Hungarian language 2010 Hungarian language Images

Infobox Language

name=Hungarian
nativename=Magyar
pronunciation=
familycolor=Uralic
states=Hungary and areas of Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Croatia, Austria, and Israel
speakers=13 million
rank=57
fam1=Uralic
fam2=Finno-Ugric
fam3=Ugric
nation=Hungary, European Union, Slovakia (regional language), Slovenia (regional language), Serbia (regional language), Austria (regional language), Some official rights in Romania, Ukraine and Croatia
agency=Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
script=Latin alphabet (Hungarian variant)
iso1=hu|iso2=hun|iso3=hun
Hungarian (''magyar nyelv'' ) is a Uralic language in the Ugric language group, distantly related to Finnish, Estonian and a number of other minority languages spoken in the Baltic states and northern European Russia eastward into central Siberia. Finno-Ugric languages are not related to the Indo-european languages that dominate Europe but have acquired loan words from them. Hungarian is the majority language spoken in Hungary and also by Hungarian communities in the seven neighbouring countries and by diaspora communities worldwide. The Hungarian name for the language is magyar (), which is also occasionally used as an English noun, such as Mighty Magyars. There are about 14.5 million native speakers, of whom 9.5–10 million live in present-day Hungary. About 2.5 million speakers live outside present-day Hungary, but in areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon (1920). Of these, the largest group lives in Transylvania, the western half of present-day Romania, where there are approximately 1.4 million Hungarians. There are large, majority Hungarian territories also in Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine, but Hungarian speakers can also be found in Croatia, Austria, and Slovenia, as well as about a million people scattered in other parts of the world, for example there are more than a hundred thousand Hungarian speakers in the Hungarian American community in the United States.

History

Classification

Hungarian is a Uralic language, more specifically a Ugric language; the most closely related languages are Mansi and Khanty of western Siberia. Connections between the Ugric and Finnic languages were noticed in the 1670s and established, along with the entire Uralic family in 1717, although the classification of Hungarian continued to be a matter of political controversy into the 18th and even 19th centuries. Today the Uralic family is considered one of the best demonstrated large language families, along with Indo-European and Austronesian. The name of Hungary could be a corruption of ''Ungrian/Ugrian'', and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to them as ''Ǫgry/Ǫgrove'' (sg. ''Ǫgrinŭ'') seemed to confirm that. There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian ) "house" vs. Khanty ''xot'' (

IPA|[xot]
) "house", and Hungarian ''száz'' (XXXINIZIOTABELLAXXXIPA|[saːz]
) "hundred" vs. Khanty ''sot'' (XXXINIZIOTABELLAXXXIPA|[sot]
) "hundred".

The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular.

Antiquity and the early Middle Ages

, the so-called "Rovás alphabet" The country switched to using the Latin language and alphabet under king Stephen I of Hungary (reigned: 997-1038), and as late as 1844, Latin remained the official language of Hungary It is thought that Hungarian separated from its closest relatives approximately 3000 years ago, probably in the vicinity of the Urals, so the history of the language begins around 1000 BC. The Hungarians gradually changed their way of living from settled hunters to nomadic cattle-raising, probably as a result of early contacts with Iranian nomads. Their most important animals included sheep and cattle. There are no written resources on the era, thus only a little is known about it. However, research has revealed some extremely early loanwords, such as ''szó'' ('word'; from the Turkic languages) and ''daru'' ('crane', from the related Permic languages.) A small number of anthropologists dispute this theory. Among others, Hungarian historian and archaeologist, Gyula László claims that geological data from "tree pollen analyses" seems to contradict placing the ancient homeland of the Magyars near the Urals. The Turkic languages later, especially between the 5th and the 9th centuries, had a great influence on the language. Many words related to agriculture, to state administration or even to family relations have such backgrounds. Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in a similarly dramatic way during this 300 years. The Hungarians migrated to the Carpathian Basin around 896 and came into contact with Slavic peoples – as well as with the Romance speaking Vlachs, borrowing many words from them (for example ''tégla'' – "brick", ''mák'' – "poppy", or ''karácsony'' – "Christmas"). In exchange, the neighbouring Slavic languages also contain some words of Hungarian origin (such as Croatian and Serbian ''čizma'' – "boot", or Serbian ''ašov'' – "spade"). 1.43% of the Romanian vocabulary is of Hungarian origin. The first written accounts of Hungarian, mostly personal and place names, are dated back to the 10th century. Hungarians also had their own writing system, the Old Hungarian script, but no significant texts remained from the time, as the usual medium of writing, wooden sticks, were perishable. It is thought that early Christianizers, such as the first king, St. Stephen, ordered all "pagan" writings destroyed, though some early inscriptions remain.

Since the foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary was founded in 1000, by Stephen I of Hungary (Hungarian: ''I. (Szent) István király''). The country was a western-styled Christian (Roman Catholic) state, and Latin held an important position, as was usual in the Middle Ages. Additionally, the Latin alphabet was adopted to write the Hungarian language. Therefore, Hungarian was also heavily influenced by Latin. The first extant text of the language is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer, written once in the 1190s. More extensive Hungarian literature arose after 1300. The earliest example of Hungarian religious poetry is the Old Hungarian 'Lamentations of Mary', a poem about the afflictions of Mary when she saw the death of her son - from the 14th century. The first Bible translation is the Hussite Bible from the 1430s. The language lost its diphthongs, and several postpositions transformed into suffixes, such as ''reá'' 'onto' 1055: ''utu rea''''' 'onto the way'; later: ''út'''ra'' ). Vowel harmony was also developed. At one time, Hungarian used six verb tenses; today, only two (the future not being counted as one, as it is formed with an auxiliary verb). The first printed Hungarian book was published in Kraków in 1533, by Benedek Komjáti. The work's title is ''Az Szent Pál levelei magyar nyelven'' (In original spelling: ''Az zenth Paal leueley magyar nyeluen''), i.e. ''The letters of Saint Paul in the Hungarian language''. In the 17th century, the language was already very similar to its present-day form, although two of the past tenses were still used. German, Italian and French loans also appeared in the language by these years. Further Turkish words were borrowed during the Ottoman occupation of much of Hungary between 1541 and 1699. In the 18th century, the language was incapable of clearly expressing scientific concepts, and several writers found the vocabulary a bit scant for literary purposes. Thus, a group of writers, most notably Ferenc Kazinczy, began to compensate for these imperfections. Some words were shortened (''győzedelem'' > ''győzelem'', 'triumph' or 'victory'); a number of dialectal words spread nationally (e. g. ''cselleng'' 'dawdle'); extinct words were reintroduced (''dísz'' 'décor'); a wide range of expressions were coined using the various derivative suffixes; and some other, less frequently used methods of expanding the language were utilized. This movement was called the 'language reform' (Hungarian: ''nyelvújítás''), and produced more than ten thousand words, many of which are used actively today. The reforms led to the installment of Hungarian as the official language over Latin in the multiethnic country in 1844. The 19th and 20th centuries saw further standardization of the language, and differences between the mutually already comprehensible dialects gradually lessened. In 1920, by signing the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary lost 71% of its territories, and along with these, 33% of the ethnic Hungarian population. Today, the language is official in Hungary, and regionally also in Romania, in Slovakia, and in Serbia.

Geographic distribution

Hungarian is spoken in the following countries as a mother tongue: _

See also

History of the Hungarian language
Hungarian Cultural Institute
List of English words of Hungarian origin
Magyar szótár - A Dictionary of the Hungarian Language (a book review)

Bibliography

Courses

''Colloquial Hungarian - The complete course for beginners''. Rounds, Carol H.; Sólyom, Erika (2002). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24258-4. :This book gives an introduction to the Hungarian language in 15 chapters. The dialogues are available on cassette or CDs.
''Teach Yourself Hungarian - A complete course for beginners''. Pontifex, Zsuzsa (1993). London: Hodder & Stoughton. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Publishing. ISBN 0-340-56286-2. :This is a complete course in spoken and written Hungarian. The course consists of 21 chapters with dialogues, culture notes, grammar and exercises. The dialogues are available on cassette.
''Hungarolingua 1 - Magyar nyelvkönyv''. Hoffmann, István; et al. (1996). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-083-8
''Hungarolingua 2 - Magyar nyelvkönyv''. Hlavacska, Edit; et al. (2001). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-03-6698-3
''Hungarolingua 3 - Magyar nyelvkönyv''. Hlavacska, Edit; et al. (1999). Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-083-8 :These course books were developed by the University of Debrecen Summer School program for teaching Hungarian to foreigners. The books are written completely in Hungarian. There is an accompanying 'dictionary' for each book with translations of the Hungarian vocabulary in English, German, and French.
"NTC's Hungarian and English Dictionary" by Magay and Kiss. ISBN 0-8442-4968-8 (You may be able to find a newer edition also. This one is 1996.)

Grammars

''A practical Hungarian grammar'' (3rd, rev. ed.). Keresztes, László (1999). Debrecen: Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. ISBN 963-472-300-4.
''Practical Hungarian grammar: [a compact guide to the basics of Hungarian grammar]''. Törkenczy, Miklós (2002). Budapest: Corvina. ISBN 963-13-5131-9.
''Hungarian verbs and essentials of grammar: a practical guide to the mastery of Hungarian'' (2nd ed.). Törkenczy, Miklós (1999). Budapest: Corvina; Lincolnwood, [Ill.]: Passport Books. ISBN 963-13-4778-8.
''Hungarian: an essential grammar''. Rounds, Carol (2001). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-22612-0.
''Hungarian: Descriptive grammar''. Kenesei, István, Robert M. Vago, and Anna Fenyvesi (1998). London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-02139-1.
Hungarian Language Learning References (including the short reviews of three of the above books)
''Noun Declension Tables - HUNGARIAN''. Budapest: Pons. Klett. ISBN 978-963-9641-04-4
''Verb Conjugation Tables - HUNGARIAN''. Budapest: Pons. Klett. ISBN 978-963-9641-03-7

References

External links

Hungarian - A Strange Cake on the Menu - ''article by Nádasdy Ádám''
Ethnologue report for Hungarian
Introduction to Hungarian
Hungarian Profile
List of formative suffixes in Hungarian
The relationship between the Finnish and the Hungarian languages
Hungarian Language Review at How-to-learn-any-language.com
"The Hungarian Language: A Short Descriptive Grammar" by Beáta Megyesi (PDF document)
The old site of the Indiana University Institute of Hungarian Studies (various resources)
Hungarian Language Learning References on the Hungarian Language Page (short reviews of useful books)
One of the oldest Hungarian texts - A Halotti Beszéd (The Funeral Oration)
Live stream of Hungarian news radio station InfoRádió - example of Hungarian speech
Hungarian Reference (a grammatical guide)
A short English-Hungarian-Japanese phraselist(renewal) incl.sound file
free-dictionary-translation - English <-> Hungarian, African, Chinese, Dutch, French, Gealic, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Spanish, Czech, Turkish, Vietnamese
Wikihu (a wiki on Hungarian grammar, in french)
WikiLang - Hungarian Page (Hungarian grammar / lessons, in English)

Encyclopaedia Humana Hungarica

Introduction to the History of the Language; The Pre-Hungarian Period; The Early Hungarian Period; The Old Hungarian Period
The Linguistic Records of the Early Old Hungarian Period; The Linguistic System of the Age
The Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language of the Old Hungarian Period
The Late Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language
The First Half of the Middle Hungarian Period; Turkish Loan Words

Dictionaries

Hungarian Dictionary: from Webster's Dictionary
Hungarian ↔ English created by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences - Computer and Automation Research Institute MTA SZTAKI (also includes dictionaries for the following languages to and from Hungarian : German, French, Italian, Dutch, and Polish)
English-Hungarian-Finnish - three language freely editable online dictionary
Collection of Hungarian Technical Dictionaries
Hungarian-English False friends (False friend)
Hungarian slang
Hungarian bilingual dictionaries

Online translators

Free English->Hungarian translation service - does not translate texts longer than 500 characters
Free Dictionary Translation - English - Hungary altogether 136056 entries.

Online language courses

A Hungarian Language Course by Aaron Rubin
Online course hungarotips.com
Study Hungarian! (AFS.com)
Hungarian Language Lessons - Puzzles, Quizzes, Sound Files
We learn Hungarian - wiki based learning group