or less dead) and <î> in the long form. Most often this vowel is demoting
This sound has merged with many others over time but since it is a back vowel, if and when it merged with ú or ó, it wouldnt have much effect on the vowel harmony. The most common sounds for <î> to merge with are í and to a lesser extent é. This is seen in words like
Examples:
híd -> hidak (bridge) historic demoting <î>
nyíl -> nyilak (arrow) historic demoting <î>
íj -> íjak (bow) historic <î>
írni -> írok (to write) historic <î>
inni -> iszom (to drink) historic <ı>
You will notice that these are all very old concepts and hence very old words. Newer words, specifically ones introduced to the language after this vowel was lost will not have it.
Like ä/ë the distinction is important because it affects the vowel harmony of the word.
a
A and á, like e and é are very different in pronunciation, though the origins are not clear. Phonologically á tends to be further forward than the other back vowels althought it acts like a back vowel. It is probable that á /a:/ was once /ɑ:/ (or more likely /ɒ:/), the long counterpart of a /ɑ/ or /ɒ/ and moved forward, but it is also possible that as with e and é, á represents a long vowel counterpart of a vowel which no longer exists, and therefore has been lumped in with a.
Most probably, like í î, é had a back form <ê> (/ʌ:/, /ɤ:/, or /ə:/) which merged with /ɑ:/. This merger would both explain why á sometimes acts irregularly, and why á has become unrounded. It could also to a lesser extent explain why á moved forward although that could be an unrelated development.
It is also possible that the ancient /a̋/ merged with á which would definitely explainthe move forward, the unrounding, and some of the strange things á does, but it is unlikely that Hungarian woudl allow two sounds which are direct front/back counterparts to merge. The existence of <ê> would also make for a symetrical vowel system like those of many of Hungarian's cousins.
the syllable (a szótag)
A Hungarian syllable is a word unit containing one and only one vowel. It starts with the last consonant before the vowel [ehetetlen – e·he·tet·len - inedible]. Exceptions are when a word begins with two or more consonants, and when there is a vowel without a consonant before it. N.B. although c, cs, dz, dzs, qu, and x are each comprised of two sounds which themselves are phonemes in Hungarian, when they come before a vowel, they are treated as a single consonant. E.g. Lándzsa (spear or lance) /la:n.dʒɒ/
In words of two or more syllables, the first is always the stressed one.
partial assimilation (részes hasonulás)
Partial assimilation (sandhi) happens when two sounds are written adjacently but are difficult to pronounce and therefore change their pronunciation. Usually this happens when a voiced and a voiceless sound are adjacent, which happens in compound words like fogkrém (toothpaste) which is made form the words fog (tooth) and krém (paste/cream). Because -gk- is hard to pronounce, the “g” becomes voiceless and is pronounced as a “k”. The technical term for this is “voicing sandhi”. Also when a stem ends in a voiced sound and adds a voiceless sound as in nézte (he looked at it) from the verb nézni (to look at). Here the -zt- combination is difficult and the “z” is pronounced like “sz”.
Voiceless sounds: p t ty k f sz s h c cs
voiced sounds: m n ny b d gy g v z zs dz dzs l r j
Another example are the -lj-, -tj-, -dj-, and -nj- combinations which are pronounced like lly, tty, ggy, and nny respectively.
complete assimilation (teljes hasonulás)
Complete assimilation (or total assimilation) is similar to partial assimilation except that the spelling also changes to reflect the pronunciation. A prime example of this is a verb in the jussive (similar to the imperative, it will be discussed under verbs). The mark of the jussive in Hungarian is the consonant “j”. After “c”, “cs”, “sz”, “z”, “s”, or “zs”, (sounds called “sybillants”) a j doubles the preceding consonant. nézni (to look) forms its 2nd person singular indefinite jussive (look!) with the stem néz and the suffix -jél. However, “nézjél” is both said and written as nézzél under the rules of complete assimilation.
