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liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6228 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 17 of 35
31 August 2010 at 9:15pm | IP Logged 
Chung wrote:


Actually six of these words are related in varying degrees to words in languages that you know or have studied.

- vasárnap comes from a compound of "vásár" (market) and "nap" (day). "Vásár" is very likely a borrowing from an
Indo-Iranian language (cf. Middle Persian (Pahlavi): vacar and Farsi بازار (bâzâr)). "Bazaar" and "vásár" thus share a
common origin while being loanwords.

- hétfő is a compound of "hét" week and "fő" "head" (i.e. Monday is the "head of the week"). "Hét" as you have
learned also means "seven" and this word was borrowed into Proto-Finno-Ugric from some Indo-European
language (probably an Indo-Iranian one). "Hét" is thus related to words such as "seven", "hepta", "shtat(ë)" etc.

- szerda is a borrowing from a Slavonic language (cf. Serbo-Croatian sr(ij)eda). The word's origin lies in the
Indo-European word for "middle" or "heart" with the Slavonic source holding a figurative sense referring to the
middle of the week. Cognates of the word include: "heart", "coeur", "corazón" etc.

- csütörtök is a borrowing from a Slavonic language (cf. Czech čtvrtek). In turn, the word's origin lies in the Indo-
European word for "four" with the Slavonic source being a derivative of the number (i.e. to represent the fourth
day of the week) Cf. Albanian: katër; Czech: čtyři; Farsi: ćáhār; Latin: quattuor.

- péntek is also a borrowing from a Slavonic language (cf. Czech: pátek). This word's origin lies in the Indo-
European word for "five" with the Slavonic source being a derivative of the number (i.e. to represent the fifth day
of the week) Cf. Albanian: pesë; Czech: pět; Farsi: panj; Latin: quinque.

- szombat is another borrowing from Slavonic (cf. Polish: sobota). This word in turn entered Ancient Greek from
Ancient Hebrew (cf. modern Hebrew shabbath) and then got passed on further to other Indo-European languages
and then to Hungarian. Szombat is related to other loanwords such as sabbath, Samstag, samedi, sábado
etc.



WOW!

Thanks Chung!

That is so freakin' interesting!   I never would have picked out those connections!
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liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6228 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 18 of 35
07 September 2010 at 6:01pm | IP Logged 
My big Hungarian news of the day is that I got to speak Russian!   Ha ha ha....

Seriously, I was the only one here at work who knew any Russian and we had a gentleman who only spoke Russian, so I became the translator.

It was good fun but also humbling. I have forgotten so much bloody Russian since I took it in college 20 some-odd years ago. When I finish with Hungarian I have GOT to go back and do an intensive Russian refresher course!

Well... back to Unit 6 of FSI....

Edited by liddytime on 07 September 2010 at 8:27pm

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liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6228 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 19 of 35
14 September 2010 at 3:20am | IP Logged 
Six weeks into attacking a magyar nyelv, the language of Hungary.

Six Units of FSI down.

Six Units of DLI down.

I was starting to get pretty frustrated with my self-assessed lack of progress. I still can only understand every
sixth or seventh word in Hungarian podcasts, I struggle to come up with words and translations with the FSI
exercises and I still have trouble understanding what my Hungarian friend at work says to me. She has to say
things three or four times interspersed with my “nem értem, nem értem, nem értem!” ( I don’t understand you!).
But, Holy Cow?!?!!!   Six weeks!!   

I’ve only been doing this for six weeks and my vocabulary is up to 600 or 700 words. I can at least get the
general gist of Hungarian podcasts. I can hold a basic conversation with a Hungarian speaker.

Thinking back to when I took Spanish in school, six weeks in we were still learning “como està usted?” and “mi
nombre es...”.   We couldn’t conduct more than a very basic conversation if at all. Heck, most people I know that
took four years of Spanish in school still can’t hold a conversation in Spanish!

So looking back, I’m pretty happy with my progress. I think my biggest impediment is still vocabulary. Fluency
in a language requires 5000-7000 words. I clearly have a long way to go. But hey?!? I’m nearly 20% there!    
Hopefully by next spring I can get up to 2000-3000.

A new trick that I have been trying is to use Google-Translate to translate my e-mails and web pages into
Hungarian. The great thing about it is that I can hover over an unknown word in Hungarian and it will give me
the English word immediately. No hunting for every other word in a dictionary any more! What a great tool.

Hungarian grammar continues to throw in some intricacies and peculiarities. For example; I recently learned how
most verbs in Hungarian have two different forms; the definite and the indefinite. Each has its various rules and
guidelines as to how and when to use each specific one.   As it seems to me, it comes down to being specific vs.
being vague. If I wanted to say “I see THE book” I would say “Látom a könyvet” (definite) but “ I see A book”
would be “Látok egy könyvet” (indefinite).

Possession in Hungarian is indicated by, you guessed it, suffixes! Rather than saying my book, your book, his
book, their book etc., suffixes are added which have a multitude of rules governed by vowel harmony, adding or
not adding j’s or a’s and so on... Very similar to Turkish, which I have studied previously.

For anyone who is interested, there is a great example table on the Wikipedia page on Hungarian Grammar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_noun_phrase .


Viszlát jövő héten! (see you next week!)
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logical123
Newbie
United States
Joined 5337 days ago

31 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German
Studies: Norwegian, Persian

 
 Message 20 of 35
14 September 2010 at 3:49am | IP Logged 
I have the teach yourself Hungarian book, bought it for $1.49 at a used book store. After
I get through with my dual study of Norwegian and Persian, I'll probably do Hungarian and
Sanskrit (although doing two very difficult languages probably isn't the best of ideas).
I am also Hungarian, on my maternal side. I'm into genealogy a fair bit, and recently
found censuses with my great-great-grandparents on them, and the country of origin being
Austria. Makes sense, seeing that in 1900 or so, Hungary didn't even exist!

Viszlát!
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liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6228 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 21 of 35
14 September 2010 at 2:55pm | IP Logged 
logical123 wrote:
I have the teach yourself Hungarian book, bought it for $1.49 at a used book store. After I get through with my dual study of Norwegian and Persian, I'll probably do Hungarian and Sanskrit (although doing two very difficult languages probably isn't the best of ideas).

Viszlát!


Yeah, I too have been dabbling in the Teach Yourself Hungarian Book.

The CD dialogues are much more lively than the FSI/DLI ones! It is actually pretty good.

Hungarian and Sanskrit?!?! Wow, you ARE a glutton for punishment!! :-)
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logical123
Newbie
United States
Joined 5337 days ago

31 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German
Studies: Norwegian, Persian

 
 Message 22 of 35
14 September 2010 at 11:23pm | IP Logged 
I unfortunately do not have the CD, and I have looked to no avail for a downloadable copy
online, or even one to buy standalone on amazon. Oh well.
1 person has voted this message useful



liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6228 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 23 of 35
15 September 2010 at 12:19pm | IP Logged 
logical123 wrote:
I unfortunately do not have the CD, and I have looked to no avail for a downloadable copy
online, or even one to buy standalone on amazon. Oh well.


Don't forget your local library! That's where I found it believe it or not.

You can also do a used book search on alibris or bookfinder for an out of print edition because the audio hasn't
changed since the 1994 edition.

Better yet, supply some of the dialogues to rhinospike and have native Hungarians read the dialogues back to you.
Rhinospike is great!

It is somewhat annoying that Teach Yourself continues to sell its books without the CDs!
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liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 6228 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 24 of 35
02 October 2010 at 3:42am | IP Logged 

Mi ujsag!

That’s Hungarian for “what’s up”. Literally “what’s the news?”. Mi ujsag is such a great saying. mee ewwi-shag.
I’ve even been saying it to non-Hungarian speakers just to get a rise out of them. “Huh? What did you just say?
You want to what?!?”

I must admit that Hungarian has taken a back seat to...well ... life over the past couple of weeks. Between my
birthday, my son’s birthday, a trip to DC and craziness at work, there hasn’t been a ton of time to squeeze in
Hungarian. Oh yeah, football season just started, so there go my entire Sundays. ( and Monday nights)...

FSI has gotten a bit drole. I have made it about half way through Unit 8 and I think I need a bit of an FSI break.
The drills have really started to get a bit monotonous. That coupled with the 1960’s tin-can quality recordings
and the dead-pan voices of the instructors have caused me to put the course aside for a bit. I will rejoin it at
some point because it really is a good course, but after a brief hiatus.

In the meantime, I have revisited the DLI course. It is teaching less hardcore military vocabulary and the tapes
are almost like having a real conversation. This is good because there just aren’t many Hungarian speakers in
small-town Maine and I really haven’t been able to suck up the courage to talk with strangers in Hungarian over
Skype. Sadly, I haven’t seen my Hungarian speaking co-worker in a few weeks either. I know, eventually I’m
gonna need to get over it and find some real, live Hungarian speakers to practice with. Otherwise, my family
may have me institutionalized as they witness me constantly pacing about the house, talking to myself in
Hungarian!

I also tracked down a copy of the Assimil course, Hungarian With Ease. I have never used an Assimil course
before but many people on the language-geek forums swear by them. So far, I’m fairly impressed. The lessons
are very brief so one could easily get through one a day. The recordings are entirely in Hungarian, of decent
audio quality and quite entertaining to listen to. Lesson 3, for example, is entitled Egy Külonos Család , or A
Strange Family. Lesson 4 is Egy Kíváncsi Rendőr or A Curious Policeman. Much more entertaining! The example
sentence they give for definite articles is Az ördög a polkolban lakik/ The devil lives in hell. Hah, I can’t imagine
FSI using that one!

So this week, Assimil and DLI. We’ll see how it goes.

Találkozunk jövő héten barátok!

Edited by liddytime on 02 October 2010 at 4:16am



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