Hungarian Heritage Review, 1987 (16. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1987-02-01 / 2. szám
■Hungarian (Klassrmmt EDITOR’S NOTE: This series of lessons in Hungarian is reprinted from the unpublished manuscript — An Introduction to Hungarian — by András Boros-Kazai, Mary Boros-Kazai, and Peter Szafko with financial assistance from the William Penn Association and editorial support from the American-Hungarian Foundation and the Hungarian Chair at Indiana University. We will tell you more about the source of these lessons, as well as about plans for the publication of the manuscript, at a later date. LESSON 2 PRONUNCIATION 1. Standard Hungarian is pronounced as it is written, but according to different rules than those for English. 2. Although not indicated in the written language, the first syllable of each word is always stressed. 3. Both vowels and consonants can be short or long, vowels are indicated by the long marks above the Long letter: All other vowels are short. Long consonants are written: pp bb kk etc . IMPORTANT: Consonant combinations consisting of more than one letter are made long by doubling the first letter only: Consonant Long Consonant c s CCS dz ddz dz s ddz s gy ggy ly ily ny nny S Z s s z ty tty z s z z s 1+. All vowels, whether short or long, and regardless of position in a word, should always be pronounced clearly and distinctly. None of the Hungarian vowels are reduced in any position. 5. Long consonants should also be pronounced clearly because in many cases the only distinction between two words is the length of the same consonant: hal^ — fish hall — hear The correct pronunciation of a long consonant begins in the preceding syllable and is extended into the following: ket-to. NOTE: If the long consonant is followed by a consonant, then the long consonant is pronounced short: j óbbra. FEBRUARY 1987 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 25
