Everything you need to know - the Hungarian alphabet

Published: July 28 2023

The Hungarian alphabet is a unique feature of the Magyar language, featuring 44 varied letters, including accents and digraphs. If you want to learn Hungarian, gaining an understanding of its alphabet is the essential first step. In this deep-dive, we will acquaint you with the intricacies of the Hungarian alphabet.

The version of the Hungarian alphabet we use today was established in 1844 by the Hungarian Linguistic Committee. It consists of 44 letters, which come with their unique sounds and phonetics. Here they are in their standard order:

`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.`

Hungarian is phonetic which means that, unlike English, each letter consistently corresponds to a certain sound. However, in Hungarian, not just single letters, but certain letter groups also correspond to specific sounds, called digraphs and trigraphs.

In the Hungarian alphabet, seven vowels come with accents: `á, é, í, ó, ö, ő, ú, ü, ű`. These accents modify the sound quality and the length of the vowels. In certain cases, they can also change the meaning of a word.

A digraph is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the written sequence of the individual characters. In Hungarian, digraphs are as follows: `cs, dz, gy, ly, ny, sz, ty, zs`.

A trigraph is a group of three characters used to represent a single sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters combined. Hungarian has one trigraph: `dzs`, which is similar to English 'j' in 'jam'.

Hungarian pronunciation can be difficult for English speakers due to certain sounds that don't exist in English. For instance, there is a soft 'l' that's akin to the 'll' in 'million'. The Hungarian 'r' is also rolled, much like in Spanish.

Getting the hang of digraphs and trigraphs might take some time. You must remember that these clusters represent single sounds. For example, 'sz' sounds like 's' and 'zs' sounds like 'g' in 'genre'.

The longest word in Hungarian is `megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért`. It's 44 letters long and means 'for your [plural] continued behaviour as if you could not be desecrated'.

Learning the Hungarian alphabet might seem daunting at first due to the number of letters and the unique sounds they represent. But don't be discouraged! With consistent practice, you'll soon be on your way to mastering the Magyar language. Take a step at a time, starting with the basics, and you'll find it's not as hard as it seems. You're now equipped with everything you need to know - the Hungarian alphabet. Happy learning!