Transcript 02_The_Hungarian_language(magyar_sziv).ppsx

The Hungarian language
Why is it hard to learn?
What am I going to speak about?
• I am going to compare the Hungarian language to the
English and the French ones
• I am going to do this on several levels, from the
sounds and letters to the grammatical structures
• But first, let’s see the :
Different roots
• Both English and French belong to the group of
Germanic languages
• Hungarian, however, is a Finno-Ugrian language, with
Asian origins
Sounds and letters
• The English alphabet consists of 26 letters, 5 vowels
and 21 consonants, and the spoken language has 43
sounds
• The French alphabet contains 26 letters and five
diacritics are used in combination with some of the
letters and two orthographic ligatures are used,
however, none of these constitute distinct letters of
the alphabet
Sounds and letters
• The Hungarian alphabet is made up by 44 letters,
some of which are double ones (Cs, Dz, Gy, Ly, Ny, Ty,
Zs) and there is one triple letter (Dzs)
• It has 14 vowels and 30 consonants from which
diacritics create some
Words
• English has approximately 500,000 words
• French has about 220,000
• Hungarian has an estimated amount of 500,000
words (An average adult understands 200,000 and
uses 10,000 actively)
Word formation
• In English, verbs can have several endings, but not
many (walk, walks, walked, walking …)
• There are a bit more variations in French
• But in Hungarian, verbs can have lots of endings that
create a different, but still sensible meaning (jár,
járok, jársz, járunk, jártok, járnak, jártam, járnék,
járatok, járatnék, járhatnék…)
Why is this so?
• It can be the consequence of the different logical
structure of our languages (English is isolative while
Hungarian is agglutinative)
• In English, conditionals are made up by the original
verb plus an extra one (the auxiliary verb) walk +
conditional would walk
• In Hunagrian, this looks totally different (we change
the ending of the original verb) jár + conditional
járna
‘Phrasal verbs’
• In English, the meaning of verbs can be changed by
making the phrasal verbs (breakbreak down)
• In Hungarian, we change their meaning by changing
their beginnings (törikeltörik)
• It is again very interesting, that we have lots of these
(moselmos, felmos, lemos, kimos, megmos,
átmos…) and sometimes the are not used logically
Word order
• In English there is a basic word order for declarative
sentences that does not like being changed (Steven is
going upstairs. But not: Going is Steven upstaris.)
• Ih Hungarian, the word order is quite flexible in the
case of declarative sentences (István megy fel a
lépcsőn, Megy István fel a lépcsőn, A lépcsőn megy
fel István, Felmegy István a lépcsőn, Felmegy a
lépcsőn István all correct!)
Word order
• In the case of questions :
• English is still not open to changes (Does he have a
house? But not: Does he a house have?)
• Hungarian is again not strict (Van neki háza?, Van
háza neki?, Neki van háza?, Háza van neki?all
correct!)
Negation
• English does it once. ( Nobody has a pencil.)
• Hungarian does it twice or sometimes more
(Senkinek nincs ceruzája=Nobody has not a pencil)
Close to the finish line
• I have finished my presentation. However, in case
you would like to play a little bit, I have something
for you.
• Just try saying : ló (horse), istálló (stable), ház
(house), házikó (little house)
• Go on with these : batyu (swathe), tyúk (twist),
gyöngy (pearl), betyár (outlaw)
So far…not bad
Last ones
• Not so hard : Gyuri, a gyönyörű gyöngytyúk
Tatabányán totyogok
• Maybe difficult : Anyakönyvvezetőhöz
• The hardest :
Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért
Last one
• Impossibile :
összetettszóhosszúságvilágrekorddöntéskényszerneurózistünet
együttesmegnyilvánulásfejleszthetőségvizsgálatszervezésellenőrzésiüg
yosztálylétszámleépítésellenesakciócsoporttagságiigazolványmegújítá
sikérelemelutasítóhatározatgyűjteményértékesítőnagyvállalatátalakítás
utófinanszírozáspályázatelbírálóalapítványkuratóriumelnökhelyet
tesellenesmerényletkivizsgálóbizottságiüléselnapolásiindítványbenyújtá
siforma-nyomtatványkitöltögetésellenőrizhetőség-próba
Thank you for paying attention.