Hungarian dialects
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Hungarian has ten dialects. These are fully mutually intelligible, and do not differ significantly from standard Hungarian except for the Csángó dialect. They are mostly distinguished by pronunciation; although there are differences in vocabulary, these are usually small and do not hinder intelligibility. Due to increased internal migration and urbanization during the 20th century, most of the characteristics of the different dialects can only be observed in smaller towns and villages, and even there mostly among the elderly; the population of the larger cities and especially the capital has been mixed for generations and the dialectal differences have been lost. A notable exception is the Western Transdanubian pronunciation, which is distinctly noticeable even in
Szombathely Szombathely (; german: Steinamanger, ; see also other alternative names) is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria. Szombathely lies by t ...
, the largest city in the region. The following dialectical regions are currently distinguished by researchers: # Western Transdanubian # Central Transdanubian – Little Hungarian Plain # Southern Transdanubian # Southern Great Plain # Palóc #
Tisza The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa, is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. Once, it was called "the most Hungarian river" because it flowed entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national borders. The Tisza be ...
Körös The Körös () or Criș () (German: ''Kreisch'') is a river in eastern Hungary and western Romania. Its length is from the confluence of its two source rivers Fehér-Körös (''Crișul Alb'') and Fekete-Körös (''Crișul Negru'') to its out ...
# Northeastern # Transylvanian Plain ''(Mezőség)'' #
Székely Székely may refer to: *Székelys, Hungarian people from the historical region of Transylvania, Romania **Székely Land, historic and ethnographic area in Transylvania, Romania * Székely (village), a village in northeastern Hungary *Székely (sur ...
#
Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...
n ''( Csángó)'' The last three are spoken outside the current territory of Hungary, in parts of Romania. The Csángó dialect is spoken primarily in
Bacău County Bacău County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with its capital city at Bacău. It has one commune, Ghimeș-Făget, in Transylvania. Geography This county has a total area of . In the western part of the county the ...
in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from other
Hungarian people Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and  ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Ural ...
, and they therefore preserved a dialect closely resembling an earlier form of Hungarian. A former classification distinguished the following dialects:
Great Hungarian Plain The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, hu, Alföld or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain. (However, the Great Hungarian plain ...
, West Danube, Danube-
Tisza The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa, is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. Once, it was called "the most Hungarian river" because it flowed entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national borders. The Tisza be ...
(territories between the two rivers), King's Pass Hungarian (Pass in
Apuseni Mountains The Apuseni Mountains ( ro, Munții Apuseni, hu, Erdélyi-középhegység) is a mountain range in Transylvania, Romania, which belongs to the Western Romanian Carpathians, also called ''Occidentali'' in Romanian. Their name translates from Ro ...
), Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian,
Székely Székely may refer to: *Székelys, Hungarian people from the historical region of Transylvania, Romania **Székely Land, historic and ethnographic area in Transylvania, Romania * Székely (village), a village in northeastern Hungary *Székely (sur ...
, West Hungarian and Csángó. This classification was also used by
Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...
, with the exception of the Csángó dialect, which was mentioned but not listed separately. In addition there are seven dialects of Hungarian Sign Language.


The dialects

;Western Transdanubian dialect Formerly called West Hungarian. Due to the proximity of Austria its vocabulary is somewhat affected by German; for "yes", German ''ja'' is commonly substituted for standard Hungarian . Its pronunciation is characterized by the shortening of long vowels ( instead of standard , instead of ) and the lengthening of consonants ( instead of standard , instead of ). Uses the ë (closed "e") vowel profusely. The consonant "l" is often lost after a long vowel or at the end of words. Consonants are often palatalized ( instead of standard ), however, "ly" (originally a palatalized "l" in the dialect from which standard Hungarian evolved) becomes "l" instead of the more common "j". ;Central Transdanubian / Little Hungarian Plain dialect and Southern Transdanubian dialect Formerly called Transdanubian dialect. Central Transdanubian has several subdialects including the Csallóköz, the Mátyusföld and the Szigetköz dialects. These dialects share some similarities with Western Transdanubian, both in pronunciation and in vocabulary, but the latter was also affected by the South Slavic languages, due to their geographical proximity. ''Ja'' for is common; they distinguish between open and closed ''e'' sound, though here it is the open ''e'' that differs from standard Hungarian, sounding more like a short ''a''. ;Southern Great Plain dialect or Southern dialect Spoken mostly between the rivers
Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
and
Tisza The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa, is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. Once, it was called "the most Hungarian river" because it flowed entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national borders. The Tisza be ...
; also in the
Banat Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of ...
. This was also the dialect of Budapest and its surroundings. Its vocabulary does not show significant differences from standard Hungarian; its dialect words come from Transdanubian, Palóc and Tisza regions. This has historical causes: the area suffered the most significant losses during Hungary's Ottoman occupation in the 16th-17th centuries, and was repopulated from different regions of the country. In pronunciation it often uses a vowel which is a cross between "e" and "ö". ;Palóc or Northwestern dialect Spoken in the northwestern part of the Cisdanubian region; mostly in the counties of
Nógrád Nógrád ( sk, Novohrad; german: Neuburg) is a village in Nógrád County, Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, ...
,
Heves Heves is a small town in eastern Hungary. About 100 km east of Budapest, Heves lies at the northern extreme of the Great Hungarian Plain, just south of the Mátra and Bükk hills and west of the Tisza River. Heves gave its name to the Heves ...
and the former county of
Borsod Borsod was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. The capital of the county was Miskolc. After World War II, the county was merged with the Hungarian parts of Abaúj-Torna County and Zemplén counties to form Borsod-Aba ...
(now the western half of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén), a part of Pest and Bács-Kiskun; also spoken in Southern
Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...
. Its vocabulary may use words from Slovak. Standard ''a'' is substituted by a short ''á'', while standard ''á'' is substituted by a vowel closer to standard ''ó''. Its best known distinguishing characteristic is the use of
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
s (''au'' in place of standard ''o'', ''ie'' in place of ''é''). It is one of the few dialects that still pronounce ''ly'', the palatalized version of ''l'' which, in other dialects, has already merged into another consonant (in standard and in most dialects into ''j'', in some dialects into ''l''.) ;Tisza-Körös dialect or eastern dialect Formerly called Tisza dialect. It is spoken east of the river Tisza, also by Hungarians living in Romania and Ukraine. It has vocabulary similarities with the nearby Transylvanian Plain dialect. Its pronunciation is marked by the use of ''í'' instead of the standard ''é'': ''níz'' instead of ''néz'', ''píz'' instead of ''pénz''. East of
Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and ...
the vowel ''e'' is commonly pronounced instead of standard ''ö'' (''ser'' instead of ''sör''), though not in all words. As common in dialects this side of the Danube, open and closed e is not distinguished. The consonants l, r and j at the end of a syllable often lengthen its vowel. ;Northeastern dialect Spoken in the eastern part of
Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén ( hu, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén megye, ; sk, Boršodsko-abovsko-zemplínska) is an administrative county ( comitatus or ''megye)'' in north-eastern Hungary (commonly called "Northern Hungary"), on the border with Slovakia ( K ...
(mostly in the former county Zemplén), also in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County and parts of Slovakia. It was the main dialect of the region where important literary figures such as
Ferenc Kazinczy Ferenc Kazinczy (in older English: Francis Kazinczy, October 27, 1759 – August 23, 1831) was a Hungarian author, poet, translator, neologist, an agent in the regeneration of the Hungarian language and literature at the turn of the 19th centu ...
(leading figure of the reforming and revitalizing of Hungarian in the 18th century) and
Ferenc Kölcsey Ferenc Kölcsey (archaically English: Francis Kolcsey, 8 August 1790 in Sződemeter – 24 August 1838) was a Hungarian poet, literary critic, orator, and politician, noted for his support of the liberal current in Hungary regarding the poli ...
(also a language reformer, author of the National Anthem) lived and worked; also, of Vizsoly, where the first extant Hungarian Bible translation was published. Due to the dialect forming the basis of standard literary Hungarian, it has no significant differences from it, although it is not identical with it. The small differences are mainly in vocabulary, though in some parts, close to the connecting Tisza-Körös region, ''í'' is commonly pronounced instead of standard ''e'' and there are differences in verb conjugation – a distinctive characteristics that was not adopted by standard Hungarian is the different future tense of auxiliary verbs ''kell'' ("must", "have to") and ''lehet'' ("may", "might"), with ''kell lesz'' and ''lehet lesz'' used instead of the standard ''kell majd'' and ''lehet majd''. The dialect's characteristics, such as not differentiating between open and closed e, and pronouncing the consonant ''ly'', have had a lasting effect on the standardized spelling of Hungarian. ;Transylvanian Plain dialect Formerly called King's Pass, after a mountain pass in Transylvania. It is spoken in the non-Székely parts of Transylvania, a region of Romania formerly belonging to Hungary. Its characteristics are the pronunciation of ''a'' instead of standard ''o'' (''bagár'' instead of standard ''bogár''), and ''á'' instead of ''a''. In several parts of the region the vowels are shortened (''házbol'' instead of ''házból''). Interestingly, it retains the
preterite The preterite or preterit (; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple ...
tense, the use of which has been steadily declining in other dialects since the Middle Hungarian period; in standard Hungarian its last appearance was in literary texts of the second half of the 19th century, and it has been obsolete since then. ;Székely dialect The dialect most commonly associated with Transylvania has a distinctive vocabulary. Together with the region's traditions and folk culture it has given rise to significant literary works. The Székely dialect makes use of several Romanian loan words, which are not always understood by speakers of standard Hungarian. ;Moldavian dialect Commonly called the ''Csángó'' dialect, this dialect differs the most from standard Hungarian, as a result of isolation from other Hungarian regions. The region where it is spoken is completely separated from the current territory of Hungary. The dialect has two subdialects: the archaic dialect and the Székely-Csángó dialect, the former being the only independently developed dialect of Hungarian, and could also be considered a
regional language * A regional language is a language spoken in a region of a sovereign state, whether it be a small area, a federated state or province or some wider area. Internationally, for the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Lan ...
, while the latter was heavily influenced by the neighbouring Székely dialect. The Romanian census lists Csángó speakers separately from Hungarians. The archaic Csángó dialect still retains several characteristics of Middle Hungarian, the medieval version of Hungarian, but has a number of Romanian loanwords. Due to its extensive use of
archaism In language, an archaism (from the grc, ἀρχαϊκός, ''archaïkós'', 'old-fashioned, antiquated', ultimately , ''archaîos'', 'from the beginning, ancient') is a word, a sense of a word, or a style of speech or writing that belongs to a hi ...
s and words specific to the dialect, it is difficult to understand even for Hungarians who also speak Romanian. It has about 10–15,000 speakers, with a further 10–13,000 speakers who use a mixture of Archaic and Székely-Csángó dialects. Székely-Csángó dialect shows similarities with Székely subdialects, but it lacks words created during the language reform and has a larger amount of Romanian loanwords. The majority of Csángós, around 40,000 persons, speak this dialect. ;Romungro dialect The Romungro dialect is a version of Hungarian used by Roma people living in Hungary in various stages of assimilation. A large number of Hungarian Roma do not speak their original languages (
Lovari Lovari ("horse-dealer", from Hungarian "ló", ''horse'') is a subgroup of the Romani people, who speak their own dialect, influenced by Hungarian and West Slavic dialects. They live predominantly throughout Central Europe (Hungary, Poland, Sl ...
or
Boyash Boyash or ''Bayash'' (endonym: ''Bȯjáṡ'', Romanian: ''Băieși'', Hungarian: ''Beás'', Slovak: ''Bojáš'', South Slavic: ''Bojaši'') refers to a Romani ethnic group living in Romania, southern Hungary, northeastern and northwestern ...
) any more, but Romungro has a large number of loan words from them. Original Romani words are conjugated in accordance with the rules of Hungarian grammar; the Romani effect on Romungro can be observed mostly in the vocabulary. Some words have meanings that in standard Hungarian are expressed by a related word (for example a sly person using other persons for personal gain would be referred to as a ''snake'' in standard Hungarian and as a ''reptile'' in Romungro). The dialect also has its own proverbs. It has regional differences, which are hard to ascertain, as the dialect is poorly researched, but several typical characteristics are known, such as pronouncing ''á'' instead of standard ''a'', ''ű'' instead of ''ő'', ''u'' instead of ''o'', ''í'' instead of ''é''. Several words or suffixes are shortened, for example the inessive suffix ''-ban'' and the illative suffix ''-ba'' are merged (in standard Hungarian this is usually a sign of someone being uneducated, which does not help the dialect's status in public opinion). The dialect has a distinctive intonation which easily lends itself to imitation by comedians mocking Roma or lower-class Hungarian people. Despite its low status, several of its Romani loanwords have found their way into standard Hungarian, although mostly as slang words. This means that the dialect is completely intelligible for speakers of standard Hungarian.


See also

*
History of the Hungarian language Hungarian is a Uralic language of the Ugric group. It has been spoken in the region of modern-day Hungary since the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century. Hungarian's ancestral language probably separated from th ...
*
Funeral Sermon and Prayer The Funeral Sermon and Prayer ( hu, Halotti beszéd és könyörgés) is the oldest known and surviving contiguous Hungarian text, written by one scribal hand in the Latin script and dating to 1192–1195. It is found on f.154a of the Codex Pr ...
* Old Hungarian 'Lamentations of Mary'


References

{{reflist Hungarian language