Information about Hungarian Alphabet

Hungarian language
Alphabet, including ő ű and cs dz dzs gy ly ny sz ty zs
Phonetics and phonology
Vowel harmony
Grammar    Noun phrases    Verbs
T-V distinction
Regulatory body
Hungarian name
Language history    Sound correspondences
Hungarian pronunciation of English • Old Hungarian script • English words from Hungarian
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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

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: jegygyűrű 'engagement ring' (jegy + gyűrű) not *jeggyűrű.

Pronunciation

Further information: Hungarian phonology

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	/ɒ/:Image:Open back rounded vowel.ogg	(help:Image:Open back rounded vowel.ogg	info)		bod	[ɑ̝̹] might describe it better (raised, more rounded; sign rendered probably incorrectly, containing two diacritical marks below). Still definitely not [ɔ]
Á	á	/aː/:Image:Open front unrounded vowel.ogg	(help:Image:Open front unrounded vowel.ogg	info)		as the first sound of 'i' in fire, like; how
B	bé	/b/:Image:voiced bilabial plosive.ogg	(help:Image:voiced bilabial plosive.ogg	info)		as by, absence etc.
C	cé	/ts/:Image:Voiceless alveolar affricate.ogg	(help:Image:Voiceless alveolar affricate.ogg	info)		like tsunami
Cs	csé	/tʃ/		as check,cheek, etching etc.
D	dé	/d/:Image:Voiced alveolar plosive.ogg	(help:Image:Voiced alveolar plosive.ogg	info)		deck, wide etc.
Dz	dzé	/dz/:Image:voiced alveolar affricate.ogg	(help:Image:voiced alveolar affricate.ogg	info)		like in Hudson	does not occur at the beginning of words. When neither post- nor preconsonantic, always realised as a geminate.
Dzs	dzsé	/dʒ/		jam, george, bridge, edge, fridge	when final or intervocalic, usually realised as a geminate: maharadzsa /mɑhɑrɑdʒɑ/ [mɑhɑrɑd͡ʒːɑ] 'maharajah', bridzs /bridʒ/ [brid͡ʒː] 'bridge (card game)', but dzsungel /dʒuŋgɛl/ [d͡ʒuŋgɛl] 'jungle', fridzsider /fridʒidɛr/ [frid͡ʒidɛr]] coll. 'refrigerator'
E	e	/ɛ/:Image:Open-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg	(help:Image:Open-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg	info)		like less, cheque, edge, bed	about 40-50% of speakers also have a phoneme /e/ (see below at Ë). /e/ is not considered part of standard Hungarian, wherein /ɛ/ or /æ/ takes the place of /e/.
(Ë)		/e/		like in "same", without the /ɪ/ part of the diphthong /eɪ/	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	/eː/:Image:Close-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg	(help:Image:Close-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg	info)		café, hey
F	ef	/f/:Image:voiceless labiodental fricative.ogg	(help:Image:voiceless labiodental fricative.ogg	info)		find, euphoria
G	gé	/g/:Image:Voiced velar plosive.ogg	(help:Image:Voiced velar plosive.ogg	info)		get, leg, go etc.
Gy	gyé	/ɟ/:Image:Voiced palatal plosive.ogg	(help:Image:Voiced palatal plosive.ogg	info)		duke, dew, due (English, not American, pronunciantion)	denoting /ɟ/ 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	/h/	1. [ɦ]:Image:Voiced glottal fricative.ogg	(help:Image:Voiced glottal fricative.ogg	info) 2. ∅ 3. [x]:Image:voiceless velar fricative.ogg	(help:Image:voiceless velar fricative.ogg	info) 4. [ç]:Image:voiceless palatal fricative.ogg	(help:Image:voiceless palatal fricative.ogg	info)	Basic: hi 1. behind 2. <mute> 3. loch, Chanukah 4. human	1. when in intervocal position. 2. not rendered usually when in final position méh /meː/ 'bee', cseh /tʃɛ/ '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	/i/		thick, thin	Pronounced the same as Í, only shorter
Í	í	/iː/:Image:Close front unrounded vowel.ogg	(help:Image:Close front unrounded vowel.ogg	info)		lead, leave, seed, sea	Vowel length is phonemically distinctive in Hungarian: irt 'he eradicates' ∼ írt 'he wrote'
J	jé	/j/:Image:Palatal approximant.ogg	(help:Image:Palatal approximant.ogg	info)	[ç], [ʝ]	you, yes, faith	allophones occur when /j/ occurs after a consonant; (voiceless after voiceless, voiced after voiced consonants). e.g. férj 'husband', kapj 'get! (imperative)'
K	ká	/k/:Image:Voiceless velar plosive.ogg	(help:Image:Voiceless velar plosive.ogg	info)		key, kiss, weak
L	el	/l/:Image:alveolar lateral approximant.ogg	(help:Image:alveolar lateral approximant.ogg	info)		leave, list, whole
Ly	ely, el ipszilon	/j/:Image:Palatal approximant.ogg	(help:Image:Palatal approximant.ogg	info)		hey, ray	Orthographic tradition. Once /ʎ/, now /j/ in standard Hungarian.
M	em	/m/:Image:bilabial nasal.ogg	(help:Image:bilabial nasal.ogg	info)		mind, assume, might,
N	en	/n/	[ŋ]:Image:velar nasal.ogg	(help:Image:velar nasal.ogg	info) [n]:Image:alveolar nasal.ogg	(help:Image:alveolar nasal.ogg	info)	thing, lying (before k,g), need, bone (anywhere else)	allophone before /k/, /g/
Ny	eny	/ɲ/:Image:palatal nasal.ogg	(help:Image:palatal nasal.ogg	info)		new (in BE, not AE)
O	o	/o/		force, sorcerer	A shorter, more open variant of Ó
Ó	ó	/oː/:Image:Close-mid back rounded vowel.ogg	(help:Image:Close-mid back rounded vowel.ogg	info)		law, falling, Paul	minimal pair to /o/: kor 'age' ∼ kór 'disease'
Ö	ö	/ø/		Not used in English; very similar to the sound in the words early, burn, curly	A shorter, more open variant of O
Ő	o	/øː/		Not used in English; a longer, more closed variant of Ö	Minimal pair to /ø/: tör 'he breaks' ∼ tőr 'dagger'
P	pé	/p/:Image:Voiceless bilabial plosive.ogg	(help:Image:Voiceless bilabial plosive.ogg	info)		peas, apricot, hope
(Q)	kú				Q occurs only as part of the digraph qu in foreign words, realised as /kv/: Aquincum [ɑkviŋkum] (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	/r/:Image:alveolar trill.ogg	(help:Image:alveolar trill.ogg	info)		(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	/ʃ/:Image:voiceless postalveolar fricative.ogg	(help:Image:voiceless postalveolar fricative.ogg	info)		share, wish, shout	This notation is unusual for European writing systems where <s> stands for /s/ virtually everywhere. In Hungarian, /s/ is represented by <sz>.
Sz	esz	/s/:Image:Voiceless alveolar fricative.ogg	(help:Image:Voiceless alveolar fricative.ogg	info)		say, estimate
T	té	/t/:Image:voiceless alveolar plosive.ogg	(help:Image:voiceless alveolar plosive.ogg	info)		tell, least, feast
Ty	tyé	/c/:Image:Voiceless palatal plosive.ogg	(help:Image:Voiceless palatal plosive.ogg	info)		stew, stuart (BE RP)
U	u	/u/		nuke, duke
Ú	ú	/uː/:Image:Close back rounded vowel.ogg	(help:Image:Close back rounded vowel.ogg	info)		look, do, fool	minimal pair to /u/: hurok 'loop' ∼ húrok 'cords'
Ü	ü	/y/		(not used English, corresponds to German Ü)	A shorter, more open variant of u
Ű	u	/yː/:Image:Close front rounded vowel.ogg	(help:Image:Close front rounded vowel.ogg	info)		(not used in English)
V	vé	/v/:Image:voiced labiodental fricative.ogg	(help:Image:voiced labiodental fricative.ogg	info)		very, every
(W)	dupla vé			view, evolve, vacuum	occurs only in foreign words and in Hungarian aristocratic surnames; rendered usually as /v/
(X)	iksz				occurs only in loanwords, and there only when denoting /ks/; [gz] is transcribed: extra, Alexandra, but egzakt 'exact'.
(Y)	ipszilon				in loanwords, usually rendered as /i/ or /j/. Occurs very often in old Hungarian aristocratic surnames where it stands for /i/ or /ʲi/: 'Báthory' [baːtori], 'Batthyány' [bɑcːaːɲi] or [bɑcːaːni] (<n>+<y> ∼ /n/+/ʲi/ ∼ /nʲi/ ∼ /ɲi/)
Z	zé	/z/:Image:Voiced alveolar fricative.ogg	(help:Image:Voiced alveolar fricative.ogg	info)		desert, posess
Zs	zsé	/ʒ/:Image:voiced postalveolar fricative.ogg	(help:Image:voiced postalveolar fricative.ogg	info)		pleasure, leisure, genre

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	<cs> comes after <c>
...
folyik
folyó	<ó> is sorted as <o>
folyosó
...
fo	and <ő> is sorted as <ö>,
födém	but <ö> comes after <o>
...

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