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Hungarian pronunciation of short a and o | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7106 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 1 of 9 01 June 2014 at 1:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi all, I noticed something strange in Hungarian pronunciation (I listened to BBC
quickfix Hungarian). A lot of Hungarian textbooks say that short a is pronounced more or less like in "pot" and short o like in "force". However in a word like "napot" the a sounds for me like in German "Wasser" and in Italian "Dante" whereas "o" sounds like in German "Zoll" or Italian "notte". On the other hand, in words that only have short a but no short o like for instance the article "a" , again sounds more like in "pot". Is there some kind of pronunciation rule that makes the "a" sound like an Italian or German a especially when there are no "o's" in the word? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3989 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 9 01 June 2014 at 10:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Hungarian "a" is between a German "a" and German "o". Just close your lips a bit more than you do whith "á" but not so much as you do with "o".
Hungarian "o" and "ó" are identical with German "o", but the latter is pronounced a bit longer. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7106 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 9 01 June 2014 at 10:13am | IP Logged | ||
Thank you Hungringo but what I noticed - or anything how it sounds to me - is that in a word as "napot" the "a" still tends more towards German short "a" than in e.g. the article a/az, as if the speaker would give the "a" a little bit another "colour" in order to avoid that both vowels of "napot" would sound too similar. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3989 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 4 of 9 01 June 2014 at 10:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, we native speakers don't really notice this blur and cannot distinguish different "a" sounds. If you master the standard Hungarian "a" and use it in every position that will be fine.
In some Hungarian dialects "a" sounds more like a shortened "á" i.e. a standard German "a", but normally this sort of pronunciation sounds very provincial and creates the impression that the person is uneducated. Very often learners of Hungarian exaggerate the closeness of "a" to "o". This may make your speech incomprehensible. If you pronounce "a" as in German or many other European languages, people will think you are a village-boy from the North-East, if you pronounce "a" as if it was "o" they might not understand you at all. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3989 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 5 of 9 01 June 2014 at 10:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Try to practice with these words using Google Translator. Google's pronunciation is not perfect but it's sort of OK.
lap (page) láp (marsh, swamp) lop (he steals) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7106 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 9 01 June 2014 at 11:05am | IP Logged | ||
Thank you I will certainly try that, good suggestion! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7106 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 9 01 June 2014 at 11:16am | IP Logged | ||
I feel that I cannot master the difference between these sounds, the second best option is to be understood. When I am helping foreigners out with learning Dutch I often teach them a similar trick. In Dutch we have ch, a voiceless guttural sound like in Scottish "loch" and Spanish "Juan". "G" is its voiced counterpart, (somewhat like modern Greek gamma) in some regions of Holland it is pronounced voiceless but it is never pronounced like "g" in "good". So I often recommend non native speakers who cannot master the voiced variant that they should use "ch" rather than "g" in good. If "goede morgen" (good morning) is pronounced like good-ah-Morrgan the speaker will be identified as a foreigner, if he says chood-ah-Morr-chen he still could be identified as a native speaker from Amsterdam or The Hague, although it will be clear he is not from Eindhoven. Edited by Martien on 01 June 2014 at 11:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4679 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German | Message 8 of 9 02 June 2014 at 12:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Martien,
I can't provide any help, but just wanted to mention that I have noticed the same thing. So you're not alone. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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