Hungarian alphabet
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The Hungarian alphabet is an extension of the Latin alphabet.
One sometimes speaks of the smaller and greater Hungarian alphabet, depending on whether the letters Q, W, X, Y which can only be found in foreign words and traditional orthography of names are listed, or not.
The 44 letters of the (greater) Hungarian 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 |
Contents |
[edit] Description
Each sign shown above counts as a letter in its own right in Hungarian. Some, such as the letter ó and ő, are interfiled with the letter preceding it; whereas others, such as ö have their own place in collation rather than also being interfiled with o.
While long vowels count as different letters, long (or geminate) consonants don't. Long consonants are marked by duplication: e.g. <tt>, <gg>, <zz> (ette 'he ate (det.obj.)', függ 'it hangs', azzal 'with that'). For the di- and tri-graphs a simplification rule normally applies (but not when the compound is split at the end of a line of text due to hyphenation): only the first letter is duplicated: e.g. <sz>+<sz>→<ssz> (asszony 'woman'), <ty>+<ty>→<tty> (hattyú 'swan'), <dzs>+<dzs>→<ddzs> (briddzsel 'with bridge (card game)').
An exception is made at the joining points of compound words, for example: jegygyűrű 'engagement ring' (jegy + gyűrű) not *jeggyűrű.
[edit] Pronunciation
- Further information: Hungarian phonology
Hungarian orthography's principles include being phonetic along with being traditional, etymological and simplifying. Therefore most words can be read out correctly, if one knows the pronunciation of the letters.
The pronunciation of Hungarian letters which follows is that of standard Hungarian.
(You might want to increase your browser's display font size to see the IPA symbols more correctly).
| Letter | Name | Phoneme (IPA) | Complementary allophones (IPA)[1] | Approx. English pronunciation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | /ɒ/ | bod | [ɑ̝̹] might describe it better (raised, more rounded; sign rendered probably incorrectly, containing two diacritical marks below). Still definitely not [ɔ] | |
| Á | á | /aː/ | as the first sound of 'i' in fire, like; how | ||
| B | bé | /b/ | as by, absence etc. | ||
| C | cé | /ts/ | like tsunami | ||
| Cs | csé | /tʃ/ | as check,cheek, etching etc. | ||
| D | dé | /d/ | deck, wide etc. | ||
| Dz | dzé | /dz/ | like in Hudson | does not occur at the beginning of words. When neither post- nor preconsonantic, always realised as a geminate. | |
| Dzs | dzsé | /dʒ/ | jam, george, bridge, edge, fridge | when final or intervocalic, usually realised as a geminate: maharadzsa /mɑhɑrɑdʒɑ/ [mɑhɑrɑd͡ʒːɑ] 'maharajah', bridzs /bridʒ/ [brid͡ʒː] 'bridge (card game)', but dzsungel /dʒuŋgɛl/ [d͡ʒuŋgɛl] 'jungle', fridzsider /fridʒidɛr/ [frid͡ʒidɛr]] coll. 'refrigerator' | |
| E | e | /ɛ/ | like less, cheque, edge, bed | about 40-50% of speakers also have a phoneme /e/ (see below at Ë). /e/ is not considered part of standard Hungarian, wherein /ɛ/ or /æ/ takes the place of /e/. | |
| (Ë) | ë | /e/ | like in "same", without the /ɪ/ part of the diphthong /eɪ/ | Although not part of the alphabet, this symbol is sometimes used to denote the phoneme /e/, e.g. when noting down texts spoken or sung in a dialect where this sound is present. | |
| É | é | /eː/ | café, hey | ||
| F | ef | /f/ | find, euphoria | ||
| G | gé | /g/ | get, leg, go etc. | ||
| Gy | gyé | /ɟ/ | (not used in English) similar to: duke, dew, due (English, not American, pronunciation) | denoting /ɟ/ by <gy> is a remnant of (probably) Italian scribes who tried to render the Hungarian sound. <dy> would be a more consistent notation in scope of <ty>, <ny>, <ly> (see there), as the <y> part of digraphs show palatalisation in the Hungarian writing system. | |
| H | há | /h/ | 1. [ɦ] | Basic: hi 1. behind 2. <mute> 3. loch, Chanukah 4. human |
1. when in intervocalic position. 2. not rendered usually when in final position méh /meː/ 'bee', cseh /tʃɛ/ 'Czech (noun/adj.)' 3. seldom in final position, such as in doh 'dampness', MÉH 'metal recycling facility' 4. seldom, such as in ihlet 'inspiration' |
| I | i | /i/ | thick, thin | Pronounced the same as Í, only shorter | |
| Í | í | /iː/ | lead, leave, seed, sea | Vowel length is phonemically distinctive in Hungarian: irt 'he eradicates' ∼ írt 'he wrote' | |
| J | jé | /j/ | [ç], [ʝ] | you, yes, faith | allophones occur when /j/ occurs after a consonant; (voiceless after voiceless, voiced after voiced consonants). e.g. férj 'husband', kapj 'get! (imperative)' |
| K | ká | /k/ | key, kiss, weak | ||
| L | el | /l/ | leave, list, whole | ||
| Ly | ely, el ipszilon | /j/ | hey, ray | Orthographic tradition. Once /ʎ/, now /j/ in standard Hungarian. | |
| M | em | /m/ | mind, assume, might, | ||
| N | en | /n/ | [ŋ] |
thing, lying (before k,g), need, bone (anywhere else) |
allophone before /k/, /g/ |
| Ny | eny | /ɲ/ | new (in BE, not AE) | ||
| O | o | /o/ | force, sorcerer | A shorter, more open variant of Ó | |
| Ó | ó | /oː/ | go, sew, snow | minimal pair to /o/: kor 'age' ∼ kór 'disease' | |
| Ö | ö | /ø/ | Not used in English; very similar to the sound in the words early, burn, curly | A shorter, more open variant of Ő | |
| Ő | ő | /øː/ | Not used in English; a longer, more closed variant of Ö | Minimal pair to /ø/: tör 'he breaks' ∼ tőr 'dagger' | |
| P | pé | /p/ | peas, apricot, hope | ||
| (Q) | kú | Q occurs only as part of the digraph qu in foreign words, realised as /kv/: Aquincum [ɑkviŋkum] (name of an old Roman settlement on the area of present-day Óbuda). Words originally spelled with qu are today usually spelled with kv, as in akvarell 'watercolor painting'. | |||
| R | er | /r/ | (not used in English, pronounced like Spanish R) | also called apical trill as pronounced by trilling the tip of your tongue (the apex) and not the uvula. | |
| S | es | /ʃ/ | share, wish, shout | This notation is unusual for European writing systems where <s> stands for /s/ virtually everywhere. In Hungarian, /s/ is represented by <sz>. | |
| Sz | esz | /s/ | say, estimate | ||
| T | té | /t/ | tell, least, feast | ||
| Ty | tyé | /c/ | (not used in English) similar to: stew, stuart (BE RP) | ||
| U | u | /u/ | nuke, duke | ||
| Ú | ú | /uː/ | do, fool | minimal pair to /u/: hurok 'loop' ∼ húrok 'cords' | |
| Ü | ü | /y/ | (not used in English, corresponds to German Ü) | A shorter, more open variant of ű | |
| Ű | ű | /yː/ | (not used in English) | ||
| V | vé | /v/ | very, every | ||
| (W) | dupla vé | /v/ | view, evolve, vacuum | note the difference between its English name (which is double U) and the Hungarian one (which is double V). This explains its rendition as /v/. It occurs only in foreign words and in Hungarian aristocratic surnames | |
| (X) | iksz | occurs only in loanwords, and there only when denoting /ks/; [gz] is transcribed: extra, Alexandra, but egzakt 'exact'. | |||
| (Y) | ipszilon | /i/ | in loanwords, usually rendered as /i/ or /j/. Occurs very often in old Hungarian aristocratic surnames where it stands for /i/ or /ʲi/: 'Báthory' [baːtori], 'Batthyány' [bɑcːaːɲi] or [bɑcːaːni] (<n>+<y> ∼ /n/+/ʲi/ ∼ /nʲi/ ∼ /ɲi/) | ||
| Z | zé | /z/ | desert, roses | ||
| Zs | zsé | /ʒ/ | pleasure, leisure, genre |
- ^ List of complementary allophone variants possibly not complete.
[edit] Capitalisation
The di- and the trigraphs are capitalised in names and at the beginning of sentences by capitalising the first glyph of them only.
- Csak jót mondhatunk Székely Csabáról.
In abbreviations and when writing with all capital letters, however, one capitalises the second (and third) character as well.
Thus ("The Rules of Hungarian Orthography", a book edited by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences):
- A magyar helyesírás szabályai
- MHSZ (not *MHSz)
- A MAGYAR HELYESÍRÁS SZABÁLYAI (not *SzABÁLyAI)
[edit] Alphabetical ordering (collation)
While the characters with diacritical marks are considered separate letters, vowels that differ only in length are treated the same when ordering words. Therefore, for example, O and Ó are not distinguished in ordering, neither are Ö and Ő, but the latter two follow the O's.
The polygraphic consonant signs are treated as single letters.
| comb | |
| cukor | |
| csak | <cs> comes after <c> |
| ... | |
| folyik | |
| folyó | <ó> is sorted as <o> |
| folyosó | |
| ... | |
| fő | and <ő> is sorted as <ö>, |
| födém | but <ö> comes after <o> |
| ... |
The simplified geminates of multigraphs (see above) such as <nny>, <ssz> are collated as <ny>+<ny>, <sz>+<sz> etc., if they are double geminates, rather than co-occurrences of a single letter and a geminate.
- könnyű is collated as <k><ö><ny><ny><ű>. tizennyolc of course as <t><i><z><e><n><ny><o><l><c>, as this is a compound: tizen+nyolc ('above ten' + 'eight' = 'eighteen').
Similar 'ambiguities', which can occur with compounds (which are highly common in Hungarian) are dissolved and collated by sense.
- e.g. házszám 'house number (address)' = ház + szám and of course not *házs + *zám.
These rules make Hungarian alphabetic ordering algorithmically difficult (one has to know the correct segmentation of a word to sort it correctly), a problem for computer software development.
[edit] Keyboard layout
The Hungarian keyboard layout is German-based (QWERTZ). This layout allows direct access to every character in the Hungarian alphabet.
[edit] Letter frequencies
The most common letters in Hungarian are e and a[1].
| Letter | Frequency |
|---|---|
| e | 12.256% |
| a | 9.428% |
| t | 7.380% |
| n | 6.445% |
| l | 6.383% |
| s | 5.322% |
| k | 4.522% |
| é | 4.511% |
| i | 4.200% |
| m | 4.054% |
| o | 3.867% |
| á | 3.649% |
| g | 2.838% |
| r | 2.807% |
| z | 2.734% |
| v | 2.453% |
| b | 2.058% |
| d | 2.037% |
| sz | 1.809% |
| j | 1.570% |
| h | 1.341% |
| gy | 1.185% |
| ő | 0.884% |
| ö | 0.821% |
| ny | 0.790% |
| ly | 0.738% |
| ü | 0.655% |
| ó | 0.634% |
| f | 0.582% |
| p | 0.509% |
| í | 0.499% |
| u | 0.416% |
| cs | 0.260% |
| ű | 0.125% |
| c | 0.114% |
| ú | 0.104% |
| zs | 0.021% |
The list above shows the letter frequencies for more letters in order of descending frequency.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ www.cryptogram.org/cdb/words/frequency.html - Letter frequencies. Retrieved 10 June 2008.
