The phonology of the Hungarian language is notable for its process of vowel harmony, the frequent occurrence of geminate consonants and the presence of otherwise uncommon palatal stops.
Consonants[]
This is the Hungarian consonantal system, using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | c | ɟ* | k | ɡ | ʔ | |||
| Affricate | t͡s | d͡z | t͡ʃ | d͡ʒ | ||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | x | ɣ | h | |||
| Trill | ʙ | r | ||||||||||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | j | ɰ | ||||||||
Vowels[]
| Phoneme | Example | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| /ɒ/ | hat | /hɒt/ | 'six' |
| (/ɒː/) | a | /ɒː/ | 'the letter A' |
| (/ɑ/) | Svájc | /ʃvɑjt͡s/ | 'Switzerland' |
| /ɑː/ | lát | /lɑːt/ | 'see' |
| /o/ | ok | /ok/ | 'cause' |
| /oː/ | tó | /toː/ | 'lake' |
| /u/ | fut | /fut/ | 'run' |
| /uː/ | kút | /kuːt/ | 'well' |
| /ɛ/ | lesz | /lɛs/ | 'become' |
| (/ɛː/) | e | /ɛː/ | 'the letter E' |
| /eː/ | rész | /reːs/ | 'part' |
| /i/ | visz | /vis/ | 'carry' |
| /iː/ | víz | /viːz/ | 'water' |
| /ø/ | sör | /ʃør/ | 'beer' |
| /øː/ | bőr | /bøːr/ | 'skin' |
| /y/ | üt | /yt/ | 'hit' |
| /yː/ | tűz | /tyːz/ | 'fire' |
References[]
- ↑ Szende (1994:91)