The Eighth Tribe, 1975 (2. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1975-01-01 / 1. szám

January, 1915

THE EIGHTH TRIBE

Page Seven

inanimate objects and insultingly used, if ever in reference to human beings). With the plural third person, there is no great contrast since the English bisexual word they translates simply in the Hungarian to ők, for reference to people. The English version does not have an exact plural for the word it as do the Hungarians, who use the word azok in order to furnish an appropriate plural form with reference to more than one pet, animal and/or inanimate object. The Hungarian word az also has several usages since it is also the definite article “before words beginning with a vowel: az ablak” (trans.: the tables) as well as being the demonstrative pronoun in Hungarian, az, to refer “to what is farther off” such as the sentence, Az asztal, (trans.: That is a table.) An additional utilization for the same word is made in the Hungarian for identification or positive response “omitting the subject” which is permissible to an inquiry such as with the affirmative reply to the interrogation: “Is this a chair?”: “Yes, it is.” — The Hungarians reply “Az.” with the affirmative word yes implied; Yes is translated into Igen if it is to he formally, literally or emphatically included (e.g., "Igen, az”)

It is necessary at this point to discuss the second person singular and plural, since in Hungarian there are several forms: te, ti; maga, maguk; ön, önnök — the first two being the familiar forms of you singular and plural, and the last ones being more formal. The versions of maga, maguk may be considered dialectical thereby sometimes showing up the differences as between village and towns people, carrying connotations of perhaps breeding, refinement and politeness and/or intelligence indicative of lower status and rank for self-comparative purposes (such evaluation quite often done consciously and subconsciously by many of these people). Bánhidi presents the maga, maguk as the “polite form of address” but the statement elicits some outright challenge, though admittedly there are ensuing changes on this point. Hungarians by birth, if addressed in such fashion sometimes might feel sufficiently taken aback as though insulted and would more than likely respond negatively or even, not at all. Usually, it is more correct to use maga reflexively or in possessive relation, either alone or together, with the personal forms such as: (ő) Maga nyitya ki az ajtót, (trans.: He himself opens the door.) The plural version of maga and ö being ők a maguk házában laknak, (trans.: They live in their own house.)

C. VERBS

For the Hungarian language, verb forms are of sucli paramount importance out of all their parts of

speech that various kinds are enumerated in Bizonfy’s dictionary, as seen with the following: verb active, defective verb, irregular verb, verb neuter, regular verb. Bánhidi elaborates in pointing out that “in most Hungarian verbs the verb base and the third person singular of the present tense are the same: tanul — (ő) tanul (trans.: study — he, she studies). It is therefore more useful to learn not the infinitive of the verb but the third person singular of the present tense. The infinitive is formed by adding the ending -ni to the verb base: tanulni (trans.: to study) but certain verb base endings require the linking vowel -a- or -e- before the infinitive ending — e.g., mondani . . . segíteni, (trans.: to say, to tell... to help I.

Specific personal suffixes are added to the verb base in conjugation according to rales pertaining to “back vowel” and “front vowel” classes — e.g., a, o, u, and e, Ö, ii, respectively. Complete vowel classifications are listed as being: back — a, á, o, ó, u, ú and front -— e, é, i, í, ö, Ö, ii, Ű. Hungarians do not seem to mind brevity and as can be seen in active tense usage, a single conjugated verb can form a sentence acceptable in spoken and written language; this is not so probable in English usage and also with French responses usually, where they prefer length or formally complete sentences except with the imperative form. For instance: the Hungarians comfortably recognize that the one-word sentence “Csengetnek.” implies the third person plural as the subject in the sentence above, (They are) Ringing (the bell I. — this being a declarative statement and the properly-used suffix informing you who or what is doing the action in this case, whereas the English would only omit personal pronouns with the imperative (and then not with all six persons) but only with English you in the singular and plural (trans.: you) e.g. (Vous) Allez! and nous (trans.: we) e.g. (Nous) Allous! (We, Us) Go!

In conjugations of the verbs, the Hungarian language does have what are known as definite and indefinite tenses, which are formally unknown to us as such in the English language; these tenses are somewhat characteristic, as their names indicate, of whether an object of the verb in the sentence is known about or where there is no object or only an indefinite one. If we apply Hungarian conjugational patterns to English we have:

(a) the indefinite conjugation: I see, you see, he sees, etc.

(b) the definite conjugation: I see it, you see it, etc.