The Eighth Tribe, 1975 (2. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1975-01-01 / 1. szám
January, 1915 THE EIGHTH TRIBE Page Nine suffixes. Note the following examples with their connectives: I) arát — friend barátság — friendship barátságtalan — unfriendly barátságtalanság — unfriendliness F. NUMBERS A few highlights only will be cited regarding the Hungarian manner of writing out numbers. It is interesting to those familiar with the English practice to see that the Hungarians connect numbers together into one long string so that the longer the varied number is, generally the longer is the written number word; e.g., the bases are 1 - egy; 10 - tiz; 11 - tizenegy; 100 - száz; 1000 - ezer. The year date would be written out as: 1974 — ezerkilencszázhetvenégy (a total of 23 letters !) G. PREFIXES There are also such things as short adverbs, added to the beginning of a verb forming a new compound verb, called verbal prefixes and these are identified in the English as the prepositions: of — into, up — down, away — off. The Hungarian prefix meg expresses the completion and in some cases the beginning of an action as in the following instances: ‘'Péter tanulja a leckét. Peter is learning the lesson.” “Péter megtanulja a leckét. Peter has learned the lesson” (also, “in process of duly learning”). “Péter megtanulta a leckét. Peter did learn the lesson.” One can see from these two sections that suffixes and prefixes as well as word links contribute as varied sandwich-connecting methods which add greatly to form the Hungarian vocabulary and that therefore great care must be exercised to choose correct letters and syllables in order to accurately convey meanings of precisely that which one intends to say. H. STRESS AND INTONATION Stress in Hungarian is, without exception, placed on the first syllable: ceruza (trans.: pencil) in words. Moreover, between a declarative sentence and a question without interrogation there is very often no formal difference in Hungarian, recognized only by the rising-falling or rising intonation. There are also interrogative pronouns which are placed at the beginnings of inquiries, with rising intonation at the end for questions. I. WORD ORDER Adjectives used as attributes always precede the noun: széles udvar — broad yard. The word order of the sentence depends on what the speaker wants to say. The most important ruling of Hungarian word order: The stressed, the most emphatic word, always precedes the predicate. The order of the rest of the sentence is free so that many forms are possible. Note the following possibilities: A fiúk tanulnak most. Most a fiúk tanulnak. The boys are learning now. A fiúk most tanulnak. Most tanulnak a fiúk. Note the boys are learning. If no word is given a special stress in the sentence, the main stress is placed on the predicate which is preceded by a slight pause. The word order in this case is free. Most of the above cited examples, plus the following help illustrate this point. “A fiúk tanulnak most. The hoys are learning (just) now. The predicate is placed first in the sentence only if a special emphasis is laid on it: Tanulnak most a fiúk. J. NEGATIVES The “negative particle” in Hungarian (nem) is stressed and precedes “the predicate” so that in any of the above word orders, negation is accomplished in all instances by the use, for instance, of, nem tanulnak (trans.: not studying). The word nem can he at the beginning or any of the other positions so long as it is used in the aforestated accustomed manner. CONCLUDING STATEMENT In finality, the sections included above are considered the major differences between the English and Hungarian (Magyar) languages, acknowledging there are still many other areas which would be of interest, hut admittedly it would be unjust to try to give coverage to them sufficiently within the scope of this paper as they would deserve. All in all, this paper has lent a sense of constructive endeavor to the writer during this particular sojourn of work.
