Magyar News, 1992. szeptember-1993. augusztus (3. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1992-10-01 / 2. szám
HOW DO YOU SAY IT IN HUNGARIAN? Lesson Three In the previous two lessons you have learned all the sounds of the Hungarian alphabet, also all the letters that go with it. If you did your homework, then you arc ready for the next step, that is to read and write. In both of these cases you will need a person who is pretty good with the Hungarian language. If that person understands what you read out loud, then you are doing fine. On the other hand you will need somebody to dictate a Hungarian text so you could practice writing it down. Since Hungarian is a phonetic language, you should have no problem doing it. In my experience those who studied the first two lessons could read and write after they overcome the shock of doing it. It is very simple. When you listen to people of different national ities speak English, you notice their accent. This is because the “music” of their first language is different to the English. The same goes when an Englishman speaks, let’s say, Hungarian. I’m not referring to distorted words like car made into carree, or one way pronounced as ohn-eh vah-yesh. I am mentioning those who speak properly with an accent. So let’s see how this “music” works. First we have to learn about the syllables. In the Hungarian every vowel becomes a syllable. It doesn’t matter if it is alone or with consonants. The other characteristic of a syllable is that if a consonant stands in front of a vowel, then the syllable will start with the consonant. Let us take the word ALAKUL (to form). This contains three syllables: A-LA-KUL. The first A by itself is a syllable. In the last one the vowel is sandwiched between two consonants. So let us throw in the monkey wrench. Let’s change the word a bit. ALAKULÁS (forming). We added two letters to the end: -ÁS. B ut in the word there is a consonant in front of this Á. Therefore the syllables are going to be; A-LA-KU-LÁS. Let’s have another word - ABLAK (window). There are two vowels in this, so how do you separate the syllables? It will be AB-LAK.Inthccaseof JÁTSZIK you might think you ran into trouble. Not so. SZ is the sound of the English S,_a single sound. The syllables will be: JAT-SZIK. These are basic examples, but if you work this out you are taking a big leap in your study. Now let us talk about the “music”. I chose a word that is used in both languages. It is the weatherman, the METEOROLOGIST. In Hungarian: METEOROLOGUS. Pretty close. In English you put the emphasis near the end of the word. It will be METEO-RO-LOGIST. The stress will be put on the syllable RO. In some words the emphasis is placed further back, so many times you have to do some figuring. In the Hungarian language there is no mistake. The stress is on the first syllable, the ones following are descending, you may say they are going downhill. It is going to be ME-TEOROLOGUS. This rule appl ies not just to the words but also to the sentences. The stress is on the first word, therefore the strongest syllable in the sentence will be the first of the first word. It reflects the Hungarian attitude: I put my foot down. It means real business. Joseph F. Balogh ■o i IrJiHy TflnlTy IB y 2 Iff) 'll Of) 3 ©aihölhö € foil if© i) 225 Scofield Avenue - Bridgeport. Connecticut ö'bs? ‘Jail, áiicL Sírd Thursday & Friday - 6:00 p.m, - 10:00 p.m. Saturday -11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Surprisingly A/fordable Stratford Athletic.Club UoteJo) 140 Watson Bvld. (Next to Ramada Inn) Just off TPKE 1-95, Exit 30 Stratford, CT Telephone: (203) 378-2211 Owned & Operated by Bob and Carol Maráczi NUMBER 6 OR NUMBER 1? When it comes to Hungarians, naturally it is number 1. That is the way I see the Olympic Games. The official rating throughout history always gave us a prominent place, and we really deserve it. At the first modem Olympic Games in Athens, competing against 13 nations, the Hungarians won 2 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze medals. We don’t know how they ranked among the nations. But later on we have records that state Hungary being in third place in 1936, 1948, and 1952. We had several fourth places, also fifth. In the total history of the Games, we are placed in the eighth position among nations numbering over 100. This year we made it to sixth with 30 medals. It is really great. Compare our 30 to the 108 of the U.S. A. If you figure on the population, then the U.S. should have over 600. Or if you turn the arithmetic around, then our 30 medals rise to the value of around 200. So the Hungarians did very well, congratulations. While we are at the sports checking out what Hungarians accomplished, we should mention the borderline people who for one reason or another are not considered to be Hungarians. The U.S. government in any decision making of a person’s nationality takes the existing borders as a guideline. For example, somebody born in Transylvania under Hungarian government is considered now to be Romanian. Even if the person left Transylvania at the time, it was still under Hungarian government. This is despite the fact that the U.S. never ratified the present Hungarian borders. Well, in this chaos we come across the “Romanian” Béla Károlyi. He is the world’s most famous gymnastics coach. His first and last name is indisputably Hungarian. Károlyi’s wife is, also a Hungarian name, Martha Eröss. When they defected they were accompanied by the team choreographer, Géza Pozsár. Les Sasvári, an immigrant Hungarian coach living in Los Angeles, reached out first to help them. How come we don’t sec any Romanian names? Many of us watched Monica Seles, a young talented girl, compete with great success on the tennis court. They referred to her as Yugoslavian. Maybe if the father’s first name had been noted, it is Zoltán, then it might had crossed people’s mind that Monica is Szeles, and at least her father is Hungarian. So much about our nationality, our ethnic background and our “cherished” heritage. Joseph F. Balogh EUROPEAN NAIL SALON Judith Racz 16 Fiske St. Fairfield, CT 06430 Tel: 333-1468 T T
