Regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and other Uralic languages
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Hungarian pronunciation of English Old Hungarian script English words from Hungarian |
There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Uralic languages. For example, Hungarian á corresponds to Khanty o in certain positions, and Hungarian h corresponds to Khanty x, while Hungarian final z corresponds to Khanty final t. For example, Hungarian ház "house" vs. Khanty xot "house", and Hungarian száz "hundred" vs. Khanty sot "hundred".
The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular. The relationship is most obvious when comparing all the Ugric languages with all the Finnic languages, for then individual idiosyncrasies are averaged out, but here we will just compare Hungarian with Finnish and Estonian. One important difference between Hungarian and the Finnic languages is that Hungarian underwent the most salient features of Grimm's Law while the Finnic tongues did not.
- Hungarian [f] corresponds to Finnish and Estonian [p] (just like English [f] in father corresponds to Latin [p] in pater):
| Hungarian | Finnish | Estonian | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| fa | puu | puu | tree |
| fél | pelätä | pelgama | to fear |
| fészek | pesä | pesa | nest |
- Hungarian [k] corresponds to Finnish and Estonian [k] before front vowels:
| Hungarian | Finnish | Estonian | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| könny | kyynel | küünistama | tear |
| kéz | käsi | käsi | hand, arm |
| kő | kivi | kivi | stone |
- Hungarian [h] corresponds to Finnish and Estonian [k] before back vowels (just like English [h] in hound corresponds to Latin [k] in canis)
| Hungarian | Finnish | Estonian | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| hal | kala | kala | fish |
| ház | kota | koda | house (Hung.), hut (Finn. and Est.) |
| húgy | kusi | kusi | urine |
- Hungarian [t] corresponds to Finnish and Estonian [t] at the beginning of a word:
| Hungarian | Finnish | Estonian | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| tél | talvi | talv | winter |
| tud | tuntea | tundma | to know |
| tavasz | touko | spring |
- In the middle of words (note that due to the loss of the word final vocals in the Old-Hungarian language these are now at the end of the words) Hungarian [z] corresponds to Finnish [t] (which can alterate with [s]) and Estonian [d] or [t] (which is also able to alterate with [s]):
| Hungarian | Finnish | Estonian | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ház | kota | koda | house (Hung.), hut (Finn.) |
| kéz | käsi : käte- | käsi : käte- | hand, arm |
| fazék | pata | pada | pot |
This is just a sample. Even in the small number of words above, other regular sound correspondences can be seen, such as Hungarian [l] corresponding to Finnish and Estonian [l].
