Hungarian belongs to the Ugric group of the Uralic languages and originated on the Eastern side of the Ural mountains. From the Ural, ancient Magyars came to the Carpathian basin and settled there in the 9 century CE.

1. It Originated in Asia

Hungarian belongs to the Ugric group of the Uralic languages and originated on the Eastern side of the Ural mountains. From the Ural, ancient Magyars came to the Carpathian basin and settled there in the 9^th century CE.

2. It Is Loyal To Its Ancient Roots

The Hungarian language has managed to preserve around 68 percent of its etymons, compared to 4 percent of etymons in modern English. This means that Hungarian is very similar today to the way it was when it first formed.

3. It Has Very Long Words

The agglutinative nature of the Hungarian language, where words are often formed through combinations of morphemes, means that Hungarian has some very long words. Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért is officially the longest word in Hungarian, composed of 44 letters and meaning “for your [plural] continued behaviour as if you could not be desecrated”.

4. It Can Be Tricky To Learn

With its complex system of cases, as well as hundreds of suffixes and prefixes and 8-10 dialects, Hungarian can be difficult to learn. Additionally, it has very few similarities with most other languages, which makes learning it even harder.

5. It Is Also Called Magyar

While it is known in English as Hungarian (from Ugor or Ungar), the actual Hungarian word for “Hungarian” is Magyar.

6. It Has 40 Natural Letters and 14 Vowels

Hungarian has 40 natural letters as well as four letters borrowed from Latin and English. There are 14 vowels, compared to just five in the English language (six if you count Y).

7. It Relies On Intonation When Asking Yes / No Questions

In Hungarian, there is no modification of syntax or morphology when asking yes / no questions. Instead, intonation is used to indicate that a question is being asked. The pitch begins lower and rises towards the end, then drops sharply on the last syllable.

By Maia Nikitina

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