Beverly Hills Lingual Institute
Beverly Hills Lingual Institute
Beverly Hills Lingual Institute
Beverly Hills Lingual Institute

Blog      Language, Learning and Culture

Classes in More than 35 Languages return to blog index

The Hungarian Language

We recently asked how much you knew about Hungary. It's a fascinating country, with a captivating culture - and a beguiling language which has a reputation for being among the most challenging to grasp.

Indeed, one of our students recently told us about a conversation they'd had with a Hungarian friend. "I'm learning your language!" she proudly announced. She was met with a wry, knowing smile.

According to statistics from the 1990 U.S. census, the decade between 1980 and 1990 saw a drop of eighteen percent in the number of American residents who spoke Hungarian in their homes (180,000 in 1980; 148,000 in 1990). Between 2000 and 2011, the number of Hungarian speakers declined again, by about twenty percent.

The future of Hungarian studies in North America will depend mainly on people who have learned Hungarian as adults.

Yet many, including prospective students, say they find the thought daunting.

For one thing, Hungarian is different to all its neighbors.

Most languages of Europe, and the languages of India, are classified as "Indo-European." These include the Germanic languages (like German, Yiddish, and Dutch); the Scandinavian languages (such as Swedish and Norwegian); the Romance languages (e.g.: French, Italian, and Portuguese); the Slavic languages, such as Russian, Polish, and Serbo/ Croatian, and the Indic languages, including Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, and Urdu.

Celtic, Greek, Baltic, and Iranian (Persian/ Farsi) also fall under Indo-European languages.

Hungarian is not an Indo-European language, but a member of the Finno-Ugric language group. Finnish, along with Estonian, forms one branch, and the Ugrian languages - of which Hungarian is the most important - make up the other. This group also includes several minor languages spoken in the northern areas of the former Soviet Union.

There are about fifteen million Hungarian speakers worldwide, of whom ten million live in Hungary. The name of the Hungarian people and language, in their own tongue, is Magyar. Our English word, "Hungarian," derives from the German, which has roots in the medieval Latin "Hungarus."

Part of the reason that Hungarian may seem intimidating is its rich, rough sound, in part caused by the stress pattern of pronouncing individual words with an emphasis on the first syllable. This emphasis is less obvious when speaking a phrase. Some say that the distinctively Hungarian rhythm can be heard in the music of Bartók and Kodály.

Another challenging tonal element of the Hungarian language is that vowel sounds can vary. There's also the unusual combination of consonants to contend with; such as cs (pronounced ch, as in church), ny (gn, as in cognac), sz (s, as in pleasure), and gy (d, as in duke).

Each verb has two different sets of conjugations, depending on whether or not it has a specific direct object. In other words, the conjugation is determined not by the subject alone, but also by the object, and by whether the object is specific or general. Essentially, ask yourself whether the object in the sentence referred to by an "a" or a "the?" Keep in mind, however, that the Hungarian idea of what is specific and what is general does not always correspond with ours.

On the other hand, Hungarian has fewer grammatical cases than most Indo-European languages. Learning to attach the preposition to the end of the word in question (e.g.: Budapesten means "in Budapest") is half the battle.

  • Cars
  • Communication
  • Culture
  • Fashion
  • Food
  • Language
  • Travel
Contracts and Cultures

2022-11-27

ABBA are back

2021-09-03

Happy Dragon Boat Festival

2020-06-25

I Look Up As I Walk

2020-01-31

The Values of Volvo

2020-01-27

German on Both Sides of The Wall

2020-01-24

Today is Macaron Day

2019-03-20

What Can Language Not Do?

2018-12-10

A Star is Born

2018-11-06

Time for a Saab Story

2018-10-23

Andalucia, en Ocho Joyas

2018-08-22

Idioms from Around the World

2018-01-23

Who Misses Skeuomorphism?

2018-01-22

The Wrong Way to Learn a Language

2017-12-05

The Hungarian Language

2017-12-01

Uh-Oh The Glottal Stop

2017-11-16

The Languages of Doctors

2017-10-23

How to Establish a Brand

2017-10-11

The Luxury Experience

2017-09-27

Learning Language is Child's Play

2017-09-20

Language as Jazz

2017-08-25

It's All Polish To Me

2017-08-24

Farsi is Sugar

2017-08-18

76 Common Verbs for Dutch Learners

2017-08-10

So You Want to Learn Hindi?

2017-08-08

Ingrid Bergman on Language

2017-08-07

The Secret to Reading Japanese

2017-08-03

Losing the War One Slide at a Time

2017-08-02

Blowin' in the Wind

2017-07-31

Getting Around

2017-07-28

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie

2017-07-27

Choosing a Language to Learn

2017-07-26

The First Volvo

2017-07-24

Improve Your Public Speaking

2017-07-21

Where Did I Come From?

2017-07-20

Happy Emoji Day

2017-07-17

Czech Out the First Robots

2017-07-14

Mind Your Grammar

2017-07-12

Is this a BMW?

2017-07-10

How Many German Words Do You Know?

2017-06-23

Como agua para chocolate

2017-06-21

Traveling Tips

2017-06-20

I Love Daddy

2017-06-15

We'll Bring the Coffee

2017-06-08

The Challenges of Learning Arabic

2017-06-01

Tulipmania

2017-05-30

Saving Hebrew

2017-05-29

Keeper of the Bridge

2017-05-25

Bewitchingly Flawed

2017-05-18

Japan's Caprice

2017-05-16

The First Martians

2017-05-15

Dolma or Tolma?

2017-05-12

Dutch in Paradise

2017-05-08

How Does the Bilingual Brain Work?

2015-08-19

Reasons to Learn Italian

2015-03-24

Reasons to Learn French

2015-02-27

Truth in Advertising

2014-07-10

Top Quality Spanish Teachers

2013-12-23

A Better Way to Learn Italian

2013-12-23

High Quality Spanish Courses

2013-12-23

Italian School

2013-12-23

Top Quality French Teachers

2013-12-23

Finding the Best Language School

2013-12-23

Italian Tutors

2013-12-23

New Year's Resolution

2012-12-12