At the Nagycsarnok in Budapest

Have you ever noticed the way that everything, but everything, gets shortened in Hungarian? Our teacher encouraged us to go to the market and explore what we could find, and I went to Budapest's beautiful (and very touristy) Nagycsarnok and photographed every abbreviation I could find. Here are the results.

“Koktél paradicsom” à “koktél pari” = “cherry tomato” (or “cocktail tomato”)

“Sárgahúsú őszibarack” à “Sárgahúsú őszi” = “yellow peach”

Note (hopefully a useful diversion): The –ú, -ű ending is also a useful one to be familiar with in Hungarian. It is used to create an adjective out of a noun. The word “sárga” (adj., “yellow”) is an adjective and thus can be used as a descriptor in and of itself. However, the addition of “hús” (n., “meat”) here complicates matters. In order to make the phrase into an adjectival phrase, the ending –ú is added, not unlike the use of –(e)d or –y in English. (So a literal translation would be along the lines of “yellow meated peach” or a peach “with yellow flesh.” This ending is also used in situations such as “szürke hájú férfi,” (“blond-haired man”) “bárna szemű lány” (“brown-eyed girl”). We’ll return to this form in a later post to talk about other ways adjectival forms are made, i.e. with –i and with –s.

“Fokhagyma” à “Foki” = “garlic”

“Uborka” à “ubi” = “cucumber”

“Kajszi barack” à “kajszi” = “apricot”

As above, “Magyar kigyó uborka” à “Magyar kigyó ubi” = what we’d call in the US, “English cucumber,” but here, literally, “Hungarian snake cucumber,” because it is shaped like a snake.

“Makói” – I can’t tell what this is. Unfortunately the picture is quite dark, too, but it appears to be onions. But how you get from "hagyma" ("onion") to "Makói" is a mystery to me. Is this a special variety of onion? Am I missing something? Anyone? 


Edit: Aha! I have answered my own question here with a little help from Google. The "makói vöröshagyma"-> "makói" ("yellow onion from Makó, Hungary") is a special variety of onion that inspires great pride in Makó. For some undoubtedly breathtakingly fascinating diversions on this topic, please see my accompanying blog, Magyar Ramble. To keep things on-topic I'll spill over there when I shift from an explicit language focus in the writing. And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

“Laska gomba” à “latyi” = “oyster mushroom” (this one was one I heard in the market; the full form of the name is on the placard).

. . . And I saved the very best for last!

“Sertés töpertés” à “Röfi töpi” = “pork rinds” (Right? I don’t eat these, so I’m not totally down on the lingo in English). From the Hungarian word for the sound that pigs make, “röf.”

Afterword:

On the tram the other night, too, there was a fun exchange. The typical full length version would go like this:

“Bocsánat” (“excuse me”). And when the fellow moves to the side, “köszönöm” (“thank you”). And then he might say, “Szívesen” (“you’re welcome”)

But instead: “Bocsi! Köszi!”

“Szívi!”

No cutting in during dances, because there is fighting

I found this on Pestiside.com, who in turn found it on Subba. As Pestiside explains it, “For the Hungarian-impaired, this sign from a dive bar in Hajdúszoboszló simply says that cutting in during dances is forbidden due to fighting.”

For those more curious about the specifics of the language, however, here’s a lengthier discussion of the ins and outs of the grammar. For those of you not interested in language, you’re on the wrong blog, and you will want to exit now, because this will make your head hurt very, very much.

Glosses

First, here are some literal glosses for the Hungarian learner:

tánc = n., “dance”

közben = “during”; in the midst of (-ben ending =in; köz = space, space between; there are many related words such as közös [collective; public]; között [between], közép [middle], etc.)

lekérés = “cutting in on”, from le (a verbal prefix that often conveys downward directionality, but isn’t limited to that)+ kérés (“appeal”; “request”; “petition”; “prayer”). I don’t know if lekérés is limited to the context of asking for a dance or if there are other usages, but the big Varga and Lázár English-Hungarian dictionary gives only the example of dance for their gloss of “lekér” as v., “cut in on something”. It's also the only example given by Sztaki's online dictionary.

nincs = v., “there is none” (van = there is; when it’s negated it becomes “nincs” rather than “nem van”)

mert = “because”

verekedés = n., “brawl”; “fight”; “fray” (from the related verb verekedik [v., fight] from which the stem is vereked) (Edit: haha, thanks Richard for the correction)

 
van = v., “there is”

Some discussion of the grammar

Hungarian language has a wonderful thrift about it; often an idea that typically requires a longer phrase in English can be expressed in a word or two in Hungarian. I imagine such a sign in the US might read exactly as Pestiside has explained it in 9 words, but there are 6 in the Hungarian sign. Perhaps this is why my Hungarian teacher calls English a "primitive language."

However, you also may note the subtle difference in meaning between the Pestiside translation and the original. A more literal translation might read: “There is no cutting in during dances, because there is fighting.” The notion of “due to” is generally conveyed in Hungarian with the word “miatt,” e.g. a sign at a shop that reads “Zárva van a technikai okok miatt” (Closed due to technical reasons”). With the statement “verekedés van” (“there is fighting”), the restaurant sign suggests that there have been fights, and they’re a regular enough occurrence that there needs to be a sign forbidding cutting in during the dance. Moreover, they don’t use the term “tilos” which most closely resembles the English word “forbidden” in its meaning. Instead, “lekérés . . . nincs” is used, or “there is no cutting in”.

There’s another notable grammatical point, though. The gerund form of “fighting” in English that Pestiside uses for their translation conveys an appropriate meaning, but it’s interesting that the noun formed from a verb in Hungarian takes a different form than in English, or perhaps more precisely, the noun form of verbs is used in different contexts in Hungarian than it is in English.

There is another verb form in Hungarian (-va,-ve) that specifically conveys a processural idea that is conveyed with the gerund in English. EG: “Még nem kész a vácsóra; most van sütve” (“Dinner isn’t ready yet, it’s now cooking”). [EDIT: As Richard has kindly noted below, however, this is a highly unlikely utterance, something along the line of "Dinner isn't ready; it's in the process of being cooked" in English. And perhaps, as he notes, it is more appropriate to liken it to the English form -ed, but many contexts in which it is used in Hungarian don't correspond with that form in English. I'll do another post on this some other time, to highlight its usage, but common places where one sees this is in the case of shops that are “nyitva” (“open”) or “zárva” (“closed”). It describes something about the state of being.]


The -va, -ve ending is also used in the context also of the manner in which something is done, e.g. “Milyen szeretné a halat, sütve vagy grillezve?” (“How would you like the fish, fried or grilled?”) 

Here, however, the -és,-ás ending is used (in many cases) to make the noun form of a verb, which is typical for such contexts in Hungarian. A good example is the verb “tanul” (v., “study” or literally, "s/he studies"). When making this verb into a noun in Hungarian, it becomes “tanulás” (n., “study”). Similarly, “utazik” (“travel” or literally, “s/he travels”) becomes “utazás” (n., “travel”) and “tanít” (v., “teach” or literally, “s/he teaches”) becomes “tanítás” (n., “teaching”). Thus, “lekér” (v., “cut in”, or literally “s/he cuts in”) à “lekérés” (n., “cutting in”) and “verekedik”(v., “fight”, or literally “s/he fights”) à”verekedés” (n., “fight” or “fighting”).

Verbs that take the form –ik in Hungarian are a special group that are conjugated with –ik in the third-person singular (E.G. "utazom", "utazol", "utazik" = "I travel," "you travel," "s/he travels"). Because the fun of verb conjugations, including those of the –ik verbs, Hungarian dictionaries list the third-person singular form of the verb rather than the infinitive. The verb stem is the basis for other parts of speech, as in this case when you want to make a noun from a verb, and the –ik is removed to create the verb stem.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to "Mindennapi Magyar." For those of you who don't speak Hungarian, the blog title means "Everyday Hungarian." The concept is simple: linguistic analysis and discussion of found objects in Hungary. A focus on a combination of language and culture, generally with a sociolinguistic/anthropological approach.  An emphasis on grammatical forms for the Hungarian language learner. Written by an American anthropologist living in Hungary.

Personally, I've been studying Hungarian on and off since 1996 through a variety of means, including group courses at many different language schools in Hungary and private instruction with many exceptional teachers in Hungary and the United States. Not having any Hungarian family, I started at 0 with the language when I began to learn some basic phrases from my Hungarian-American housemate in college in California. (Her parents were '56ers -- meaning they left Hungary around the time of the 1956 revolution -- and she was one of the major reasons I came to be interested in this wonderful little country.)

Currently I'm a student at the Budapest branch of Debreceni Nyari Egyetem, which I heartily recommend to anyone and everyone interested in getting a handle on this language. The super-intensive spring course I took from them in Debrecen in 2003 was the turning point for me in my language study, the point when things finally began to gel. The school has been around since the 1920s and they always have excellent, very competent teachers, who are patient and thoughtful and excellent at breaking down and explaining the grammar in an understandable fashion. Hungarian is notoriously difficult for foreigners to learn, and it can be very frustrating. But it's a fascinating and colorful language. And the language is what we'll be focusing on here.

One note: As noted above, I'm not a native speaker, but rather a language learner. While I do my best to explain my own understanding of the Hungarian language, I'll inevitably make errors. Corrections, alternate opinions and explanations, and other commentary are all warmly welcomed.