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Hungarian language
Alphabet, including ő ű and cs dz dzs gy ly ny sz ty zs
Phonetics and phonology
Vowel harmony
Grammar    Noun phrases    Verbs
T-V distinction
Regulatory body
Hungarian name
Language history    Sound correspondences
Hungarian pronunciation of English • Old Hungarian script • English words from Hungarian
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This article deals with the phonology and the phonetics of the Hungarian language. (Phonology studies abstract elements (phonemes) as they contrast with each other; phonetics studies the actual acoustic realizations of phonemes as speech sounds.)

Consonants

Hungarian has the following consonant system (not using standard SPE-like features), with unusual graphemes marked bold:

Phoneme	Most common phonetic value in IPA	Most common grapheme	[voice]	place of articulation	type of articulation
/p/	[p]	p	-	bilabial	stop
/b/	[b]	b	+	bilabial	stop
/t/	[t̪]	t	-	laminal dental	stop
/d/	[d̪]	d	+	laminal dental	stop
/c/	[cç] or [c]	ty	-	palatal	affricate or stop
/ɟ/	[ɟʝ] or [ɟ]	gy	+	palatal	affricate or stop
/k/	[k]	k	-	velar	stop
/g/	[ɡ]	g	+	velar	stop
/f/	[f]	f	-	labiodental	fricative
/v/	[v]	v	+	labiodental	fricative
/s/	[s̻]	sz	-	laminal denti-alveolar	fricative
/z/	[z̻]	z	+	laminal denti-alveolar	fricative
/ʃ/	[ʃ]	s	-	postalveolar	fricative
/ʒ/	[ʒ]	zs	+	postalveolar	fricative
/j/	[j] or [ʝ]	j, ly	+	palatal	fricative or approximant
/h/	[h] or [ɦ] ([x] or [ç] word-finally)	h, ch	±	glottal	fricative
/ts/	[ts̻]	c	-	laminal denti-alveolar	affricate
/dz/	[dz̻]	dz	+	laminal denti-alveolar	affricate
/tʃ/	[tʃ]	cs	-	postalveolar	affricate
/dʒ/	[dʒ]	dzs	+	postalveolar	affricate
/l/	[l̪]	l	+	laminal dental	lateral
/r/	[r̪]	r	+	laminal dental	trill
/m/	[m]	m	+	bilabial	nasal
/n/	[n̪]	n	+	laminal dental	nasal
/ɲ/	[ɲ]	ny	+	palatal	nasal

Almost every consonant has a geminate counterpair, written by doubling a single letter grapheme: bb, pp, ss etc., or by doubling the first letter of a grapheme cluster: ssz, nny, ddzs, etc.

The phonemes /dz/ and /dʒ/ usually appear on the surface as geminates: bridzs [briddʒ] "bridge (the card game)". (For the list of examples and exceptions, see Hungarian dz and dzs.)

Allophones

The most important allophones are:

• /n/ becomes [ŋ] if followed by a velar consonant (e.g. hang "voice" [hɒŋg])
• /j/ becomes [ç] if preceded by one of /p t k/ in an imperative at the end of the word (e.g. kapj [kɒpç] "get (imp.)")
• /h/ may become [ɦ] between two vowels (e.g. tehát [tɛɦaːt] "so")
• /h/ disappears at the end of the word in some cases: méh [meː] "bee", cseh [ʧɛ] "Czech"
• /h/ becomes otherwise [x] at the end of a syllable, even possible pronunciation for the words mentioned (méh [meː], but colloquially can be [meːx]), otherwise compulsory: doh [dox], ihlet [ixlɛt], or [içlɛt].
• /h/ becomes [xː] when geminate: méhhel [meːxːɛl] "with a bee" (in literary Hungarian the form is méhvel [meːvɛl]), peches [pɛxːɛʃ] "unlucky"

Vowels

Here follows the table of Hungarian vowels, with the distinctive features of the Hungarian vowel system:

Phoneme	Most common phonetic value in IPA	Most common grapheme	[back]	[round]	[high]	[low]	[long]
/a/	[ɒ]	a	+	+	-	+	-
/aː/	[aː]	á	+	-	-	+	+
/o/	[o]	o	+	+	-	-	-
/oː/	[oː]	ó	+	+	-	-	+
/u/	[u]	u	+	+	+	-	-
/uː/	[uː], [u]	ú	+	+	+	-	+
/e/	[ɛ]	e	-	-	-	+	-
/eː/	[eː]	é	-	-	-	-	+
/i/	[i]	i	-	-	+	-	-
/iː/	[iː], [i]	í	-	-	+	-	+
/ø/	[ø]	ö	-	+	-	-	-
/øː/	[øː]	o	-	+	-	-	+
/y/	[y]	ü	-	+	+	-	-
/yː/	[yː], [y]	u	-	+	+	-	+

As can be seen from the table, Hungarian has seven pairs of corresponding short and long vowels. Their phonetic value does not match exactly, especially in the /e/ – /eː/ and /a/ – /aː/ pairs. For the other pairs, the short vowels are slightly lower and more central, and the long vowels more peripheral.

The length distinction in high vowels is not consistent. Many dialects lack the phonemes /iː/, /uː/ and /yː/, and colloquial use is also very different from the orthography (e.g. unió is pronounced [uːnioː], but kórház is pronounced [korhaːz]).

Although not found in Budapest, about half of all Hungarian speakers distinguish phonemic "ë" /e/ from /ɛ/. An example is orthographic mentek, which in 'Regional Standard' represents four contrasting words: mëntëk [mentek] "you all go", mëntek [mentɛk] "they went", mentëk [mɛntek] "I save", mentek [mɛntɛk] "they are exempt". In Budapest, the first three collapse to [mɛntɛk], while the latter one is unknown, having a different form in the literary language ("mentesek").

Phonological processes

Vowel harmony

As in Finnish and Turkish, vowel harmony plays an important part in determining the distribution of vowels in a word. The primary division is between front and back vowels.

The following vowels are considered front vowels:

e [ɛ]

é [eː]

i [i]

í [iː]

ö [ø]

ő [øː]

ü [y]

ű [yː]

The following vowels are considered back vowels:

a [ɒ]

á [aː]

o [o]

ó [oː]

u [u]

ú [uː]

For the most part, words contain vowels primarily of one of the two types. Mixed category words are uncommon, but do exist, even in native words (e.g. "derekas"). Most mixed words are of foreign origin (e.g. "telefon") or consist of compound words (e.g. "pénz|tárca" [purse]). For purposes of determining the class of suffix to use (suffixes usually have two forms, one for each of the classes of vowels) compound words take the suffix corresponding to the vowel-class of the last unit of the compound, and loanwords use the vowel-class of the last vowel.

/i/, /e:/ and sometimes /e/, while being nominally "front" vowels, are "transparent"; i.e. if they are preceded by back vowels, the word is considered a back-vowel word.

A few words which contain /i/, /i:/ and, rarely, /eː/ are counted as back-vowel words because in Old Hungarian, the words contained the /ɨ/ phoneme in their place. This sound is the same as Polish y, Russian yery, Romanian â and î, and bears some resemblance to the sound of the "e" in "roses" in some dialects of English (in those dialects where "Rosa's" and "roses" don't sound alike). In today spoken Hungarian dialects, this vowel has merged with /i/, /iː/, and, rarely, /eː/ or even /u/.

Additionally, there is another set of criteria based on vowel roundedness for mid-high front vowels.

Most of Hungarian's multitude of suffixes have multiple forms for use depending on the vowel class predominating in the stem.

Most types are:

alternating vowels	example	back stems	front non-rounded stems	front rounded stems
/a/, /e/	-ban, -ben "in ..."	házban "in a house"	kézben "in hand"	könyvben "in a book"
/a:/, /e:/	-ság, -ség "-ity, a collection of ..."	okosság "the quality of being clever"	vétség "fault"	ökörség "being like an ox = stupidity"
/o/, /e/, /ø/	-on, -en, -ön "on ..."	házon "on (the top of) a house"	kézen "on hand"	könyvön "on a book"
/o:/, /ø:/	-ó, -ő "-ing"	váró "(sy) waiting"	néző "(sy) looking"	lövő "(sy) shooting"
/u/, /y/	-unk, -ünk "plural 1st person present suffix"	várunk "we're waiting"	nézünk "we're looking"	lövünk "we're shooting"
/u:/, /y:/	-ú, -ű "something having ..."	ötágú "five-pointed (star)"	szép szemű "one having nice eyes"	gyönyörű "sg having beauty=beautiful"

As can be seen, the phoneme /e/ is found both in the low vowel series (/a/ - /e/), and in the mid vowel series (/o/ - /e/ - /ö/). This odd feature is solved in the old language and in dialects: there was/is an eighth short phoneme /ë/, which is just like the /e/ but it is mid, and its pronunciation is [e], in contrast with /e/ being [ɛ]. In dialects, this phoneme is found in the mid series, and the low /e/ in the low series.

The requirement of vowel harmony means that suffixes must always be of the same sound order as the word it is attached to, so a word of high order gets high suffixes (szekrénybe), and a word of deep order gets deep suffixes (házba). Therefore, suffixes containing vowels have two or three variants, one or two with a high vowel and one with a deep vowel (in: -ban, or -ben; on: -en, -ön, or -on).

Words of composite order generally get deep-ordered suffixes (békával), except some unused archaisms and some loanwords from foreign languages (farmerben = farmerban), or old but frequently used words containing neutral vowels (i,í and sometimes é) (hídon, hídra; derék ~ derekam). So for example the word kartonpapír, a compound word (karton|papír) with a composite-ordered last component (papír), gets deep suffixes (kartonpapírral, kartonpapírhoz, etc.), even though its last vowel is high.

Many suffixes have only one form. These are usually new-born suffixes (-kor "at the time of ...": hatkor "at 6 o'clock", hétkor "at 7 o'clock", ötkor "at 5 o'clock"), or they contain /i/ or /e:/ (-i "universal noun → adjective suffix": budai "somebody from Buda", pesti "somebody from Pest"; -ért "for ...": aranyért "for gold", ezüstért "for silver").

Although not part of the standard grammar and phonology of the Magyar language, it is also interesting to note the use of retroflex consonants (ones where the tongue is curled back) in the speech of some people. Certain rural (paloc) communities in Hungary tend to speak with slight to heavy retroflexion of the /t/ and /d/ consonants. This linguistic feature is noticeable by speakers in different Hungarian dialects including Alföld, Northeast Hungarian (especially from Nógrád megye), Székely, and Jászberény, so it is not something necessarily restricted to only a certain area or county. The interesting case with users of this type of retroflexion is that they tend to pronounce virtually all of their /t/ and /d/ consonants with the retroflexed form. In the major cities of Hungary, this feature is not common and usually younger people who demonstrate this retroflexion tend to lose it by assimilation, as it is ridiculed as a sign for lack of education or backward regions origin. Nowadays, this feature is mainly found in the speech of older people from the countryside as the younger generation is using it less and less.

Assimilation

Stops, fricatives, and affricates have anticipatory assimilation of voicing, for example biztos "certain" is realised as [bistoʃ].

See also

• List of phonetics topics

•  • [ e] Phonologies of the world's languages

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