Hungarian Language Review
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Popularity:  | Difficulty:  | | Hungarian (Magyar) is the official language of Hungary and is also the mother tongue of people of Hungarian ancestry living in neighbouring countries (e.g. Slovakia, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro, etc.). Because of immigration during the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century, native Hungarian speakers also live in North America, Western Europe, Australia and Israel. All told, the number of Hungarian native speakers exceeds 14 million.
Linguists classify Hungarian as a Finno-Ugric language and linguistic relatives include Estonian, Finnish and Lappish. Finno-Ugric in turn is part of a larger "Uralic" language family which includes the Samoyedic and Yukaghir languages. The Samoyedic and Yukaghir languages are spoken in northern Russia.
The respective languages of the Khants and Mansis show the most similarity to Hungarian. Khanty and Mansi speakers are concentrated in western Siberia near the confluence of the Ob and Irtysh rivers. The combined number of Khanty and Mansi folk is no more than 30,000 and some dialects of these languages are extinct or on the verge of extinction. By a wide margin, Hungarian has the largest number of speakers within the Ugric subgroup.
Overall, many linguists consider Uralic as unrelated to any other language group. However, proponents of the Nostratic school postulate that the Uralic languages are indeed related to those of the Indo-European, Altaic, Kartvelian and Dravidian families. Other linguists such as Merritt Ruhlen and the late Joseph Greenberg maintain that Uralic is related to Indo-European, Altaic and Eskimo-Aleut languages.
Hungarians are well assimilated into the Central European millieu and most modern Hungarians are physically indistinguishable from their Slavonic, Romanian and Germanic neighbours. Historically, the Hungarian kingdom accepted Christianity in 1001 and its culture has adopted much of the Christian ethos. Chung, a forum member, kindly submitted this review. | |
| Introduction | | Usefulness | It is useful in Hungary and areas where Hungarian is a de facto official
language (i.e. southern Slovakia, Transylvania in Romania, Vojvodina in
Serbia-Montenegro, Buergenland in Austria). It is especially useful if a
foreigner travels to rural areas of Hungary. Given the widespread level of ESL
instruction in Hungary, many Hungarians younger than 30 do speak some English
along with another foreign language (German and Italian are especially popular
with young adults). Many older Hungarians do speak some German and/or know
Russian. Understandably, many older Hungarians refuse to use Russian because of
the Stalinist-inspired despotism of Matyas Rakosi during the early 1950s and the
Soviet-led crushing of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 Knowledge of Hungarian would acquaint the learner with features that are
characteristic of Uralic and Altaic languages (e.g. Turkish, Mongolian).
However, a prospective learner of Hungarian should realize that learning Finnish
with a Hungarian base (i.e. both Finno-Ugric languages) is not as easy as
learning German with an English base (i.e. both Germanic languages) for
example. | | | | | Chic factor | Given the language's relatively exotic nature and association with Budapest, there is a certain charm amongst Westerners in knowing Hungarian. Native speakers of Hungarian are often thrilled by foreigners who can speak at least a little of their language. It can sometimes act as an effective conversational icebreaker with native speakers (assuming that you know enough Hungarian!) | | Countries | Hungary | | Speakers | Hungarian is spoken by approximately 14 million worldwide. | | Economic importance | Hungary is a member of the EU and has attracted a certain amount of investment (primarily from Austria and Germany) since the fall of communism. The estimated total GDP in 2003 was $139.8 billion US (courtesy of the CIA World Fact Book) | | Travel | Hungary is a highly interesting and rather affordable touristic destination. Some of the most attractive travel destinations include: - Budapest (obviously)
- Lake Balaton (beaches that are filled with tourists in July and August)
- Veszprem (10km north of Lake Balaton and the town has a beautiful Old Town on the top of a hill)
- Pecs (almost Mediterranean atmosphere and climate)
- Nyiregyhaza and the northeast (a rather rural area filled with many old wooden churches and a gentle pace of life)
- other worthwhile destinations include: Debrecen, Eger, Győr, Kőszeg, Kalocsa, Hollókő, Mezőkövesd and Szeged.
| | Variations | The modern standard language is based on efforts started during the 18th century of incorporating eastern and western dialects. Today, the standard dialect is taught in all schools and colleges and this teaching has limited the problem of mutual unintelligibility amongst Hungarians. | | Culture | Famous Hungarians include:
- Béla Bartók,
Zoltán Kodály, Ferenc Liszt (composers)
- Zsuzsanna 'Zsa Zsa' Gábor (actress
and socialite)
- Bela Lugosi (actor, best known for playing the original
Dracula)
- Dr. Albert Szent-Györgi (Winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize in
Medicine for his research on vitamin C. Appropriately enough, he also discovered
that Hungarian paprika is an excellent source of the vitamin.)
- Jeno Wigner
(Winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics for his atomic research. He was also
part of the Manhattan Project)
Hungarian literature has its 'stars' such
as Sándor Petôfi (poet), Géza Gárdonyi (author), Endre Ady (poet), Zsigmond
Móricz (author), Attila József (poet), Gyula Krudy (author). While some of their
works have been translated into several languages, a knowledge of Hungarian will
give you access to the originals. | | | | | | Back to top ¦ Languages Profiles | | | | Difficulties | | | | | Difficulty | In general, the greatest difficulty for any
non-Hungarian learner is the relative lack of native speakers outside Europe.
(unlike more popular languages such as English, French and German) This could
hinder learning for those who wish to gain regular exposure to colloquial
Hungarian outside Europe.
For native speakers of an Indo-European
language such as I, these are features that I found which caused the most
difficulty at the beginning:
1) In Hungarian, there are two
conjugation patterns for almost every verb (definite vs. indefinite). This depends
on the Hungarian view of what is a definite object and what is indefinite. For
example: OlvasOK könyvet = I read a book (in general or
"I am reading some kind of book")
OlvasOM a könvyet = I read THE book
("I am reading a specific book")
AdOK almát a nővéremnek de adOM a piros almát anyámnak =
"I give an apple to my older
sister but I give THE red apple to my mother" (I give some kind of apple to my
older sister but I give the specific red apple to my mother) 2) Low transparency. You will
have to learn by heart most Hungarian words (this problem is alleviated in
varying degrees if you already know another Uralic or Altaic language. As
mentioned previously, most linguists consider Hungarian an Uralic language that
contains many Turkic loanwords.) For example: ad- = give ||
anta- (Finnish)
alma = apple || elma (Turkish)
én = I || minä (Finnish)
|| ben (Turkish)
fa = tree || puu (Finnish)
három = three || kolme
(Finnish)
két, kettő = two || kaksi (Finnish) || kat = layer (Turkish)
hal = fish || kala (Finnish)
jég = ice || jää (Finnish)
kék = blue
|| gök = sky (Turkish)
mi = what || mikä (Finnish) || -mi = (interrogative
particle) (Turkish)
négy = four || neljä (Finnish)
név = name || nimi
(Finnish)
szökik = jump || sek- (Turkish)
tyúk = hen || tavuk (Turkish)
tud- = know || tuntea- (Finnish) || tanI- (Turkish)
vér = blood || veri
(Finnish)
víz = water || vesi (Finnish)
Still, there are many words
that are uniquely Hungarian and must be memorized as you go. 3)Strange word order
It is usually subject-object-verb except
in interrogative sentences. However, Hungarian word order can be quite free
otherwise since one indicates case, possession, number and tense by suffixes.
Depending on what you want to emphasize, the word order can change to suit your
needs. This kind of subtlety is difficult for learners to master. For example: olvasni = to read (-ni is infinitive suffix)
könyv = book
-
Olvasok könyvet = "I read a book" (in general, no empahsis)
(-k is
marker for 1st person singular in the present indefinite conjugation; -t is the
accusative suffix)
- Könyvet olvasok = "I read a book" (emphasis on book
since the focused object immediately precedes the verb) In English, you never say "book I read" (unless you were
Yoda or a poet.) | | Pronunciation | Spelling is phonetic, but has some surprises for
those accustomed to English c = pronounced like the 'ts' in 'bits'
cs = pronounced like the 'ch' in 'chat'.
dz = pronounced like the 'ds'
in 'suds'
dzs = pronounced like 'j' in 'jam'
gy = pronounced like the
'di' in 'studio'
ly = pronounced like the 'y' is 'yes'
ny = pronounced
like the 'ni' in 'onion'
s = pronounced like the 'sh' in 'ship'
sz =
pronounced like the 's' in 'sip'
ty = pronounced like the 't' in 'tube' (UK
English)
zs = pronounced like the 's' in 'pleasure' | | Grammar | There are no grammatical gender and no
specific pronouns for he/she/it.
Postpositions are used instead of
prepositions. For example: Azt csináltam segítség nélkül = I did that without help.
(segítség = 'help'; nélkül = 'without') Hungarian has three tenses
(past, present and future) and four moods (infinitive, indicative, conditional
and subjunctive/imperative). Naturally, this is complicated by the use of
definite and indefinite conjugations.
(see under 'Difficulties' for
other comments on grammar). | | Vocabulary | There is no grammatical
gender. Dictionaries list the nominative singular form of nouns and 3rd person
singular present of verbs. Hungarian has borrowed much from neighbouring
languages (ex. Slovak, German). Some words should be familiar to English
speakers. Internet, menedzser (manager), fútbol, gól, televizió, rádió,
szleng, hallo (which is a very colloquial way of saying 'goodbye' in Hungarian!) See 'Difficulties' for some more comments on vocabulary | | Spelling | In Hungarian, spelling is phonetic, but there is a distinction between
voicing and devoicing that is not shown in spelling. For example: 'Azt hallottam, hogy...' = 'I heard that...'
Because
the voiced 'z' ('buzzing' sound) in 'azt' precedes an unvoiced 't' (no 'buzzing'
sound), the preceding voiced consonant 'z' is pronounced as an 's' (the unvoiced
counterpart of 'z') Stress is
fixed on the first syllable while intonation is used in distinguishing between
interrogative and non-interrogative sentences. | | Time needed | According to FSI, it takes approximately 1100 class
hours to acheive professional speaking and reading proficiency in Hungarian. Naturally, the time needed will vary on each person's motivation level,
access to material and environment. Given such factors, the time needed to
acheive professional speaking and reading proficiency in Hungarian can take as
little as two years to as many as infinity. | | | | | | Back to top ¦ Languages Profiles | | | | Ressources | | Books | 1) Teach Yourself Hungarian (Zsuzsa
Pontifex)
- It comes with two CDs or cassettes and a textbook.
- What I
enjoyed about this course was that it had lively dialogues and useful grammar
information. It also comes with exercises for each chapter with answers at the
back of the book.
- What I enjoyed least about this course was that its
presentation of grammar was somewhat unstructured and could intimidate the
learner at first. In the interest of keeping lively dialogues, it's natural that
the language used would have relatively complex structures for a beginner and
some idioms. The grammar section of each chapter would focus on the grammatical
aspects of each set of dialogues. It would have been desirable if the textbook
had included more exercises. 2) Colloquial Hungarian (Carol Rounds ad
Erika Solyom)
- It comes with two CDs or cassettes and a textbook.
-
What I enjoyed about this course was that it had good dialogues (perhaps not as
lively as those used in Pontifex's course) and useful grammar information. It
also comes with exercises for each chapter with answers at the back of the book.
- Compared to Pontifex's course, 'Colloquial Hungarian' has a somewhat
better presentation of grammar since the dialogues are designed in a way to
emphasize the grammar or theme of a given chapter. Unfortunately, it would have
been desirable if the textbook had included more exercises. 3) FSI Hungarian Basic Course parts I and II (50 cassettes or CDs)
- This is
the best self-study Hungarian course out there. It is designed in FSI's drab
style with plenty of drills and dialogues and answers to some of the drills.
This course is meant for those with plenty of motivation and discipline.
4) Halló, itt Magyarország! (3 cassettes and textbook)
- This is
similar in concept to Colloquial Hungarian but is somewhat more structured. It
is used in some Hungarian classes as the primary textbook. | | | | | Links | | | | | | | Back to top ¦ Languages Profiles |
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