Hungarian phonology

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Hungarian language

Hungarian keyboard

Alphabet

cs

dz

dzs

gy

ly

ny

sz

ty

zs

Grammar

Noun phrases

Verbs

TV distinction

History

Sound correspondences with

other Uralic languages

Other features

Phonetics and phonology

Vowel harmony

Orthography

Old Hungarian script

Hungarian Braille

Hungarian names

Hungarian and English

Hungarian pronunciation of English

English words from Hungarian

Regulatory body

The phonology of the Hungarian language is notable for its process of vowel harmony, the
frequent occurrence of geminate consonants and the presence of otherwise uncommon palatal
stops.

Contents
[hide]

1 Consonants

2 Vowels

3 Vowel harmony

4 Assimilation
o 4.1 Voice assimilation
o 4.2 Nasal place assimilation
o 4.3 Sibilant assimilation
o 4.4 Palatal assimilation
o 4.5 Degemination

o 4.6 Intercluster elision

o 4.7 Elision of [l]
o 4.8 Hiatus

5 Stress

6 References

7 Bibliography

8 External links

Consonants[edit]
This is the Hungarian consonantal system, using symbols from the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA).

Nasal
Stop
Affricate
Fricative
Trill
Approximant

Consonant phonemes of Hungarian[1]

PostLabial
Alveolar
Palatal
alveolar
m
n

p
b
t
d
cc c*
c ts
cdz
c t
dc
f
v
s
z

r
l
j

Velar
k

Glottal

^* It is debated whether the palatal consonant pair consists of stops or affricates.[2] They
are considered affricates by Tams Szende,[1] head of the department of General
Linguistics at PPKE,[3] and stops by Mria Gsy,[2] research professor, head of the
Department of Phonetics at ELTE.[4] The reason for the different analyses is that the
relative duration of the friction of /c/ (as compared to the duration of its closure) is longer
than those of the stops, but shorter than those of the affricates. /c/ has the stop-like nature
of having a full duration no longer than those of other (voiceless) stops such as /p, t, k/
but, considering the average closure time in relation to the friction time of the consonants,
its duration structure is somewhat closer to those of the affricates.[5]

Almost every consonant may be geminated, written by doubling a single letter grapheme: bb
for [b], pp for [p], ss for [] etc., or by doubling the first letter of a grapheme cluster: ssz
for [s], nny for [], etc.

The phonemes /dcz/ and /dc/ can appear on the surface as geminates: bridzs [bridc] ('bridge (the
card game)'). (For the list of examples and exceptions, see Hungarian dz and dzs.)
Hungarian orthography does not use hky or any other consonant diacritics like the surrounding
Slavic languages. Instead, the letters c, s, z are used alone (/c ts/, //, /z/) or combined in the
digraphs cs, sz, zs (/c t/, /s/, //), while y is used only in the digraphs ty, gy, ly, ny as a
palatalization marker to write the sounds /cc/, /c/, /j/ (formerly //), //.
The most distinctive allophones are:

/j/ becomes [] if between a voiceless obstruent and a word boundary (e.g. lopj [lop]
'steal').[6]

/j/ becomes [] e.g. between voiced obstruents, such as dobj be [dob b] 'throw
(one/some) in'[7]

/h/ may become [] between two vowels (e.g. teht [tat] 'so'), [] after front vowels
(e.g. ihlet [ilt] 'inspiration'), and [x] word-finally after back vowels (e.g. doh [dox]
'musty') if it isn't deleted (which it often is; e.g. mh [me] 'bee').[8]
According to Gsy, it becomes [x] (rather than []) in words such as pech, ihlet, technika
('bad luck, inspiration, technology/technique'),[9] while it becomes postvelar fricative in
words such as doh, sah, jacht, Allah, eunuch, potroh.[10]

/h/ becomes [x] when geminated, in certain words: dohhal [doxl] ('with blight'),
peches [px] ('unlucky').

Phoneme
/p/
/b/
/t/
/d/
/k/
//
/f/
/v/
/s/
/z/
//
//
/j/
/h/
/c ts/

pipa
bot
toll
dob
kp
gp
fa
vg
sz
zld
s
zseb
j
h
cl

Examples[1]
Example
/pip/
/bot/
/tol/ (helpinfo)
/dob/ (helpinfo)
/kep/ (helpinfo)
/ep/ (helpinfo)
/f/ (helpinfo)
/va/ (helpinfo)
/so/ (helpinfo)
/zld/ (helpinfo)
/o/
/b/ (helpinfo)
/jo/ (helpinfo)
/ho/ (helpinfo)
/c tsel/ (helpinfo)

'pipe'
'stick'
'feather'
'throw', 'drum'
'picture'
'machine'
'tree'
'cut'
'word'
'green'
'salt'
'pocket'
'good'
'snow'
'goal', 'target'

/dcz/
/c t/
/dc/
/l/
/cc/
/c/
/r/
/m/
/n/
//

edz
csak
dzsessz
l
tyk
gyr
r
ma
nem
nyr

/dcz/
/c tk/ (helpinfo)
/dcs/
/lo/ (helpinfo)
/ccuk/
/car/ (helpinfo)
/ro/ (helpinfo)
/m/ (helpinfo)
/nm/ (helpinfo)
/ar/

'coach'
'only'
'jazz'
'horse'
'hen'
'factory'
'carve'
'today'
'no', 'gender'
'summer'

Vowels[edit]

The vowel phonemes of Hungarian[11]

Hungarian has seven pairs of corresponding short and long vowels. Their phonetic values do not
exactly match up with each other, so e represents // and represents /e/; likewise, a
represents // while represents /a/.[12] For the other pairs, the short vowels are slightly lower
and more central, and the long vowels more peripheral:

/i, y, u/ are phonetically near-close [, , ].[11]

/e/ has been variously described as close-mid [e][13] and mid [ee].[11]

// and the marginal // are phonetically near-open [, ],[11] but they may be somewhat
less open [, ] in other dialects.

// is phonetically mid [e].[11]

/a/ and the marginal /a/ are phonetically open central [, ].[11]

The sound marked by a is considered to be [] by Tams Szende[14] and [] by Mria Gsy.[15]

Gsy also mentions a different short /a/ that contrasts with both /a/ and //, present in a few
words like Svjc ('Switzerland'), sv ('schwa'), advent ('advent'), hardver ('hardware', this usage

is considered hyperforeign),[16] and hall (used when answering the phone; contrasting with hal
'dying', and hl 'web').
There are two more marginal sounds, namely the long // as well as the long //. They are used
in the name of the letters E and A, which are pronounced // and //, respectively.[8]
Although not found in Budapest, some dialects contrast three mid vowels /e/ (written in some
works, but not in the standard orthography), //, and /e/.[17] Thus mentek could represent four
different words: mntk [mentek] ('you all go'), mntek [mentk] ('they went'), mentk [mntek]
('I save'), and mentek [mntk] ('they are exempt'). In Budapest, the first three collapse to
[mntk], while the latter one is unknown, having a different form in the literary language
(mentesek).
Examples[14]
Phoneme
//
(//)
(/a/)
/a/
/o/
/o/
/u/
/u/
//
(//)
/e/
/i/
/i/
//
//
/y/
/y/

Example
hat
a
Svjc
lt
ok
t
fut
kt
lesz
e
rsz
visz
vz
sr
br
t
tz

Vowel harmony[edit]

/ht/ (helpinfo)
// (helpinfo)
/vajc ts/
/lat/ (helpinfo)
/ok/ (helpinfo)
/to/ (helpinfo)
/fut/
/kut/ (helpinfo)
/ls/ (helpinfo)
// (helpinfo)
/res/ (helpinfo)
/vis/
/viz/ (helpinfo)
/r/ (helpinfo)
/br/ (helpinfo)
/yt/ (helpinfo)
/tyz/

'six'
'the letter A'
'Switzerland'
'see'
'cause'
'lake'
'run'
'well'
'become'
'the letter E'
'part'
'carry'
'water'
'beer'
'skin'
'hit'
'fire'

A Venn diagram of Hungarian vowel harmony, featuring front rounded vowels, front unrounded
vowels ("neutral" vowels), and back vowels.
As in Finnish, Turkish, or Mongolian, vowel harmony plays an important part in determining the
distribution of vowels in a word. Hungarian vowel harmony classifies the vowels according to
front vs. back assonance and rounded vs unrounded for the front vowels.[18] Excluding recent
loanwords, Hungarian words have either only back vowels or front vowels due to these vowel
harmony rules.[18]
Hungarian vowel harmony[18]
Front
Close
Mid
Open

Back

unrounded

rounded

back

i i
e

y y

u u
o o
a

While [i], [i], [], and [e] are all front unrounded vowels, they are considered to be "neutral
vowels" in Hungarian vowel harmony.[19] Therefore if a word contains back vowels, neutral
vowels may appear alongside them. However if only neutral vowels appear in a stem, the stem is
treated as though it is of front vowel assonance and all suffixes must contain front vowels.[18]
Vowel harmony in Hungarian is most notable when observing suffixation. Vowel harmony must
be maintained throughout the entire word, meaning that most suffixes have variants. For
example, the dative case marker [nk] vs. [nk]. Stems that contain back vowels affix back
vowel suffixes, and stems that contain only front vowels affix front vowel suffixes.[18] However,
the front vowel stems distinguish rounded vs. unroundedness based on the last vowel in the stem.
If the last vowel is front and rounded, it takes a suffix with a front rounded vowel; otherwise it
follows the standard rules.[19] While suffixes for most words have front/back vowel variants, there
are not many that have rounded/unrounded variants, indicating that this is a rarer occurrence.[19]
One is able to observe the distinction when looking at the plural affix, either [-ok] (back), [-k]
(front unrounded), or -k [-k] (front rounded).
Hungarian vowel harmony and suffixation[19]

Stem
Gloss
asztal
table
gyerek
child
fzet
notebook
ismers acquaintance
papr
paper

Description of stem
Only back vowels
Only neutral (front) vowels, last vowel unrounded.
Only front vowels, last vowel unrounded.
Only front vowels, last vowel rounded.
Back vowel with neutral vowel

Plural
asztal-ok
gyerek-ek
fzet-ek
ismers-k
papr-ok

As can be seen above, the neutral vowels are able to be in both front and back vowel assonance
words with no consequence.
However, there are about fifty monosyllabic roots that only contain [i], [i], or [e] that all take a
back vowel suffix instead of the front vowel suffix.[20]

Stem
hd
cl

Gloss
bridge
aim

Irregular suffixation[20]
"At"
hd-nl
cl-nl

"From"
hd-tl
cl-tl

These exceptions to the rule are hypothesized to have originated from the roots originally having
contained a phoneme no longer present in modern Hungarian, the unrounded back vowel //, or
its long counterpart //. It is theorized that while these vowels merged with /i/ or /i/, less
commonly /e/ or /u/, the vowel harmony rules sensitive to the backness of the original sound
remained in place.[20] The theory finds support from etymology: related words in other languages
generally have back vowels, often specifically unrounded back vowels. For example, nyl 'arrow'
(plural nyl-ak) corresponds to Komi /nl/, Southern Mansi /nl/.

Assimilation[edit]
The overall characteristics of the consonant assimilation in Hungarian are the following:[21][22]

Assimilation types are typically regressive, that is the last element of the cluster
determines the change.

In most cases, it works across word boundaries if the sequence of words form an
"accentual unity", that is there is no phonetic break between them (and they bear a
common phase stress). Typical accentual units are:
o attributes and qualified nouns, e.g. hideg tl [hidktel] ('cold winter');
o adverbs and qualified attributes, e.g. nagyon kros [nokaro] ~
[nonkaro] ('very harmful');
o verbs and their complements, e.g. nagyot dob [noddob] ('s/he throws long
toss'), vesz belle [vzbll] ('take some [of it]').

There are obligatory, optional and stigmatized types of assimilation.

The palatal affricates behave like stops in assimilation processes. Therefore in this
section, they will be treated as stops, including their IPA notations [] and [c].

Voice assimilation[edit]
In a cluster of consonants ending in an obstruent, all obstruents change their voicing according to
the last one of the sequence. The affected obstruents are the following:

In obstruent clusters, retrograde voicing assimilation occurs, even across word

boundaries:[23]
Undergoes
Causes voicing
voicing
kpzs
dobtam [doptm] 'I [kebze]
futball [fudbl]
p [p]
threw (it)'
'training,
'soccer'
forming'
htbl
adhat [tht] 's/he
t [t]
[hedbl] 'from csapda [c tbd]
can give'
7'
ketrecben
alapdzadzki
edzhet [tcsht] 's/he
c [tds]
[ktrdczbn] 'in [lbdczdcziki]
can train'
(a) cage'
'standard tzatziki'
barackdzsem
bridzstl [bric ttl] csbl
[brdczdcm] ~
cs [td] '(because) of bridge [adcbol] 'from
[brdcm] 'apricot
[game of cards]'
(a) carpenter'
jam'
zskbl
lltgat [alidt]
fogtam [foktm] 'I
k [k]
[abol] 'out 's/he constantly
held (it)'
of (a) bag'
adjusts'
pintybl
gytl [actol] 'from
gpgyr [ebar]
ty [c]
[pibl] 'fom
(a) bed'
'machine factory'
(a) finch'
szfben
szvtam [siftm] 'I
f [f]
[sevbn] 'in (a) *
smoked/sucked (it)'
safe'
mszbl
mztl [mestl]
alapzat [lbzt]
sz [s]
[mezbl] 'out
'from honey'
'base(ment)'
of lime'

Voiced Voiceless
b [b]

d [d]
dz [ddz]
dzs
[dd]
g []
gy []
v [v]
z [z]

zs []

s []

Undergoes
devoicing

rzstl [rutol]
'from lipstick'

hasba [hb] kldkzsinr

'in(to) (the)
[kldinor]
stomach'
'umbilical cord'

Causes devoicing
kzpont [kspont]
'center'
pnztr [penstar]
'cash desk'
abcg! [pc tsu]
'down with him!'
tvcs [tafc t]
'telescope'
zsebkend
[pknd]
'handkerchief'
lbty [lapcy]
'socks with sleeves
for the toes'
lbfej [lapfj] 'part
of the foot below
the ankle'
rabszolga
[rpsol] 'slave'
klnbsg
[kylmpe] ~
[kylme]
'difference'

h [h]

adhat [tht] 's/he

can give'

/v/ is unusual in that it undergoes assimilation but doesnt cause voicing,[23] e.g. hatvan
('sixty') is pronounced [htvn] not *[hdvn]. Voicing before [v] occurs only in southwestern dialects, though it is stigmatized.[citation needed]
[3]

Similarly, /h/ causes devoicing, but never undergoes voicing in consonant clusters.[23] e.g.
dohbl [doxbol] 'from (the) musty smell'.

Other than a few foreign words, morpheme-initial /dcz/ doesn't occur (even its phonemic
state is highly debated), therefore it is hard to find a real example when it induces voicing
(even alapdzadzki is forced and not used colloquially). However, the regressive voice
assimilation before [dcz] does occur even in nonsense sound sequences.

Nasal place assimilation[edit]

Nasals assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant (even across word
boundaries):[24]

only [] precedes a velar consonant (e.g. hang [h], 'voice'), [] precedes a labiodental
consonant (e.g. hamvad [hvd], 'smoulder'), and [m] precedes bilabial consonants.
o [m] before labial consonants /p b m/: sznpad [simpd] ('stage'), klnb [kylmb]
('better than'), nmagam [emm] ('myself');
o [] before labiodental consonants /f v/: klnfle [kylfel] ('various'), hamvas
[hv] ('bloomy');
o [] before palatal consonants /cc c /: pinty [pic] ('finch'), ngy [a] ('wife of a
close male relative'), magnnyomoz [maomozo] ('private detective');
o [] before velar consonants /k /: munka [muk] ('work'), angol [ol]
('English');

Nasal place assimilation is obligatory within the word, but optional across a word or
compound boundary,[citation needed] e.g. sznpor [sempor] ~ [senpor] ('coal-dust'), nagyon
kros [nokaro] ~ [nonkaro] ('very harmful'), olyan ms [ojmma] ~
[ojnma] ('so different').

Sibilant assimilation[edit]

Voiceless sibilants form a voiceless geminate affricate with preceding alveolar and palatal
stops (d [d], gy [], t [t], ty [c]):

o Clusters ending in sz [s] or c [c ts] give [c ts]: metszet [mtcst] 'engraving, segment',
tdszr [tc tsr] 'for the fifth time', ngyszer [netcsr] 'four times', fttysz
[fyc tso] 'whistle (as a signal)'; tcipel [atcsipl] 's/he lugs (something) over',
ndcukor [natcsukor] 'cane-sugar'.
o Clusters ending in s [] or cs [c t] give [c t]: ktsg [ketce] 'doubt', fradsg
[fartcsa] 'trouble', egysg [tce] 'unity', hegycscs [htcutc] 'mountain-top'.

Two sibilant fricatives form a geminate sibilant fricative; the assimilation is regressive as
usual:
o sz [s] or z [z] + s [] gives []: egszsg [ee] 'health', kzsg [ke]
'village, community';
o sz [s] or z [z] + zs [] gives []: vadszzskmny [vdaakma] 'hunters
game'; szraz zsmle [sarml] 'dry bread roll';
o s [] or zs [] + sz [s] gives [s]: kisszer [kisry] 'petty', rozsszalma [roslm]
'rye straw';
o s [] or zs [] + z [z] gives [z]: tilos zna [tilozzon] 'restricted zone', parzs
zene [prazzn] 'hot music'.
o Clusters zs+s [], s+zs [], z+sz [s] and sz+z [z] are rather the subject of the
voice assimilation.

If one of the two adjacent sibilants is an affricate, the first one changes its place of
articulation, e.g. malacsg [mltca], halszcsrda [hlatcard] 'Hungarian fish
restaurant'. Sibilant affricate-fricative sequences like /c t/ are pronounced the same as
geminate affricate [c t] during normal speech.

Sibilant assimilation can be omitted in articulated speech, e.g. to avoid homophony:

rozsszalma [roslm] ~ [roslm] 'rye straw' rossz szalma [rosslm] 'straw of bad
quality', and rossz alma [roslm] 'apple of bad quality' as well.

NB. Letter cluster szs can be read either as sz+s [], e.g. egszsg [ee] 'health', or
as s+zs [], e.g. liszteszsk [listak] 'bolting-bag' depending on the actual morpheme
boundary. Similarly zsz is either zs + z [z], e.g. varzszr [vrazar] 'magic lock', or z +
sz [s], e.g. hzszm [hasam] 'street-number'; and csz: cs + z [dcz] ~ c + sz [c tss].
Moreover, single digraphs may prove to be two adjacent letters on morpheme boundary,
like cs: cs [c t] ~ c + s [c t]; sz: sz [s] ~ s + z [z], zs: zs [] ~ z + s [].

Palatal assimilation[edit]

Combination of a "palatalizable" consonant and a following palatal consonant results in a palatal

geminate. Palatalizable consonants are palatal ones and their non-palatal counterparts: gy [] ~ d
[d], l [l] ~ j [j], n [n] ~ ny [], ty [c] ~ t [t].

Full palatal assimilation occurs when the ending palatal consonant is j [j]: nagyja [n]
'most of it', adja [] 's/he gives it'; tolja [toj] 's/he pushes it'; unja [u] 's/he is
bored with it', hnyja [ha] 's/he throws it'; ltja [lac] 's/he sees it', atyja [c]
'his/her father'. Cluster lyj [j] is a simple orthographic variant of jj [j]: folyjon [fojon]
'let it flow'.

Partial assimilation takes place if an alveolar stop (d, t) is followed by palatal is gy [], ty
[c]: hadgyakorlat [hkorlt] 'army exercises', nemzetgyls [nmzyle] 'national
assembly'; vadtyk [vcuk] 'wild chicken', hat tyk [hccuk] 'six hens'.

Some sources[25] report that alveolars stops change into their palatal counterparts before
ny []: ldnyak [luk] 'neck of a goose', tnylik [aculik] 'it extends over'. The
majority of the sources don't mention this kind of assimilation.

When the first consonant is nasal, the partial palatal assimilation is a form of the nasal
place assimilation (see above).

The full palatal assimilation is an obligatory feature in the standard Hungarian: its
omission is stigmatized and it is considered as a hypercorrection of an undereducated
person. Partial palatal assimilation is optional in articulated speech.

Degemination[edit]
Long consonants become short when preceded or followed by another consonant, e.g. folttal
[foltl] 'by/with (a) patch', varrtam [vrtm] 'I sewed'.

Intercluster elision[edit]
The middle alveolar stops may be omitted in clusters with more than two consonants, depending
on speed and articulation of speech: azt hiszem [shism] ~ [sthism] 'I presume/guess',
mindnyjan [miajn] 'one and all', klnbsg [kylmpe] ~ [kylme] 'difference'. In
morpheme onsets like str- [tr], middle stops tends to be more stable in educated speech,
falanxstratgia [flntrtei] ~ [flktrtei] ~ [flkstrtei] 'strategy based on
phalanxes'.

Elision of [l][edit]

/l/ assimilates to [r] before /r/ (e.g. balra [br], 'to the left').[26]

/l/ also tends to be omitted between a preceding vowel and an adjacent stop or affricate rapid
speech, causing the lengthening of the vowel or diphthongization[example needed] (e.g. volt [vot] 'was',
polgr [poar] 'citizen'). This is considered non-standard.

Hiatus[edit]
Standard Hungarian allows (prefers) hiatus between adjacent vowels. However some optional
dissolving features can be observed:

An optional weak glide [jj ] may be pronounced within a word (or a compound element)
between two adjacent vowels if one of them is i [i], e.g. fiaii [fiiei] ~ [fijj jj ijj ejj i] ('the
ones of his/her sons'). This, however, is rarely transcribed.

Adjacent identical short vowels other than a and e may be pronounced as the
corresponding long vowel, e.g. zoolgia [zo.oloi] ~ [zoloi] ('zoology').

Two adjacent is are always pronounced as single short [i] in the word endings, e.g.
Hawaii [hvi]. This reduction is reflected in the current orthography when the
adjective-forming suffix -i is added to a noun ending in i. In this case suffix -i is omitted
also in writing. e.g. Lenti (a placename) + -i lenti 'of Lenti'.

Stress[edit]
The stress is on the first syllable of the word. The articles a, az, egy, and the particle is are
usually unstressed.[27]