Hungarian alphabet


The Hungarian alphabet is an extension of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Hungarian language.
The alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, with a couple added variations of letters.
One sometimes speaks of the smaller and greater Hungarian alphabets, depending on whether or not the letters Q, W, X, Y are listed, which can only be found in foreign words and traditional orthography of names.
The 44 letters of the extended Hungarian alphabet are:

Description

Each sign shown above counts as a letter in its own right in Hungarian. Some, such as the letter ó and ő, are inter-filed with the letter preceding it when sorting words alphabetically, whereas others, such as ö, have their own place in collation rather than also being inter-filed with o.
While long vowels count as different letters, long consonants do not. Long consonants are marked by duplication: e.g. <tt>, <gg>, <zz>. For the di- and tri-graphs a simplification rule normally applies : only the first letter is duplicated: e.g.
<sz> + <sz> → <ssz>,
<ty> + <ty> → <tty> ,
<dzs> + <dzs> → <ddzs>.
An exception is made at the joining points of compound words, for example: jegygyűrű 'engagement ring' not jeggyűrű.

Pronunciation

The pronunciation given for the following Hungarian letters is that of standard Hungarian.
LetterNamePhoneme Complementary allophones Close toNotes
Aasimilar to British English cot might describe it better. Still definitely not, but more like
Ááan extended fatherNot nearly as open as the a in American English hat, but closer to it than Hungarian a
Bbéas by, ab etc.
Ccélike pots
Cscséas check, cheek, etching etc.
Ddédeck, wide etc.
Dzdzélike in kidsrare. does not occur at the beginning of words. When neither post- nor preconsonantic, always realised as a geminate.
Dzsdzséjam, George, bridge, edge, fridgerare, mostly in loanwords. when final or intervocalic, usually realised as a geminate: maharadzsa 'maharajah', bridzs 'bridge ', but dzsungel 'jungle', fridzsider coll. 'refrigerator'
Eelike less, cheque, edge, bedabout 40-50% of speakers also have a phoneme . is not considered part of standard Hungarian, wherein takes the place of.
Éécafé
Feffind, euphoria
Ggéget, leg, go etc.
Gygyédenoting by <gy> is a remnant of Italian scribes who tried to render the Hungarian sound. <dy> would be a more consistent notation in scope of <ty>, <ny>, <ly>, as the <y> part of digraphs show palatalisation in the Hungarian writing system.
Hhá1.
2.
3.
4. 		Basic: hi
1. behind
2. honest
3. Loch, Chanukah
4. human		1. when in intervocalic position.
2. not rendered usually when in final position méh 'bee', cseh 'Czech'
3. seldom, in final position, such as in doh 'dampness', MÉH 'metal recycling facility'
4. seldom, such as in ihlet 'inspiration'
Iisea, key, treePronounced the same as Í, only shorter
Ííleek, leave, seed, seaVowel length is phonemically distinctive in Hungarian: irt = 'to exterminate' and írt = 'to write '
Jjé, you, yes, faithallophones occur when occurs after a consonant;. e.g. férj 'husband', kapj 'get! '
Kkákey, kiss, weak
Lelleave, list
Lyelly, el-ipszilon / play, pray
Memmind, assume, might,
Nen
thing, lying,
need, bone 		allophone before,
Nyenycanyon
Ooforce, sorcererA shorter, more open variant of Ó. Unlike with short e, which is opened to in standard speech, short o remains, rather than opening to where it would come close to clashing with short a.
ÓóNot in standard English. go, snow are approximations, but are diphthongs, unlike the HungarianSame as except longer. It is important to pay attention to.
Öö; similar to shwa /ə/ except with rounded lips.A shorter, more open variant of Ő
ŐőMinimal pair to : öt = 'five' and őt = 'him/her '
Ppépeas, apricot, hope
kúQ occurs only as part of the digraph qu in foreign words, realised as : Aquincum . Words originally spelled with qu are today usually spelled with kv, as in akvarell 'watercolor painting'.
RerThe closest equivalent is ralso called apical trill as pronounced by trilling the tip of your tongue and not the uvula.
Sesshare, wish, shoutThis notation is unusual for European writing systems where <s> usually stands for. In Hungarian, is represented by <sz>.
Szeszsay, estimate
Ttétell, least, feast
Tytyétube
Uurude
Úúdo, foolminimal pair to : hurok 'loop' ∼ húrok 'cords'
ÜüA shorter, more open variant of ű
Űű
Vvévery, every
dupla véview, evolve, vacuumonly occurs in foreign words and in Hungarian aristocratic surnames
ikszoccurs only in loanwords, and there only when denoting ; is transcribed: extra, Alexandra, but egzakt 'exact'.
ipszilonhappyUsually combined with another letter to form a new sound. In loanwords, usually rendered as or. Occurs very often in old Hungarian aristocratic surnames where it stands for or : 'Báthory', 'Batthyány'
Zzédesert, roses
Zszsépleasure, leisure

The letter ë is not part of the Hungarian alphabet; however, linguists use this letter to distinguish between the two kinds of short e sounds of some dialects. This letter was first used in 1770 by György Kalmár, but has never officially been part of the Hungarian alphabet, as the standard Hungarian language does not distinguish between these two sounds. However, the ë sound is pronounced differently from the e sound in 6 out of the 10 Hungarian dialects and the sound is pronounced as ö in 1 dialect. It is also used in names.
The digraph ch also exists in some words and is pronounced the same as h. In names, it is pronounced like cs as well as like h or k .

Historic spellings used in names and historical documents

Old spellings used in some Hungarian names and their corresponding pronunciation according to modern spelling include the following:
Historic spellingPronounced like modern spelling
bbb
czc
tzc
zc
chcs
czcs
čcs
ćcs
tscs
cshcs
tschcs
tzschcs
chscs
cycs
ʟcs
ddd
dszdz
dsdzs
fff
phf
ghg
dgyggy
dygy
ggy
gigy
gjgy
gʹ~g′gy
ǵgy
ġgy
jgy
jjj
lj
yj
ckk
khk
xks
xyksz
xzksz
qukv
lll
lll
wlv
jly
lly
lily
ryly
llyly
′l~l′~ŀly
nny
niny
nʹ~n′ny
ńny
ṅny
myny
php
ppp
rhr
rrr
ꝛr
schs
sss
ssssz
ssz
scsz
sysz
zsz
tht
ttt
tity
tʹ~t′ty
ṫty
kyty
uv
wv
sz
szs
sszs
zyzs
'zs

Historic spellingPronounced like modern spelling
aá
aaá
aáá
áhá
äe
aee
aie
aye
áeé
áié
áyé
eé
eeé
eéé
éhé
ií
iéí
íhí
iií
iíí
åo
oó
óhó
ooó
oóó
uaó
âö
åeö
åiö
åyö
eöö
ewö
oeö
oiö
oyö
eöő
eőő
ewő
iaő
öő
őhő
ööő
öőő
óeő
óiő
óyő
üaő
uú
úhú
uóú
uuú
uúú
ueü
uiü
uyü
üű
űhű
üőű
üüű
üűű
úeű
úiű
úyű
aëaj
aïaj
aÿaj
eiaj
áëáj
áïáj
áÿáj
åëoj
åïoj
åÿoj
euoj
oëoj
oïoj
oÿoj
óëój
óïój
óÿój
auuj
uëuj
uïuj
uÿuj
úëúj
úïúj
úÿúj
y ~ gÿgi
yji
ýjí
y ~ lÿi
y ~ nÿi or i
y ~ tÿti

Generally, y in historic spellings of names formed with the -i affix can exist after many other letters. Here are listed only examples which can be easily misread because of such spelling.
Examples:
NamePronounced as if spelled
MadáchMadács
SzéchenyiSzécsényi or Szécsenyi
BatthyányBattyányi
GajdátsyGajdácsi
ThökölyTököli
WeöresVörös
EötvösÖtvös
KassayKassai
DebrődyDebrődi
KarczagyKarcagi
VörösmartyVörösmarti
CházárCsászár
CzukorCukor
BaloghBalog
VarghaVarga
:hu:Az zenth Paal leueley magyar nyeluen|PaalPál
GaálGál
VeérVér
RédeyRédei
SoósSós
ThewrewkTörök
DessewffyDezsőfi'

Historic spellings of article and conjunctions

In early editions the article a/az was written according to the following rules:
The abbreviated form of the conjunction és, which is always written today as s, was likely to be written with an apostrophe before — ’s.

Capitalisation

The di- and the trigraphs are capitalised in names and at the beginning of sentences by capitalising the first glyph of them only.
In abbreviations and when writing with all capital letters, however, one capitalises the second character as well.
Thus :
While the characters with diacritical marks are considered separate letters, vowels that differ only in length are treated the same when ordering words. Therefore, for example, the pairs O/Ó and Ö/Ő are not distinguished in ordering, but Ö follows O. In cases where two words are differentiated solely by the presence of an accent, the one without the accent is put before the other one.
The polygraphic consonant signs are treated as single letters.
comb
cukor
csak comes after
...
folyik
folyó<ó> is sorted as
folyosó
...
főand <ő> is sorted as <ö>,
födémbut <ö> comes after
...

The simplified geminates of multigraphs such as <nny>, <ssz> are collated as <ny>+<ny>, <sz>+<sz> etc., if they are double geminates, rather than co-occurrences of a single letter and a geminate.
Similar 'ambiguities', which can occur with compounds are dissolved and collated by sense.
These rules make Hungarian alphabetic ordering algorithmically difficult, which was a problem for computer software development.

Keyboard layout

The standard Hungarian keyboard layout is German-based. This layout allows direct access to every character in the Hungarian alphabet.
The letter "Í" is often placed left of the space key, leaving the width of the left Shift key intact. "Ű" may be located to the left of Backspace, making that key smaller, but allowing for a larger Enter key. Ű being close to Enter often leads to it being typed instead of hitting Enter, especially when one has just switched from a keyboard that has Ű next to backspace. The German "ß" and the Polish "Ł" are also present.

Letter frequencies

The most common letters in Hungarian are e and a.
The list below shows the letter frequencies for the smaller Hungarian alphabet in descending order.
LetterFrequency
e12.256%
a9.428%
t7.380%
n6.445%
l6.383%
s5.322%
k4.522%
é4.511%
i4.200%
m4.054%
o3.867%
á3.649%
g2.838%
r2.807%
z2.734%
v2.453%
b2.058%
d2.037%
sz1.809%
j1.570%
h1.341%
gy1.185%
ő0.884%
ö0.821%
ny0.790%
ly0.738%
ü0.655%
ó0.634%
f0.582%
p0.509%
í0.499%
u0.416%
cs0.260%
ű0.125%
c0.114%
ú0.104%
zs0.021%
dz<0.010%
dzs<0.010%
ty<0.010%