HUNGARIAN ALPHABET

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The 'Hungarian alphabet' is an extension of the Latin alphabet.
One sometimes speaks of the ''smaller'' and ''greater'' Hungarian alphabet, depending on whether the letters ''Q, W, X, Y'' which can only be found in foreign words and traditional orthography of names are listed, or not.
The 44 letters of the (greater) Hungarian alphabet are:

A	Á	B	C	Cs	D	Dz	Dzs	E	É	F
G	Gy	H	I	Í	J	K	L	Ly	M	N
Ny	O	Ó	Ö	Ő	P	(Q)	R	S	Sz	T
Ty	U	Ú	Ü	Ű	V	(W)	(X)	(Y)	Z	Zs

Contents

Description

Pronunciation

Capitalisation

Alphabetical ordering (collation)

Keyboard layout

See also

External links

Description

Each sign shown above counts as a letter of its own right in Hungarian. (That is, they are not ''diacritical marks'' in the stricter sense of the word.) Thus, the letter ''ó'' is 'not' an O with acute accent, but a ''long ó'', and the letter ''ny'' is 'not' an N and a Y, but rather the single letter ''NY''.
While long vowels count as different letters, long (or geminate) consonants don't. Long consonants are marked by duplication: e.g. <tt>, <gg>, <zz> (''ette'' 'he ate (det.obj.)', ''függ'' 'it hangs', ''azzal'' 'with that'). For the di- and tri-graphs a simplification rule applies: only the first letter is duplicated: e.g.
<sz>+<sz>→<ssz> (''asszony'' 'woman'),
<ty>+<ty>→<tty> (''hattyú'' 'swan'),
<dzs>+<dzs>→<ddzs> (''briddzsel'' 'with bridge (card game)').

Except at the joining points of compound words, for example: ''je''gygy''űrű'' 'engagement ring' (''jegy'' + ''gyűrű'') not ''
★ jeggyűrű''.

Pronunciation

Hungarian orthography's principles include being 'phonetic' along with being ''traditional'', ''etymological'' and ''simplifying''. Therefore most words can be read out correctly, if one knows the pronunciation of the letters.
The pronunciation of Hungarian letters is in ''standard Hungarian''.
(You might want to increase your browser's display font size to see the IPA symbols more correctly).

Letter	Name	Phoneme (IPA)	Complementary allophones (IPA)[1]	Approx. English pronunciation	Notes
A	a			b'o'd	might describe it better (raised, more rounded; sign rendered probably incorrectly, containing two diacritical marks below). Still definitely not
Á	á			as the first sound of 'i' in f'i're, l'i'ke; h'o'w
B	bé			as 'b'y, a'b'sence etc.
C	cé			like 'ts'unami
Cs	csé			as 'ch'eck,'ch'eek, et'ch'ing etc.
D	dé			'd'eck, wi'd'e etc.
Dz	dzé			like in Hu'ds'on	does not occur at the beginning of words. When neither post- nor preconsonantic, always realised as a geminate.
Dzs	dzsé			'j'am, 'g'eorge, bri'dg'e, e'dg'e, fri'dg'e	when final or intervocalic, usually realised as a geminate: ''maharadzsa'' 'maharajah', ''bridzs'' 'bridge (card game)', but ''dzsungel'' 'jungle', fridzsider ] coll. 'refrigerator'
E	e			like l'e'ss, ch'e'que, 'e'dge, b'e'd	about 40-50% of speakers also have a phoneme (see below at Ë). is not considered part of ''standard Hungarian'', wherein or takes the place of .
(Ë)				like in "s'a'me", without the part of the diphthong	Although not part of the alphabet, this symbol is sometimes used to denote the phoneme /e/, e.g. when noting down texts spoken or sung in a dialect where this sound is present.
É	é			caf'é', h'e'y
F	ef			'f'ind, eu'ph'oria
G	gé			'g'et, le'g', 'g'o etc.
Gy	gyé			'd'uke, 'd'ew, 'd'ue (English, not American, pronunciantion)	denoting by <gy> is a remnant of (probably) Italian scribes who tried to render the Hungarian sound. <dy> would be a more consistent notation in scope of <ty>, <ny>, <ly> (see there), as the <y> part of digraphs show palatalisation in the Hungarian writing system.
H	há		1.2. 3. 4.	Basic: 'h'i 1. be'h'ind 2. <mute> 3. lo'ch', 'Ch'anukah 4. 'h'uman	1. when in intervocal position. 2. not rendered usually when in final position ''méh'' 'bee', ''cseh'' 'Czech (noun/adj.)' 3. seldom in final position, such as in ''doh'' 'dampness', ''MÉH'' 'metal recycling facility' 4. seldom, such as in ''ihlet'' 'inspiration'
I	i			th'i'ck, th'i'n	Pronounced the same as Í, only shorter
Í	í			l'ea'd, l'ea've, s'ee'd, s'ea'	Vowel length is phonemically distinctive in Hungarian: ''irt'' 'he eradicates' ∼ ''írt'' 'he wrote'
J	jé		,	'y'ou, 'y'es, fa'i'th	allophones occur when occurs after a consonant; (voiceless after voiceless, voiced after voiced consonants). e.g. ''férj'' 'husband', ''kapj'' 'get! (imperative)'
K	ká			'k'ey, 'k'iss, wea'k'
L	el			'l'eave, 'l'ist, who'l'e
Ly	ely, el ipszilon			he'y', ra'y'	Orthographic tradition. Once , now in standard Hungarian.
M	em			'm'ind, assu'm'e, 'm'ight,
N	en	/n/		thi'n'g, lyi'n'g (before k,g), 'n'eed, bo'n'e (anywhere else)	allophone before
Ny	eny			'n'ew (in BE, not AE)
O	o			f'o'rce, s'o'rcerer	A shorter, more open variant of Ó
Ó	ó			l'aw', f'a'lling, P'au'l	minimal pair to : ''kor'' 'age' ∼ ''kór'' 'disease'
Ö	ö			Not used in English; very similar to the sound in the words 'ea'rly, b'u'rn, c'u'rly	A shorter, more open variant of Ő
Ő	ő			Not used in English; a longer, more closed variant of Ö	Minimal pair to : ''tör'' 'he breaks' ∼ ''tőr'' 'dagger'
P	pé			'p'eas, a'p'ricot, ho'p'e
(Q)	kú				Q occurs only as part of the digraph ''qu'' in foreign words, realised as : ''Aquincum'' (name of an old Roman settlement on the area of present-day Óbuda). Words originally spelled with ''qu'' are today usually spelled with ''kv'', as in ''akvarell'' 'watercolor painting'.
R	er			(not used in English, pronounced like Spanish R)	also called ''apical trill'' as pronounced by trilling the tip of your tongue (the apex) and not the uvula.
S	es			'sh'are, wi'sh', 'sh'out	This notation is unusual for European writing systems where <s> stands for virtually everywhere. In Hungarian, is represented by <sz>.
Sz	esz			's'ay, e's'timate
T	té			't'ell, leas't', feas't'
Ty	tyé			s't'ew, s't'uart (BE RP)
U	u			n'u'ke, d'u'ke
Ú	ú			l'oo'k, d'o', f'oo'l	minimal pair to : ''hurok'' 'loop' ∼ ''húrok'' 'cords'
Ü	ü			(not used English, corresponds to German Ü)	A shorter, more open variant of ű
Ű	ű			(not used in English)
V	vé			'v'ery, e'v'ery
(W)	dupla vé			'v'iew, e'v'olve, 'v'acuum	occurs only in foreign words and in Hungarian aristocratic surnames; rendered usually as
(X)	iksz				occurs only in loanwords, and there only when denoting ; is transcribed: ''extra'', ''Alexandra'', but ''egzakt'' 'exact'.
(Y)	ipszilon				in loanwords, usually rendered as or . Occurs very often in old Hungarian aristocratic surnames where it stands for or : 'Báthory' , 'Batthyány' (<n>+<y> ∼ ∼ ∼ )
Z	zé			de's'ert, po's'ess
Zs	zsé			plea's'ure, lei's'ure, 'g'enre

1. List of complementary allophone variants possibly not complete.

Capitalisation

The di- and the trigraphs are capitalised in names and at the beginning of sentences by capitalising the first glyph of them only.

★ Csak jót mondhatunk Székely Csabáról.
In abbreviations and when writing with all capital letters, however, one capitalises the second (and third) character as well.
Thus ("The Rules of Hungarian Orthography", a book edited by the ''Hungarian Academy of Sciences''):

★ A magyar helyesírás szabályai

★ MHSZ (not
★ MHSz)

★ A MAGYAR HELYESÍRÁS SZABÁLYAI (not
★ SzABÁLyAI)

Alphabetical ordering (collation)

While the characters with diacritical marks are considered separate letters, vowels that differ only in length are treated the same when ordering words. Therefore, for example, O and Ó are not distinguished in ordering, neither are Ö and Ő, but the latter two follow the O's.
The polygraphic consonant signs are treated as single letters.

comb
cukor
csak	comes after
...
folyik
folyó	<ó> is sorted as
folyosó
...
fő	and <ő> is sorted as <ö>,
födém	but <ö> comes after
...

The simplified geminates of multigraphs (see above) such as <nny>, <ssz> are collated as <ny>+<ny>, <sz>+<sz> etc., ''if'' they are double geminates, rather than co-occurrences of a single letter and a geminate.
:''könnyű'' is collated as <k><ö><ny><ny><ű>. ''tizennyolc'' of course as <t><i><z><e><n><ny><o><l><c>, as this is a compound: ''tizen''+''nyolc'' ('above ten' + 'eight' = 'eighteen').
Similar 'ambiguities', which can occur with compounds (which are highly common in Hungarian) are dissolved and collated by sense.
:e.g. ''házszám'' 'house number (address)' = ''ház'' + ''szám'' and of course not
★ ''házs'' +
★ ''zám''.

Keyboard layout

The Hungarian keyboard layout is German-based (QWERTZ). This layout allows direct access to every character in the Hungarian alphabet.

See also

★ Alphabet

★ Latin alphabet

★ ISO 8859-2

★ Hungarian language

★ Alphabets derived from the Latin

External links

★ Typo.cz Information on Central European typography and typesetting (Some sloppy/incorrect information about the history alphabets)

★