The Eighth Tribe, 1975 (2. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1975-01-01 / 1. szám
Page Eight THE EIGHTH TRIBE January, 1975 Verbs can also be formed from nouns (e.g., telefon — telefonál, telephone — to telephone) and also vice versa — that formation of nouns can be done in various ways from verbs, among which are: olvas — olvasás; read — reading; mond — mondat; say, tell — sentence; ... fest — festmény; paint — painting as well as other verbs which can take ... three kinds of formative syllables, for example, tud: tudás — tudat — tudomány know: knowledge ■— consciousness — science. D. THE SUBSTANTIVE The plural suffix of nouns, adjectives and pronouns is -k. Words ending in short vowels -a and -e change into long vowels: a becomes ó: tábla — táblák; e becomes é: fecske — fecskék. Words ending in consonants require a linking vowel, depending on back or front vowels, e.g., asztal — asztalok; ember ■— emberek. There are also exceptions to be necessarily learned. The plurals of other nouns are achieved with linking vowels; one-syllable back vowel nouns require the linking vowel -a- instead of -o- such as ház —- házak (trans.: house — houses). Words with ö, ö, ii, ű in the last syllable of their base take the linking vowel -Ö- such as with gyümölcs — gyümölcsök (trans.: fruit — fruits). Plural of adjectives takes the linking vowel also, with “back vowel adjectives” utilizing -ak, and front vowel adjectives taking -e-, as for example piros — pirosak (trans.: red, in singular and plural forms) széles — szélesek (trans.: wide, singular and plural). Of course, the foregoing indicates in the Hungarian language a necessary agreement of the subject and the predicate, in number and person. The same applies to the nominal predicate: Ez szék. — Ezek székek. A fiú tanúló. — A fiúk tanulók, (trans.: This is a chair. — These are chairs. The boy is a student. — The boys are students.) Days of the week and months of the year as well as holidays are not capitalized. Also, certain names of countries, regions, or individuals used in the adjectival form are not capitalized; for example, ‘'németországi”, “duna-tiszai”, wagneri (trans.: of or from Germany, Duna-Tisza Rivers, Wagner’s). E. SUFFIXES Additives serve an integral function in the composition of the Hungarian language. There are numerous formative, modifying, and flexiónál suffixes in the various parts of speech as well as to the numerals. Perhaps, to many individuals these details might tend to overwhelm or confuse the novice and/or student and generally, it is no wonder that the proficient speaker of Hungarian is usually looked upon witli respect and admiration. Suffixes are also used to denote the possessive and accusitive cases as well as the dative case and to indicate the reflexive and emphatic pronoun use; the foregoing rules are somewhat complex for the length and range of this paper and thus, only a short explanation can be given herewith to suffice any interested reader in this realm. Verbs, nouns and noun equivalents and, to a lesser extent, adverbs can take (1) formative suffixes (2) modifying suffixes (3) flexiónál suffixes — which are (1) endings which form new words (2) endings which modify the word’s meaning without forming a new word (3) endings which define the function of the word in the sentence. These suffixes express many of the grammatical functions for which English uses prepositions. A few examples of each are given in illustration: (1) Formative suffixes: (egy — egység; one — unity, unit) (társ — társaság; mate, companion — society, company) (ma — mai; today — of today, today’s) (rend — rendes — rendetlen; order — orderly, regular — disorderly) (egy — egyes; one — No. 1, compatible) (négylábú; four-legged) él — élő; live — living) séta — sétál; walk (as a noun and then verb form). (2) Plural Suffix -k, Plural Possessive Suffix -i, Possession Suffix -e and the Possessive Suffixes for the personal pronouns are the modifying suffixes. Combining the four kinds of signs, the word forms become the nominative case: ház, házak: house, houses házam, házaim, my house, my houses liázad, házaid, thy house, thy houses háza, házai, his-her, its house, houses házunk, házaink: our house, our houses házatok, házaitok, thine house, thine houses házuk, házaik: their house, their houses Each of the given 14 forms can take the possession suffix -é (plus 14 forms) or the plural possession suffix -ei (further 14 forms). (31 Flexiónál (Case) Suffixes: Accusative suffix: -t; Dative: -nak, -nek; Suffixes of adverbs of manner: -ul, -ül, -an, -era; Suffixes of adverbs of place; various endings signifying prepositions in the English language as for instance: in, on, from, within, near, etc. The order of attaching the endings to the base is as follows: Formative suffix (es) added to the root then followed by modifying and flexiónál
