| About the Hungarian language |
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Stran 1 od 3 Author: Veronika Heé Main data Native speakers: 13 to 15 millions (about 2/3 in Hungary) Main territory: Hungary Regions: also spoken in Australia, Austria, Canada, Israel, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, USA, Yugoslavia. Main dialects: Alföld, West Transdanubian, Danube-Tisza, King’s Pass Hungarian, Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian, Székely, West Hungarian. Language group: Finno-Ugric General introduction Hungarian, or Magyar (as it is called in Hungarian) is spoken by almost 10 million people in Hungary (about 98 percent of the population). Substantial populations of speakers are also in adjacent countries: Romania (2 millions); the Czech and Slovak Republics (600,000); Croatia and Serbia (450,000); Ukraine (170,000); and Israel (150,000). A significant number of speakers lives in the US (450,000) and smaller populations (under 20 thousand speakers) in Slovenia, Canada, and Austria. Linguistic affiliation Hungarian is a member of the Ugric subfamily of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Ural-Altaic language family. Its nearest group submembers, Khanty (Ostjak) and Mansi (Vogul), are little known languages spoken by just a few thousand people now on the east side of the Ural mountains in Russia in northwestern Siberia. Other (somewhat more numerous) members of the Ugric branch are Udmurts, Maris (Cheremis), and Mordvins, all live on the territory of Russia. Better known (though farther) relatives are those of the Finnic branch: the Finnish, Estonians, and Saamis (Lapp). Hungarian is the most widely spoken language of both branches. It is estimated that it separated from its nearest linguistic relatives, Mansi and Khanty, about 2,500 or even 3000 years ago. Language variation Though there are several dialectal variations in Hungarian, these are not as far from each other as to unable understanding between the speakers of whichever variations. Differences has also been decreased by the renewal and standardization of the language on the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Orthography Hungarian uses a Latin-based orthography with linked letters and diacritics for marking special characteristics in Hungarian. Linguistic sketch Hungarian is a linguistic island, a European Uralic language surrounded by Indo-European languages. Ancient Hungarians moved westward into Europe from their homeland east of the Ural Mountains and reached their present settlement area in the Danube basin west of the Carpathian Mountains in the ninth century. Given the separation of Hungarian from its Asian and other European relatives, the linguistic connections were not immediately obvious. There was a long tradition of relationship with the Huns of Attila, and many of the Hungarian intellectuals a long time resisted the notion of the Finno-Ugric language community. But by the close of the nineteenth century more and more Hungarian linguists recognized and supported these connections, though theories of the Sumerian-Scythian-Hun-Turkish lingual and cultural relationships have never ceased entirely. The first attestations of the language are place names in Arab, Persian, and Byzantine documents. Other elements of its preliteral history, can be traced by studying loan word evidence. Like the other Uralic and Altaic languages, Hungarian has vowel harmony and agglutination. The phonological system consists of fourteen vowels (in standard speech) and of twenty-five consonants. Stress is always on the first syllable. Vowel harmony means that the words consist of either front or back vowels, and also the suffixes have two or three (front, lip-rounded front, back vowel) various forms accordingly. Prepositions and case system is unknown in Hungarian. Grammatical (numerical, personal, possessive) and adverbial suffixes, and postpositions are used instead. Hungarian is a richly inflected language. The noun has about 25 inflected (respectively postpositional) forms. Nouns are formed as followes: stem + (linking vowel) + (number) + (person) + case-like suffix: könyv-e-i-m-hez (to my books). In some adverbial phrares postpositions may occur instead of suffixes: könyv nélkül (without a book). The verb is also richly inflected. The stem is followed by a tense/mood suffix (present, past, conditional, imperative) and then by a suffix which indicates person and number, between the elements there is a linking vowel if needed: olvas-t-a-m (I read). There is no subjunctive mood in Hungarian. The suffixes that mark person are numerous: there is an agreement with the subject in person and number, and also with objects in definiteness (definite and indefinite conjugations): ír-sz / ír-o-d (you write / you write it). This richness of suffixes results that no personal pronoun needed to show the subject. These are used only for emphasis. Basic verb form is sigular 3d person: olvas (read = he/she reads), ír (write = he/she writes), kér (ask =he/she asks for) Hungarian has a definite article and an indefinite article. There is no grammatical gender. The first syllable of a word is stressed. Word order is „free”, it has no real grammatical function, but rather is a matter of conveying information in "topic" and "focus." In Hungarian usually focus (the part with new information) comes first in a sentence, while topic (formerly known or assumed information) comes next. The origin of the vocabulary. Early loan words came from Iranian and Turkic languages that were borrowed during the Hungarian migration. There are numerous loans from Slav, Latin, German, later also some from Italian, French, and recently from English.The basic stock of lexical and grammatical characteristics reflects, however, its Finno-Ugric origin and productive word-formation processes are based on these patterns. Today from linguistic point of view, Hungary is a relatively homogeneous country. National minorities include Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, Slovenes, Germans, Romanians, and Gypsies, but none of their languages plays a significant role in Hungarian society. Seventy-five percent of the minorities lives in scattered village communities with local basic schools only. Secondary schools have only the most numerous minorities (Slovaks, Croats, Romanians). Recently minority self-governments have been formed, and a revival of minority cultures can be traced. |
