Magyar News, 1992. szeptember-1993. augusztus (3. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1992-09-01 / 1. szám
HOW DO YOU SAY IT IN HUNGARIAN? In the first lesson we dealt with the vowels. We put accents on them to change their sounds. We don’t use accents on the consonants, we more or less pronounce them as you would in the English language. Naturally there are exceptions. The “C” will never sound like a “K” because for this the Hungarian uses the “K”. It is simple, there is no mix-up or confusion. You should know that the “S” sounds “SH” like in show. The sound of this English word is written in Hungarian as “SÓ” and it means salt. Before we get into the combination of consonants, I would like to take care of one more letter. Left for last because some combinations will relate to this sound. The letter is“J”. It doesn’t sound like in John. It sounds like a “Y”, very soft as in young, or Yo-yo. Well the Hungarians know what a Yo-yo is and they write it the same way. So we have two letters that sound the same. The “J” and the “Y”. But if you hear a Hungarian say yo-yo, he is really saying “jó, jó”. And this means good-good. llie “Y” would be used in foreign words except for the combination consonants. The “LY” is the same sound as the “J” or the “ Y” in Hungarian. But when “Y” is with other consonants, it softens the pronunciation. “GY” is the way the English will say (not American) “during” or “dew”. With “N” it makes “NY”, and if you could separate the sound of “NI” out of the word “onion”, then you are saying it the right way. With the “TY” you will have a harder time finding the best sound. When you listen to people like TV or radio announcers say Christian or statue, you will notice that their “T” will not sound like “ch”, it will sound like a Hungarian pronouncing ‘TY”. Now you’ve got it. Just as curiosity in advance, the letter “J” used as the symbol of command (imperatif), or as a connecting sound for the possessive suffix will also soften the sound of the letter in front of it. Other combinations are easier to digest. If we want the sound of the English “CH”, we use “CS” in Hungarian. You say CHURCH we say CSODA. We already mentioned the letter “S”. It somehow ganged up with the “Z”. The “S” as we mentioned before sounds like the English combination of “SH”. To get the English sound “S” in Hungarian, you have to combine it with the “Z” and make it “SZ”. The “Z” is like ZOO in English; but if you tag on the “S”, it will be “ZS” and will sound like meaSUre or uSUal. Make sure you don’t mix up the order. To force a foreign word into Hungarian, you will run into strange combinations - JAZZ will be DZSESZ, and JAM will become DZSEM. You could still enjoy it. When you hear English spoken with a Hungarian accent, you will notice the rolling “R” and the strong “V”. The English uses the double-u “W”, the Hungarian calls it dupla-v, that is double-v. “What” will sound “V-Vat.” It’s their privilege. Do your homework with the first two lessons and learn the sounds of each letter. The Hungarian is a fonetic language; and if you don’t know the sounds, dien you are speaking some strange language. Just bear in mind that you only have to sort out 24 sounds. The rest are the same as you know it in English. For information to learn Hungarian, call 377-0569. MANY THANKS BAKING FOR EDUCATION Every year the International Institute of Connecticut organizes the International Festival at the Captain’s Cove in Bridgeport. Among the ethnic groups of our area, the American Hungarian Heritage Association participates with a Hungarian food booth and supports the Embroidery Circle of UCC to put on a display of Hungarian crafts. The event is a fundraiser for the Institute and also for AHHA. The proceeds go into the Mary Katona Scholarship Fund to reward local Hungarian students in their effort to achieve higher education. This year we turned to the ladies of the Hungarian community to donate some of their famous baked goods. We had a successful sale and we all would like to thank these lovely ladies who helped us show the presence of Hungarians in our area and to help educate our youth. The following ladies made donations. The list is in no special order. BarbaraFarkas, Gizi Toth, Arlene Vaisil, Joan Pastor, Helen Sabo, Helen Fazekas, Gizi Hunyadi, Margie Gaydos, Rozsika Deutsch, Bette Johnson, JosieLasko, Sherly Bartha, Claudia Margitay-Balogh, Margit Beres, Marie Eszenyi, Betty Telep, Rose Stiber, Midge Havery, Betty Margitay and Betty Martin. Thanks to all of you. See you next year. KEEP THE PRESSES ROLLING The MAGYAR NEWS is extremely appreciative for the support that our advertisers give. You see their ads every month and everybody knows who they are. Besides the Hungarian businesses there are individuals who make their contributions to help with the rising costs of typesetting and printing. We would like to express our sincere thanks to those who recently supported the MAGYAR NEWS financially. They are: Albert Kovács, Helen Dezső, Joe and Dotty Farkas, Betty Telep, Andrew Beres, Joseph Bakacs, Barbara Moroson, and Elizabeth Martha. The dollars you donate are very important to keep this publication alive. Your donations are tax deductible. SYMBOLS IN THE HUNGARIAN CROWN The symbol of power now-a-days is something like a star, an eagle, lion or other. The power is evident just by looking at the symbol. Very few flags or royal displays exist without so called mystical symbols. Well, what are these mystical symbols? Not far back in time, in 1916 Charles IV in front of the Saint Mathias church rode his horse onto the coronation mound and with his sword slashed out to the four comers of the world. He did the same thing that the emperors of China did in their ceremonies. The count of movements, the number of pieces all had significant meanings. As time went by, the strict rules were kept but the meaning and the usage of them became mystical. The number four was for the comers of the world, but the world itself was also carrying the number 3, and 7. This latter was derival from the number of the planets they knew in the old days. We find mystical and real numbers put into-for example-the Hungarian Crown. A book written by Peter Revay in 1613 reveals the fact that the numbers on the crown had mystical connections. If you count all the pearls on the lower band, you get the number 354 which equals the total days of 12 moon months. Later they added six more onto each of the dangling chains, bringing the number to 366, which is the full solar year. The path of the sun crossing the sky was symbolized by having a double cross in a circle, cutting it up into two times 3 pieces. The circle in the horizon, the vertical stem divides from north to south, and the horizontal two crossing bars mark the points of sunrise and sunset in the summer and in the winter. This order of the stripes we could find on the crest of the Arpad dynasty and on their coins. The double cross also used to symbolize the tree of life, the lower, middle and upper world. It was also the markings of the princes. But then again it had another kind of appearance. On the coins of Bela III this symbol is upside down. The three piece mound is hanging from the top and the cross is hanging down-wards, showing its origin from the sky, from God. The mound itself, specially in three segments is the symbol of political independence going back all the way to the 3rd century in inner Asia. This mound is part of the Hungarian crest and it is possible that this symbol was brought through the ancient Turks and intentionally used as a visual image to display the political power. Mystical symbols, words and numbers were common and well known at the time the Hungarians settled in the Carpathian Basin. The Hungarian statehood developed with these symbols, they became an integral part of the Hungarian culture and pride. Let us keep it that way. (CMB)
