| a: o in British hot, a in American awful | á: a from father, i from ice. | e: two kinds, 1. a in man, 2. e in men. Sorry, they are the same in writing similarly like in English. |
é: a in day, e in eight, without the y sound in both words | i: i in sit | í: ea in eagle | o: o in oil, force |
| ó: aw in law, raw | ö: i in girl or bird but with rounded lips (= German, Turkish ö) | õ: i in girl but with rounded and narrower lips than 'ö' | u: u in put | ú: oo in spoon, too | ü: u in British cute, tube, lute
(at least by
Cambridge Dictionary).
American speakers sometimes say this way, too. Lucy is generally pronounced
with 'ü' or simply the word 'good'. The same like ü in German or Turkish languages. French u in Luc. To learn it: lips and teeth as you would say u (from put), tongue as in case of i (from sit). Another tip: say i and round your lips. |
û: narrower lips than in the case of ü |
y: at the end of some old surnames means usually i
b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, t, v, z: they
are the same or roughly the same as in English.
p is like p in spin and not like in pilot. (The latter contains a little 'h'
sound.)
r is always pronounced, it is rolled and sounds the same like in
Spanish, Italian, Russian, German etc.
c: say t and s at the same time for example in cats, Roberts, tzatziki, tsunami,
same as the German z in Zeit
cs: ch in child
ch: same as h
g: g in game
gy: d in British duke or during, a sound between d and y
j: y in year
ly: y in year, in old names at the end of some surnames usually read as
(Hungarian) -li.
Centuries
ago ly sounded different than j.
ny: ny in canyon, say n and y (year) at the same time. British n in new.
Some say this sound in onion, first n. Spanish ñ.
s: s in sugar, sure, or sh in shield.
sz: s in spell
ty: t in British tube, Tuesday, t and y (y from year) at the same time.
zs: s in usual or g in mirage.
Long or stressed consonants are written with double letters e.g.: gg. Consonants originally signed with two letters like sz becomes ssz when long, it would be 'ss' but English doesn't pronounce long consonants. In Hungarian such doubled consonants are always pronounced. The name Anna doesn't sound as Ana.
This is the base situation, but inflected words are more difficult. Sometimes it would be very hard to pronounce the consonants written after each other. Don't try it. In this case try to say it easily in a relaxed way and the consonants will change to another consonant for easy pronunciation. E.g. játszik (he/she plays)-> jáccik. This rule is used mainly at the suffixes, therefore you cannot worry about it very much.
Always on the first syllable.
magyar [MAH-dyahr]: Hungarian
Buda [BU-ddha]
Budapest [BU-ddha-pesht]: Buda, Pest and Óbuda were united in the 19th century
táltos [TAHL-tosh]: 1. Magyar shaman, wizard
2. táltos horse: magical steed
javas [YAH-vahsh]: an
alternate
name of the táltoses
székely
[SEH-kay]: Hungarian languaged folk, guardians of certain borders
tatár
[TAH-tahr]: Mongol or Tatar
Erdély [EHR-day]:
Transylvania
Árpád [AHR-pahd]: the reigning prince
of the Magyar conquestors
András [AHND-rush]: three kings
wore this name, = Andrew
Álmos [AHL-mohsh]: name of a Magyar reigning prince
and some other princes
Imre
[EM-reh]: e.g. a Hungarian king, = Emery
Béla [BEH-lah]:
four kings wore this name
István [ESHT-vahn]: five kings
wore this name, = Stephen
Kálmán [KAHL-mahn]:
e.g. a Hungarian king
László [LAHS-loh]: many kings wore this
name, = Leslie
Koppány [KOHPP-ahny]: Saint István's
pagan rival to the leadership of the Magyars in 997
Gellért
[GEHL-lehrt]: a martyr bishop, saint
Margit [MAHR-geet]:
famous nun, daughter
of Béla II
Esztergom [AS-tehr-gohm]: a
city, location of the main archbishop
Fehérvár
[FEH-har-wahr]: the “capital” of Hungary in the
Árpád era =
White Castle
Veszprém [VAS-pram]: the city of the Hungarian
queens
Created: Dec 09, 2004