Lesson Notes
Grammar
The Focus of this Lesson is the Top 5 Reasons to Study Hungarian
Background of the Hungarian Language
Hungarian is an independent language within the Uralic language family. Even though this language family has very few members in Europe, the most populous groups live here, namely Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian. The Uralic language family has other members in Russia and Siberia, by today usually with very few speakers. The relationship between Hungarian and these languages is often debated, but currently the most widely accepted theory is that there exists a clear relationship between Hungarian and all the others. Since the sub-branching complicates this picture even more and distances Hungarian from the others, it means that even with fluent Hungarian, you won't be able to understand Finnish or Estonian at all.
The Hungarian people used the Hungarian script before 1000 A.D., but not many examples remained of that. In the tenth century Hungary adopted the Latin alphabet. The oldest surviving Hungarian text (and the oldest of the language family) is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer from the 1190s.
Throughout the centuries, Hungarian had been influenced by Turkish, Latin, Slavic languages, German and English, and through these countless others.
When trying to master the Hungarian language, some of the difficulties students face are the extended case system and corresponding changes in nouns (e.g.: from the inside of the house: házból; into the house: házba; onto the house: házra etc.) and the so-called vowel harmony, which means that the vowel of the suffix must be consistent with the vowel of the main word the suffix is attached to (e.g.: "into the house": házba but "into the bottle": üvegbe).
On the other hand, reading the Hungarian script is quite straightforward, you'll never get lost in the tenses (of which there are two), you don't have to worry about gender, tones and the politeness system is also not too complicated.
Where is it spoken?
The Hungarian language came to the Carpathian Basin over twelve centuries ago and is now spoken mainly in Hungary as well as neighboring countries such as Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria. Approximately fourteen million people speak Hungarian natively, of them, ten million live in Hungary. But it is also spoken in several different places in the world due to emigration, including countries such as Israel and the United States.
Why is it important?
The top five reasons to learn this language are...
- It's fun!
- By learning Hungarian, one can get a deeper understanding of European history and culture. Throughout the centuries, the Kingdom of Hungary had an often ignored pivotal role in the shaping of Europe, being on the border of Roman and Greek Catholicism and the Turkish expansion. When not an empire itself, it's been on the border of empires, cultures and civilizations for a millennium and stood in the sea of Slavic, German and Turkish languages, without losing his identity.
- Hungarians are extremely grateful when they see other people try to speak Hungarian. Make sure you pick up a few words, even if you only have a short visit in the country.
- To know Hungarian is to be a member of a very unique club.
- If you want an inexpensive vacation, go to Hungary!
77 Comments
HideHello, Listeners! We start our course with 5 introductory lessons, and then launch into a regular storyline starting with the sixth lesson.
The most important thing is your motivation! So why are you studying Hungarian? Could you let us know your special reason?
Hi Kathlyn,
That is a very interesting story! We hope you will have a great time if you do move to Hungary! 😇
Have a great time learning, and we wish you a lot of success on your journey!
Vivi
Team HungarianPod101.com
Szia Zachary Ordo,
Regarding the typo - I notified our team and I'm happy to inform you that we have corrected it. 😇
Üdvözlettel:
Levente
Team HungarianPod101.com
Szia Zachary Ordo,
Thank you so much for your positive message! 😇❤️️
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
We wish you good luck with your language studies.
Üdvözlettel:
Levente
Team HungarianPod101.com
Also, I noticed this lesson's transcript was possibly mis-transcribed right before the Outro. Where it says "the kingdom of Hungary had an ethnic Nordic pivotal role in the shaping of Europe," I believe it should instead say "the kingdom of Hungary had an often ignored and pivotal role in the shaping of Europe."
Szia!
I plan to double-down on learning Hungarian this year after fading out of learning it on Duolingo the in 2019. Today I found videos on YouTube from HungarianPod101.com, which led me to this site. The support system and format of Premium Plus will help hold myself accountable in learning it.
My dad's parents were Hungarian. They passed away in the mid-90s when I was about 10, and my dad didn't keep using their mother tongue after. I'd like to visit Hungary some day and also recently located some distant relatives, so being able to converse in Hungarian would be great. My two years of high school Spanish proved useful on a recent trip to Mexico, so I hope I can do even better with Hungarian, and actually make it my first foreign language that I'm truly fluent in.
Sziastok
My name is Katica Keeky ( Keating) and Im learning Hungarian so i can communicate with my newly found family in Hungary .
My father was a freedom fighter and left Hungary and ended up in Australia, and met my Hungarian mother on the boat that bought them to Australia .
I flew to Hungary in 2018 to spend 6 weeks with my aunty and family.
The best time of my life , and i wanted to stay and live in Hungary, everywhere i went seemed familiar to me. Learning the hungarian language will help me talk with my family in Hungary. And we have 50 years to catch up on!!! since we met for the first time 2 years ago and there is so much to tell them.
Thank you so much for this free course, i look forward to visiting Hungary again and speaking Hungarian well.
Kosonom szepen!
Szia! I'm Christine from the USA. My grandfather's family emigrated from Hungary and I would like to have a better understanding of my ancestral language. Also I'm a musician and it will help me to better understand Hungarian folk songs!
Sziasztok!
Chris vagyok. Ausztráliában élek.
Magyarul akarok tanúlni, mert az öseim magyarok voltak. Talán majd egyszer, Budapesten élek.
De még nem tudok beszélni jól.
Looking forward to learning Hungarian with you.
Szia! I'm trying to learn Hungarian to be able to share my boyfriends love for his mother tongue more deeply and talk to his family without him having to translate. 😄
Szia Danielle and Eloho!
Köszönöm szépen, hogy írtatok nekünk! Thank you very much for having contacted us.
It's lovely that you decided to learn Hungarian with us. ❤️️ We hope you will have an amazing language journey!
Feel free to contact us anytime if you have any questions about the lessons.
Sok szerencsét! Good luck!
Üdvözlettel:
Levente
Team HungarianPod101.com