Interesting facts and learning aids for the Hungarian language

The Hungarian language is a huge challenge.

Moving to Hungary can be a tedious task, and to get to grips with the local culture, you will need some insight into the Hungarian language. In this post, we will be taking a look at some interesting facts and learning aids for the Hungarian language.

Basics about the Hungarian language

The state of Hungary might be over 1,000 years old, but a lot of its traditions and unique language is unchanged. Unlike the Indo-European languages surrounding Hungary, the Hungarian language (called “Magyar”) has a different set of vocabulary and grammatical rules. The language itself originated from the Finno-Ugric language phylum, which is based on Finnish and Estonian languages.

For the most part, the Hungarian language stems from Asia’s Uralic region. The Hungarian vocabulary also carries a few styles of various Slavonic languages and is also influenced by the German language.

Unlike the English language, the Hungarian language does not have any genders. It is an agglutinative language which relies heavily on prefixes and suffixes. For the most part, word order changes do not influence the sentence and might only alter emphasis on one part of the sentence. In Hungary, they use the Roman alphabet, which makes it easier to read Hungarian than it might be to speak the language. With almost 11 million inhabitants, roughly 92% of the population in Hungary speaks the Hungarian language.

Different dialects of the Hungarian language

Differentiated by ethnology, there are quite a few different dialects of the Hungarian language. Although there are quite a few dialects, they do not differ from each other drastically. The dialects of the Hungarian language are

• Alföld
• West
• West Danube
• Danube-Tisza
• King’s Pass Hungarian
• Northeast Hungarian
• Northwest Hungarian
• Székely
• Hungarian Csángó
• West Hungarian

The most popular dialect of the Hungarian language is Hungarian Csángó. The dialect stems from the medieval times and has been preserved through the ages.

Learning the Hungarian language

Learning Hungarian can be quite challenging due to the difficulty of the grammar and the fact that it differs dramatically from other European languages. Living and working in Hungary might prove to be one of the best learning schools for the Hungarian language. Here are some of the most basic Hungarian phrases to learn as an expat:

Szia (see-yaw)

Translation: Hi!

Hogy Vagy? (Haw-j Vah-j)

Translation: How are you?

Koszonom – Szívesen (‘Keu-seu-neum – see-ve-shen’)

Translation: Thank you – you’re welcome

Nem beszélek magyarul (‘Nem bes-el-ek ma-ja-rule’)

Translation: I don’t speak Hungarian

Kérek egy pálinkát / sört / bort (‘Care-ek edge pah-link-cat / shirt / bore-t’)

Translation: One pálinka / beer / wine please

Tele vagyok (‘Te-le vah-dj-ock’)

Translation: I’m full

A számlát, kérem (‘Aw sam-lat keh-rem’)

Translation: Check, please

Egy kávét kérek szépen (‘Edge kah-v-it keh-reck say-pan’)

Translation: One coffee, please

Viszontlátásra! Viszlát! (‘Vee-sont-lah-tash-ra! Vee-slat!’)

Translation: Goodbye

Need more help?

Our team of expert immigration lawyers would love to help you transition into living and working in Hungary. If you need any assistance or have any queries, feel free to get in touch with us today!