The Hungarian language can be safely called a puzzle, it is not in vain that the Rubik's Cube was invented precisely in Hungary. Nevertheless, many Russians decide to storm this complex system: some want to go to university, others want to get citizenship, others just think that knowing the additional language will be useful to them. Also, Russian citizens often come to Hungary on vacation, in this case, Hungarian skills will also come in handy - in the country, not everyone speaks English, but only young people, while older people communicate, as a rule, only in their native language.
About origin
We must warn you right away: learning the Hungarian language is not an easy task. Formally, it belongs to the Finno-Ugric group, but in fact it has little in common with Estonian and Finnish. Until the nineteenth century, the Hungarian language was called into question. It is closest to the dialect of Mansi and Khanty: the Hungarians brought their speech from Siberia to Eastern Europe, being able, despite the influence of the Slavic and Turkic languages, to maintain largely its main features.
Features
The Hungarian language for beginner polyglots may seem overwhelmingly difficult - it presents many surprises. Unique phonetics, forty letters in the alphabet, as many as fourteen vowels, each of which is indicated by a separate letter: a [ɒ], á [a:], e [ɛ], é [e:], i [i], í [i :], o [o], ó [o:], ö [ø], ő [ø:], u [u], ú [u:], ü [y] and ű [y:]. The first letter of the alphabet - a - must be pronounced as something between the Russian “o” and “a”: the lower part of the jaw drops, lips are rounded, the tip of the tongue is pulled back. what can I say, even if the suffix method of word formation is supplemented by as many as twenty-three cases, when in Russian there are only six.
Phonetics
Of course, the complexity here is represented by the brevity and longitude of the ruined vowels “ü”, “ű”, “ö”, “ő”. It should be remembered that these are completely different letters, and a mistake with longitude, as in any language, can distort the meaning of the word. It is quite difficult for foreigners to understand Hungarians at first, and this is noted by the Hungarians themselves, since often the whole remark sounds like an obscure single word, although in fact it is a whole sentence. But the Hungarian language has no diphthongs.
Grammar
No matter how complex the grammar system is, it lacks some elements that are characteristic of other languages, for example, there is no category of grammatical gender, only two tenses: the present and the past, and for the future they use the present tense verb of the perfect form or the construction with the auxiliary verb fog . All this greatly facilitates the Hungarian language lessons for international students.
Articles and conjugations
A large role in the language is played by articles: indefinite and definite, and the category of uncertainty and definiteness as a whole. It is inextricably linked with conjugations of verbs, which are entirely dependent on the noun - the object. If this object is mentioned for the first time, then the objectless conjugation of the verb and the indefinite article are used. For example: "Dad bought the ball (some)." In the sentence “Papa bought a great ball (the same one)” the verb object conjugation and the definite article will already be applied.
If the object is absent, both conjugations can be used, but it matters whether the verb has a direct complement . So, the words “sit”, “walk”, “stand”, “walk” do not have it, so there can only be objectless conjugation.
Case endings
Everything that in the Russian language belongs to the category of prepositions, in Hungarian it is the case endings added to the word. With all this, the authors of the textbooks can not agree on how many of them exist: in some manuals it is indicated that twenty-three, in others there is a different figure - nineteen. But the fact is that the endings used to indicate the circumstances of time and place in the Hungarian language are considered case. There are also rare cases, for example, a distribution used to express a repetition of an action in time: “every day”, “annually”.
Reading words
Hungarian is rich in long words. For example, megszentségteleníthetetlen (25 letters) translates as follows: "that which cannot be defiled." To read them correctly, it should be divided into roots or syllables. Moreover, in such structural language units a secondary (secondary) stress necessarily arises, falling on odd syllables. It should be noted that, for example, on the fifth syllable, the stress will be stronger than on the third.
How to learn the Hungarian language?
Comprehending any language is a difficult task. First of all, you should understand that this is painstaking work, and this should be treated this way. Now there are many language courses that promise that you will master a new language in just a couple of months of classes, however, as you probably understand yourself, this is just marketing and nothing more. Do not neglect the "old-fashioned" ways of mastering the language: comprehend vocabulary, systematically study grammar, memorize elementary constructions, listen to Hungarian songs, watch movies with subtitles - this is the basis from which you need to build on.
Tutorials to help
Various textbooks and tutorials can help in learning the language. So, K. Wavra's textbook has good reviews - it is quite old and, of course, not perfect, but conceptually correctly built. It will be great if you also find a language course for this manual. Then you will have a complete set of tools for mastering the Hungarian language. Undoubtedly, to be engaged without a teacher only on teaching aids will not be easy. This is especially true for grammar. You may sometimes have to guess something yourself or look for information in other books, but believe me, such “research work” will only benefit you. Another good helper in language learning is Rubin Aaron's training course.
Memorizing words
Many people who undertook to learn Hungarian very quickly come to the conclusion that this is a futile exercise. Not only can they not remember words, but even just pronouncing them is beyond their power. However, the main thing in this matter is desire and perseverance. Over time, you will learn to speak not only in separate words, but also in sentences. The following method gives an absolutely real effect. Read a group of words on the voice recorder of a mobile phone, and then listen to the recording at least ten times in the headphones. You can do the same with audio recordings recorded by native speakers. Your goal is to understand the meaning of the spoken text without mentally translating it into Russian. Do not hesitate, such a system really works! The main thing is to believe in your own strength and work incessantly. Breaks in this matter are simply fatal - it’s better to devote half an hour to classes every day than not to do a week, and then try to master everything at once.
These basic tenets, of course, concern not only the study of Hungarian, but also any other language. And do not forget that the approach to learning should be systemic. It is necessary to gradually understand phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, and so on. Some are limited to cramming individual words. It is not right. Knowing only that, for example, the word “hello” in Hungarian sounds like “jó nap”, and “thank you” for “kösz” and so on, is unlikely to give you the opportunity to fully communicate with native speakers and understand them. Good luck