Hungarian alphabet

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Alphabet

Hungarian language is written with Latin letters. The complete alphabet consists of 44 letters, but four of these (the ones in bold face) only appear in foreign words or names. They are often simply omitted from the list.

The Hungarian alphabet letter name IPA a a ɑ or ɒ á á aː b bé b c cé ʦ cs csé ʧ d dé d dz dzé ʣ dzs dzsé ʤ e e ɛ é é eː f ef f g gé g gy gyé ɟ h há h i i i í í iː j jé j k ká k l el l ly ely j m em m n en n ny eny ɲ o o o ó ó oː ö ö ø ő ő øː p pé p q kú — r er r s es ʃ sz esz s t té t ty tyé c u u u ú ú uː ü ü y ű ű yː v vé v w duplavé — x iksz — y ipszilon — z zé z zs zsé ʒ

Classification of consonants (pairs) voiced unvoiced b p d t dz c dzs cs g k gy ty v f z sz zs s j — l — ly — m — n — ny — r — — h

Classification of vowels (short-long pairs indicated with dashes)   front back rounded ö-ő, ü-ű o-ó, u-ú unrounded e, é, i-í a, á

Some consonants are represented with digraphs, and there is one trigraph. Long consonants are denoted by doubling the letter, or the first character in the case of the aforementioned di- and trigraphs: ggy, ssz, ddzs etc.

Vowel harmony

Vowels are divided into four categories called depending on the position of the tongue (front or back) and the shape of the lips (rounded or unrounded) during their formation, as seen in the table above.

Words are classified according to their vowels as front (e. g. élet, life), back (e. g. álom, dream) or mixed (e. g. hotel). Most of the endings attached during conjugation have a front and a back form (some are even more specialised according to roundedness). Vowel harmony ensures that front words get the front endings and back words the back endings. In the case of mixed words the last vowel has strong impact on the ending, but there are ambiguous cases. For example, the ending of the inessive case is -ban/-ben; adding it to the previous words gives életben, álomban and hotelban or hotelben.

It is important to remember that for historical reasons i (and consequently í as well) can behave as if it was a back vowel. Hence, the classification of words containing i must be memorised individually. Examples: szív (heart) becomes szívben, but kín (suffering) is kínban in inessive case.

Typical back/front pairs are a/e, á/é, o/ö, ó/ő, u/ü and ú/ű. When roundedness is also considered, o/e/ö and a/o/e/ö often form such groups.

Pronunciation rules

Hungarian is a phonetic language, so the basic rule is to read out all the letters as the corresponding sound. Every syllable should be audible, the first being stressed all the time. In the case of composite words the other components are also slightly stressed on their first syllable. The vowels never change, although their length does not always match what's written.

On the other hand, the consonants do succumb to some rules, most of which are due to the physiology of speech. Since different languages treat the same consonant combinations in different ways, it is useful to be aware of these rules.

The most important rule is that consonants inherit the voicedness of the following consonant unless it is pairless and voiced. Some examples (the changed consonants are in bold face):

• unvoiced pairs: ezt [ɛst], dobszó [dopsoː], tölgyfa [tølcfɒ], tévhit [teːfhit], vadkan [vɒtkɒn], fogódzhat [fogoːʦhɒt], egykor [ɛckor]
• voiced pairs: képzel [keːbzɛl], csontgomb [ʧondgomb], cukrászda [ʦukraːzdɒ], babusgat [bɒbuʒgɒt], ércből [eːrʣbøːl], lökdös [løgdøʃ]
• no change: hatna [hɒtnɒ], képmás [keːpmaːʃ]

Next, n becomes m before b, p, f and v: különböző [kylømbøzøː], színpad [siːmpɒd], rohanva [rohɒmvɒ], csalánféle [ʧɒlaːmfeːlɛ].

When an sz or a z is followed by an s or a zs, the result is the long version of the latter sound: igazság [igɒʃːaːg] (this is not a zs, this is a z followed by an s), egészség [ɛgeːʃːeːg], húsz zsák [huːʒːaːk] etc. In faster speech sz and z can also assimilate the preceding s and zs in a similar way.

An even more important rule is the assimilation of j to the preceding palatal (soft) consonant, making it longer: anyja [ɒɲːɒ], hagyja [hɒɟːɒ], bátyja [baːcːɒ].

In some cases two consonants melt together to form a third one. These rules must be strictly followed, pronouncing the written consonants separately is outright erroneous:

written	spoken	examples
d/t+s	ccs, cs	fűtsük [fyːʧːyk], gyújtsa [ɟuːjʧɒ], vadság [vɒʧːaːg], szilárdság [silaːrʧaːg]
d/t+sz	cc	metsző [mɛʦːøː], maradsz [mɒrɒʦː]
gy/ty+s	ccs	egység [ɛʧːeːg]
gy/ty+sz	cc	egyszer [ɛʦːɛr]
t+j	tty, ty	botja [bocːɒ], mártja [maːrcɒ]
d+j	ggy, gy	aludjunk [ɒluɟːunk], kardja [kɒrɟɒ]
n+j	nny	menjen [mɛɲːɛn]

Important: the assimilations listed in the table above never happen on word boundaries, including compound words. Examples: átjár [aːtjaːr], hadjárat [hɒdjaːrɒt], hadsereg [hɒtʃɛrɛg] (note the tʃ instead of the ʧ) etc.

Finally, certain words have a mute h at the end: céh [tseː], düh [dy], juh [ju], méh [meː] and some others. When an ending is attached, the h appears in pronounciation: dühös [dyhøʃ], méhek [meːhɛk] and so on.