Hungarian Alpha bet

For the non-Latin script descended fromOld Turkic,seeOld Hungarian script.

TheHungarian Alpha bet(Hungarian:magyar ábécé) is an extension of theLatin Alpha betused for writing theHungarian language.

The Alpha bet is based on theLatin Alpha bet,with several added variations of letters, consisting 44 letters. Over the 26 letters of theISO basic Latin Alpha betit has five letters with anacute accent,two letters with anumlaut,two letters with adouble acute accent,eight lettersmade up of two characters,and one lettermade up of three characters.In some other languages, characters with diacritical marks would be considered variations of the base letter, however in Hungarian, these characters are considered letters in their own right.

One sometimes speaks of thesmaller(or basic) andgreater(orextended) Hungarian Alpha bets, differing by the inclusion or exclusion of the lettersQ,W,X,Y,which can only be found in foreign words and traditionalorthographyof names. (As for Y, however, it exists as part of four digraphs.)

As an auxiliary letter sometimes Ë is used in academic documents to show different pronunciation of spoken dialects, though it is not part of the Alpha bet.

Majuscule forms(also calleduppercaseorcapital letters)

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

Minuscule forms(also calledlowercaseorsmall letters)

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 in its own right in Hungarian. Some, such as the letter ⟨ó⟩ and ⟨ő⟩, are inter-filed with the letter preceding it when sorting words Alpha betically, whereas others, such as ⟨ö⟩, have their own place in collation rather than also being inter-filed with ⟨o⟩.

Whilelong vowelscount as different letters,long (or geminate) consonantsdo not. 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 normally applies (but not when the compound is split at the end of a line of text due to hyphenation), only the first letter being duplicated, e.g.

⟨sz⟩ + ⟨sz⟩ → ⟨ssz⟩ (asszony'woman'),

⟨ty⟩ + ⟨ty⟩ → ⟨tty⟩ (hattyú'swan'),

⟨dzs⟩ + ⟨dzs⟩ → ⟨ddzs⟩ (briddzsel'with bridge (playing game)').

An exception is made at the joining points ofcompound words,for example:jegygyűrű'engagement ring' (jegy+gyűrű) rather than*jeggyűrű.

Hyphenation of individual letters ⟨Dz⟩ and ⟨dzs⟩ were changed in the 11th edition ofHungarian orthography(1984).Prior to that, they were allowed to separate as two-letter combinations ⟨d⟩+⟨z⟩ and ⟨d⟩+⟨zs⟩.

Pronunciation

Further information:Hungarian phonology

The pronunciation given for the following Hungarian letters is that ofstandard Hungarian.

Letter	Minuscule Form	Name	Phoneme(IPA)	Complementaryallophones(IPA)	Close to	Notes
A	a	a	/ɒ/		similar to British English car	Car, start, aren't,[ɑ̝̹]might describe it better.
Á	á	á	/aː/		an extended father	Not nearly as open as theain American Englishhat,but closer to it than Hungariana(without the accent mark)
B	b	bé	/b/		asby, absence etc.
C	c	cé	/t͡s/		like pots
Cs	cs	csé	/t͡ʃ/		ascheck,cheek, etching etc.
D	d	dé	/d/		deck, wide etc.
Dz	dz	dzé	/dz/		like in kids	Uncommon. When neither post- nor preconsonantic, always realised as ageminate.
Dzs	dzs	dzsé	/dʒ/		John,jam, bridge	Uncommon, mostly in loanwords. when final or intervocalic, usually realised as a geminate:maharadzsa/mɑhɑrɑdʒɑ/[mɑhɑrɑd͡ʒːɑ]'maharajah',bridzs/bridʒ/[brid͡ʒː]'bridge (card game)', butdzsungel/dʒuŋɡɛl/[d͡ʒuŋɡɛl]'jungle', fridzsider/fridʒidɛr/[frid͡ʒidɛr]coll. 'refrigerator'
E	e	e	/ɛ/		like less, cheque,edge, bed	about 40-50% of speakers also have a phoneme/e/(see below at Ë)./e/is not considered part ofstandard Hungarian,wherein/ɛ/takes the place of/e/.
É	é	é	/eː/		café
F	f	ef	/f/		find, euphoria
G	g	gé	/ɡ/		get, leg,go etc.
Gy	gy	gyé	/ɟ/		(not used in English; soft form of/d/.Mostly similar toduring, as pronounced in Received Pronunciation)	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	h	há	/h/	1.[ɦ] 2.∅ 3.[x] 4.[ç]	Basic:hi 1. behind 2.honest 3. Loch,Chanukah 4.human	1. when in intervocalic position. 2. not rendered usually when in final positionméh/meː/'bee',cseh/tʃɛ/'Czech' 3. seldom, in final position, such as indoh'dampness',MÉH'metal recycling facility' 4. seldom, such as inihlet'inspiration'
I	i	i	/i/		sea,key, tree	Pronounced the same as Í, only shorter
Í	í	í	/iː/		leek, leave, seed, sea	Vowel length is phonemically distinctive in Hungarian:irt= 'to exterminate' andírt= 'to write (past tense)'
J	j	jé	/j/	[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	k	ká	/k/		key,kiss, weak
L	l	el	/l/		leave,list
Ly	ly	elly, el-ipszilon	1./j/ 2./ʎ/		play,pray	Most dialects pronounce it as /j/; seeyeísmo.
M	m	em	/m/		mind, assume,might
N	n	en	/n/	[ŋ] [n]	thing,lying(beforek, g), need, bone (anywhere else)	allophone before/k/,/ɡ/
Ny	ny	eny	/ɲ/		canyon
O	o	o	/o/		force, sorcerer	A shorter, more open variant of Ó. Unlike with shorte,which is opened to/ɛ/in standard speech, shortoremains/o/,rather than opening to/ɔ/where it would come close to clashing with shorta.
Ó	ó	ó	/oː/		fraud, cause (Southern England, Australian or New Zealand English)	Same as/o/except longer. It is important to pay attention to. (Minimal pair tokor= 'age' andkór= 'disease')
Ö	ö	ö	/ø/		learnt,earl, fern	(Corresponds to (short) German Ö); similar to shwa /ə/ (e.g. cola) except with rounded lips. A shorter, more open variant of Ő
Ő	ő	ő	/øː/		burn, murder	(A longer, more closed variant of Ö.) Minimal pair to/ø/:öt= 'five' andőt= 'him/her (Hungarian pronouns do not specify gender)'
P	p	pé	/p/		peas, apricot, hope
R	r	er	/r/		The closest equivalent isr	also calledapical trillas pronounced by trilling the tip of your tongue (the apex) and not the uvula.
S	s	es	/ʃ/		share, wish,shout	This notation is unusual for European writing systems where⟨s⟩usually stands for/s/.In Hungarian,/s/is represented by⟨sz⟩.
Sz	sz	esz	/s/		say, estimate
T	t	té	/t/		tell, least,feast
Ty	ty	tyé	/c/		tube
U	u	u	/u/		rude
Ú	ú	ú	/uː/		do,fool	Minimal pair to/u/:hurok= 'loop' andhúrok= 'cords'
Ü	ü	ü	/y/		(not used in English, corresponds to German Ü)	A shorter, more open variant of ű
Ű	ű	ű	/yː/		(not used in English, corresponds to a longer version of the German Ü)
V	v	vé	/v/		very, every
Z	z	zé	/z/		desert, roses
Zs	zs	zsé	/ʒ/		pleasure, leisure

The letterëis not part of the Hungarian Alpha bet; however, linguists use this letter to distinguish between the two kinds of shortesounds of some dialects. This letter was first used in 1770 by György Kalmár, but has never officially been part of the Hungarian Alpha bet, as the standard Hungarian language does not distinguish between these two sounds. However, theësound is pronounced differently from theesound in 6 out of the 10 Hungarian dialects and the sound is pronounced asöin 1 dialect. It is also used in names. Other letter for this sound isĖė(rarely).

A more open variety of/ɛ/,close to[æ],may be denoted asÄäin the Hungarian linguistics literature.

The digraphchalso exists in some words (technika,monarchia) and is pronounced the same ash.In names, however, it is pronounced likecsas well as likehork(as in German) (see below).

The letter Y is only used in loanwords and several digraphs (gy, ly, ny, ty), and thus in a native Hungarian word, Y never comes as the initial of a word, except in loanwords. So, for native Hungarian words, the capital Y only exists in all caps or small caps formats, such as the titles of newspapers.

Historic spellings used in names and historical documents

Old spellings (sometimes similar to German orthography) used in some Hungarian names and their corresponding pronunciation according to modern spelling include the following:

Consonants

Historic spelling	Pronounced like modern spelling
bb	b
cz	c
tz	c
z	c
ch	cs
cz	cs
č	cs
ć	cs
ts	cs
csh	cs
tsch	cs
tzsch	cs
chs	cs
cy	cs
ʟ	cs
dd	d
dsz	dz
ds	dzs
ff	f
ph	f
gh	g
dgy	ggy
dy	gy
g	gy
gi	gy
gj	gy
gʹ~g′	gy
ǵ	gy
ġ	gy
j	gy
jj	j
l	j
y	j
ck	k
kh	k
x	ks
xy	ksz
xz	ksz
qu	kv
ll	l
l	ll
w	lv
j	ly
l	ly
li	ly
ry	ly
lly	ly
′l(ʹl)~l′(lʹ)~ŀ	ly
n	ny
ni	ny
nʹ~n′	ny
ń	ny
ṅ	ny
my	ny
ph	p
pp	p
rh	r
rr	r
ꝛ	r
sch	s
ss	s
ss	ssz
s	sz
sc	sz
sy	sz
z	sz
th	t
tt	t
ti	ty
tʹ~t′	ty
ṫ	ty
ky	ty
u	v
w	v
s	z
s	zs
ss	zs
zy	zs
['s]	zs

Vowels

Historic spelling	Pronounced as in modern spelling
a	á
aa	á
aá	á
áá	á
áh	á
ä	e
ae	e
ai	e
ay	e
áe	é
ái	é
áy	é
e	é
ee	é
eé	é
éh	é
i	í
ié	í
íh	í
ii	í
ií	í
å	o
o	ó
óh	ó
oo	ó
oó	ó
ua	ó
â	ö
åe	ö
åi	ö
åy	ö
eö	ö
ew	ö
oe	ö
oi	ö
oy	ö
eö	ő
eő	ő
ew	ő
ia	ő
ö	ő
őh	ő
öö	ő
öő	ő
óe	ő
ói	ő
óy	ő
üa	ő
u	ú
úh	ú
uó	ú
uu	ú
uú	ú
ue	ü
ui	ü
uy	ü
ü	ű
űh	ű
üő	ű
üü	ű
üű	ű
úe	ű
úi	ű
úy	ű
aë	aj
aï	aj
aÿ	aj
ei	aj
áë	áj
áï	áj
áÿ	áj
åë	oj
åï	oj
åÿ	oj
eu	oj
oë	oj
oï	oj
oÿ	oj
óë	ój
óï	ój
óÿ	ój
au	uj
uë	uj
uï	uj
uÿ	uj
úë	új
úï	új
úÿ	új
(g)y~gÿ	gi
y	ji
ý	jí
(l)y~lÿ	(l)i
(n)y~nÿ	(ny)i or (n)i
(t)y~tÿ	ti

Onáá:

Generally,yin historic spellings of names formed with the-iaffix (not to be confused with a possessive-i-of plural objects, as inszavai!) can exist after many other letters (e.g.:Teleky,Rákóczy,Dézsy). Here are listed only examples which can be easily misread because of such spelling.

Examples:

Name	Pronounced as if spelled
Madách	Madács
Széchenyi	SzécsényiorSzécsenyi
Batthyány	Battyányi
Gajdátsy	Gajdácsi
Thököly	Tököli
Weöres	Vörös
Eötvös	Ötvös
Kassay	Kassai
Debrődy	Debrődi
Karczagy	Karcagi
Vörösmarty	Vörösmarti
Cházár	Császár
Czukor	Cukor
Balogh	Balog
Vargha	Varga
Paal	Pál
Gaál	Gál
Veér	Vér
Rédey	Rédei
Soós	Sós
Thewrewk	Török
Dessewffy	Dezsőfi

Historic spellings of article and conjunctions

In early editions the articlea/azwas written according to the following rules:

• beforevowelsand h —az:azember,az híd
• beforeconsonants—a':a'csillag.

The abbreviated form of the conjunctionés(and), which is always written today ass,was likely to be written with an apostrophe before —’s(e.g.föld’snép).

Capitalisation

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

• Csak jót mondhatunkSzékelyCsabáról.

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 theHungarian Academy of Sciences):

• A magyar helyesírásszabályai
• MHSZ(not MHSz)
• A MAGYAR HELYESÍRÁSSZABÁLYAI (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, the pairs O/Ó and Ö/Ő are not distinguished in ordering, but Ö follows O. In cases where two words are differentiated solely by the presence of an accent, the one without the accent is put before the other one. (The situation is the same for lower and upper-case letters: in Alpha betical ordering,vargais followed byVarga.)

The polygraphic consonant signs are treated as single letters.

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

The simplified geminates of multigraphs (see above) such as <nny>, <ssz> arecollatedas <ny>+<ny>, <sz>+<sz> etc.,ifthey are double geminates, rather than co-occurrences of a single letter and a geminate.

könnyűis collated as <k><ö><ny><ny><ű>.tizennyolcof course as <t><i><z><e><n><ny><o><l><c>, as this is acompound: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+számand of course not *házs+ *zám.

These rules make Hungarian Alpha betic ordering algorithmically difficult (one has to know the correct segmentation of a word to sort it correctly), which was a problem for computer software development.

Keyboard layout

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

Hungarian keyboard layout

The letter "Í" is often placed left of the space key, leaving the width of the left Shift key intact. "Ű" may be located to the left of Backspace, making that key smaller, but allowing for a larger Enter key. Ű being close to Enter often leads to it being typed instead of hitting Enter, especially when one has just switched from a keyboard that has Ű next to backspace. The German "Ä"and"ß",the Polish"Ł",and the Croatian"Đ"are also present.

Letter frequencies

The most common letters in Hungarian areeanda.

The list below shows the letter frequencies for thesmallerHungarian Alpha bet in descending order (sample: 9620 letters).

Letter	Frequency
e	12.256%
a	9.428%
t	7.380%
n	6.445%
l	6.383%
s	5.322%
k	4.522%
é	4.511%
i	4.200%
m	4.054%
o	3.867%
á	3.649%
g	2.838%
r	2.807%
z	2.734%
v	2.453%
b	2.058%
d	2.037%
sz	1.809%
j	1.570%
h	1.341%
gy	1.185%
ő	0.884%
ö	0.821%
ny	0.790%
ly	0.738%
ü	0.655%
ó	0.634%
f	0.582%
p	0.509%
í	0.499%
u	0.416%
cs	0.260%
ű	0.125%
c	0.114%
ú	0.104%
zs	0.021%
ty	<0.010%

The spelling Alpha bet

Note that some letters were omitted (notably,Dz,Dzs,Gy,Í,Ly,Ny,Ty,Ú,Ű).

Letter	spelling name	meaning of word
A, a	András	Male given name, the Hungarian form ofAndrew
Á, á	Ágnes	Agnes (name)
B, b	Borbála	Female given name, the Hungarian form ofBarbara
C, c	Cegléd	City ofCegléd
Cs, cs	Csongrád	City ofCsongrád
D, d	Dénes	Male given name, the equivalent ofDenis
E, e	Erzsébet	Female given name, the Hungarian form ofElizabeth
É, é	Éva	Female given name (Eva)
F, f	Ferenc	Male given name
G, g	Gábor	Male given name, the equivalent ofGabriel.
H, h	Hungária	Latin forHungary
I, i	István	Equivalent of the nameStephenorStefan
J, j	János	Male Hungarian given name, a variant ofJohn
K, k	Kálmán	Hungarian surname and male given nameKálmán
L, l	Lőrinc	Male given name, the equivalent ofLaurence
M, m	Mihály	Masculine given name, the Hungarian form ofMichael
N, n	Nándor	a Hungarian form of given nameFerdinand
O, o	Olga	Female given name
Ó, ó	Ó-buda	Town ofÓbuda
Ö, ö	Ödön	Male given name
Ő, ő	Őrség	Guard (as in a group of watchmen)
P, p	Piroska	Feminine given name (Piroska)
R, r	Rozál	Form of Rozália (Rosa) female given name
S, s	Sári	Form ofSárafemale given name
Sz, sz	Szabadka	Hungarian name for city ofSubotica
T, t	Tamás	Masculine given name, equivalent of the nameThomas
U, u	Ungvár	Hungarian name for city ofUzhhorod
Ü, ü	Üteg	Hungarian word for anartillery battery
V, v	Veronika	Female given name, form ofVeronica
Y, y	Ypszilon	Greek letterUpsilon(Υ)
Z, z	Zoltán	Masculine given nameZoltán
Zs, zs	Zsófia	Female given name, the Hungarian equivalent ofSophia

Old Hungarian script

TheOld Hungarian scriptis a writing system formerly used for the Hungarian language. It was derived from theOld Turkic script.Its usage began to decline after the Kingdom of Hungary adopted the Latin Alpha bet.

Epigraphic evidence for the use of the Old Hungarian script in medieval Hungary dates to the 10th century.At the turn of the 11th century, with the coronation ofStephen I of Hungary,Hungary became akingdomand theLatin Alpha betwas adopted as official script.

The runic script was first mentioned in the 13th century Chronicle ofSimon of Kéza,where he stated that theSzékelysmay use the script of theBlaks.Johannes Thuróczywrote in theChronica Hungarorumthat theSzékelysdid not forget theScythianletters and these are engraved on sticks by carving.

Its usage between the 11th and 19th centuries is believed to have been limited, although it featured in folk art of theEarly Modern period.The script experienced a revival in the 20th century. Beginning withAdorján Magyarin 1915, the script has been promulgated as a means for writing modern Hungarian.

See also

• Hungarian orthography
• Hungarian braille
• Hungarian phonology
• Old Hungarian Script
• ISO/IEC 8859-2

External links

• X-SAMPA for Hungarian