page 9 note 1 Baltimore, 1938; pp. 113. (LSA Monograph no. 18.)

page 9 note 2 Dr. Imre Várady, Grammatica della Lingua Ungherese xi (Rome, 1931).

page 9 note 3 Cf. Zsigmond Simonyi, Die ungarische Sprache 2–24 (Strassburg, 1907); József Szinnyei, Finnisch-ugrische Sprachwissenschaft 19 (Berlin und Leipzig, 1922).

page 10 note 4 Cf. Simonyi 131–151.

page 11 note 5 Zoltán Gombocz, ‘Über die Haupttypen der ungarischen Verbalformen’, Ungarische Jahrbücher 10.1–15.

page 12 note 6 The lists of nouns, verb roots, etc., have been based on those in Várady, revised and supplemented from other sources.

page 12 note 7 A. Sauvageot, Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique 40.185–6 (1938); S. Bence, Hungarian Quarterly 4.766–7 (1939/40); N. Szenczi, Modern Language Review 35.119–20 (1940); L. C. Tihany, Review of Slavic Studies 21.180–183 (1943); Messrs. Eugene Klein, Thomas A. Sebeok (personal correspondence).

page 13 note 1 The phonemic transcription is enclosed in solidi, the phonetic transcription in square brackets; the symbol | indicates syllable division. Stress is indicated by'.

page 13 note 2 Cf. Gy. Laciczius, ‘Probleme der Phonologie’, Ungarische Jahrbücher 15.495–510 (1936); T. Sebeok, ‘Notes on Hungarian Vowel Phonemes’, Lang. 19.164 (1913).

page 13 note 3 In the speech of the younger generation, the geminate vowel clusters /ii, uu, yy/ have dropped out of use, and have been replaced by the corresponding single vowels. Cf. Sebeok, Lang. 19.162–4 (1943), and references there given.

page 13 note 4 There was also formerly a short close /ẹ/ phoneme, as in /emb ׅ r/ ‘man’ ['ϵm|ber]; /nekẹm/ ‘to me’ ['nϵ|kem], etc., which is often mentioned in Hungarian grammars (e.g. Simonyi 194; Várady 3). In the standard language, however, the short close [e] sound has been replaced by [ϵ]. In the Danube-Tisza dialect, this phoneme is represented by /ø/, appearing in alternate forms of certain words in the standard language, e.g. /fønn/ = /fenn/ ‘above’.

page 14 note 5 For the phonemic interpretation of long consonants, cf. M. Swadesh, Lang. 13.1–10 (1937).

page 15 note 6 The sound [λ] formerly existed as a separate phoneme, but in standard Hungarian speech it has disappeared and become entirely fused with /j/; it is, however, still kept distinct in conventional orthography (cf. §1.71).

page 17 note 7 A. Sauvageot (BSL 40.186 [1938]) professes surprise at this statement and this example; but the phenomenon is obvious to any careful listener. Cf. also Várady 13.

page 19 note 8 Cf. T. Sebeok, SIL 2. 47–50 (1944), with a slightly different morphophonemic symbol ism from the one used here.

page 22 note 1 Várady and Mr. Sebeok give the plural of /gunaar/ as /gunarak/; Mr. Eugene Klein (personal communication) gives it as /gunaarok/.

page 23 note 2 Nouns of this group are of two types according to origin: those in which the shorter stem-form arose through syncopation in the suffixed forms (e.g. */økørøk/ > /økrøk/), and those in which the shorter stem-form was original, and the lengthened nominative form arose through svarabhakti in the final consonant cluster (e.g. */aalmu/ > */aalṃ/ > /aalom/); Simonyi 341.

page 28 note 3 Except when the pronoun is formed on a family name: /meesaarošeek/ ‘the Mészároses’.

page 29 note 4 The customary procedure is to present /(j)^a|e/ as the third person singular possessive suffix, and /(j)^u|yk/ as the third person plural suffix, without further analysis. This is unsatisfactory, however, from several viewpoints, notably in the light of the behavior of the plural suffix /i/ when added to nouns in the third singular or plural possessive (§2.152). In all persons except the third singular, the possessive suffix in its barest form is added after the plural suffix /i/ (e.g. /køɲveim, køɲveid/ etc.; 3. pl. /køɲveik/); and in such forms the preceding /a/ or /e/ can be interpreted only as an auxiliary vowel between stem and plural suffix. When we come to the third person singular of nouns provided with the plural suffix (/køɲvei/) it is hard to see anything but a zero-ending to indicate the third singular. Transferring this consideration to nouns in the singular, we can hardly escape the conclusion that the /a ~ e, ja ~ je/ and /u ~ y, ju ~ jy/ seen in the third person singular and plural are simply auxiliary vowels preceding the possessive endings zero and /k/ respectively.

Otherwise, with the formulation mentioned at the beginning of this note, we are forced to consider (as does, for example, Várady 43 f.) the /a ~ e, ja ~ je/ seen before the plural suffix /i/ as a carrying over of the 3. sg. possessive suffix into the pluralized noun in a new use—that of auxiliary vowel: a phenomenon without parallel in the rest of the Hungarian language. Or else we must establish a troublesome exception to the rule of the order of suffixes set up in §2.1.

The formulation proposed here has two advantages: that of permitting an unexcepted formulation of the rule of the order of suffixes; and that of bringing the personal possessive suffixes fully in line with the corresponding verbal endings (cf. the table, Personal Endings of Verbs, §2.34).

page 29 note 5 The character of the intervening auxiliary vowel (if any) determines the form of /x³/ used.

page 30 note 6 Note, however, that certain of the nouns ending in /t/ which require /j/ before the auxiliary /^a|a/ of the third person possessive suffixes when in the singular, do not require it when the possessive suffixes are preceded by the plural suffix /i/, e.g. /baraat́t́a/ ‘his friend’ ~ /baraatai/ ‘his friends’.

page 30 note 7 But for /erdøø, vessøø, nøø/, Sebeok gives /erdøøje, vessøøje, nøøje/, the last-mentioned as equivalent to ‘ “his woman”, in somewhat pejorative sense—“his mistress”, perhaps (but that's too strong!)‘.

page 31 note 8 Cf. fn. 6 to this chapter for nouns which substitute /^a|e/ for /j^a|e as auxiliary when declined in the plural.

page 33 note 9 Except with nouns ending in /a/ or /e/, cf. §2.13.

page 34 note 10 Corresponding in function to our prepositions, except that they follow directly the noun they govern.

page 36 note 11 Cf. Gombocz, Ung. Jb. 10.1–15.

page 37 note 12 I.e. when it takes the auxiliary vowel /i/ immediately following, instead of the /jaa/ of back-vowel verbs in these persons.

page 40 note 13 Inasmuch as the future uses the present endings almost throughout, and is of no importance for colloquial speech, it has not been listed separately except when special peculiarities called for notice.

page 41 note 14 The /j/ of this and the following (/j^aa|ee/) fuses with preceding /s, š, z/, as does the /j/ of the imperative sign (§1.62.7), to give /ss, šš, zz/ respectively.

page 41 note 15 In the imperative, however, the resultant /^aa|eel/ may be replaced by a zero-ending without preceding auxiliary vowel, cf. §2.34.2.d.

page 42 note 16 In the def. imperative, /d/ may be added directly to the root, without intervening tense sign or auxiliary vowel. The root /ha/ ‘to leave’ has the irregular alternative 2. sg. imper. /hadd/.

page 42 note 17 And in the irregular forms /jøn/ ‘he comes’ (: /jøv/); /van/ ‘there is’ (: /va/).

page 46 note 18 The form /teššeek/ ‘may it please [you]’ is frequently used as an interjection of courtesy, to accompany acts of requesting, offering, etc.: /teššeek parančolni/ 'may it please you to give your order'; /teššeek a køɲv/ ‘please, (here is) the book’; etc.

page 47 note 19 Used chiefly as an adjective meaning ‘true’; also ‘for the purpose of’, ‘consisting of’ with preceding verbal or adverbial phrases, making adjectival phrases (e.g. /faabool valoo/ ‘of wood (adj. phr.)‘.

page 48 note 20 Has no 3. sg. imperative.

page 50 note 1 By this criterion, such ‘border-line cases’ as /ember/ ‘human; human being’, /kut́a/ ‘canine; dog’, etc., really belong in the class of adjectives rather than nouns (where they are traditionally placed), since they may be used and compared as adjectives: /kut́a idøø/ ‘filthy (lit. doglike) weather’; /emberebb ember/ ‘a more human man’.

page 51 note 2 Examples taken from Várady 181–2.

page 51 note 3 Thus Lotz 98 ff.

page 55 note 1 A compound formed of two elements is usually written together as one word: /føld-rajz/ ‘geography’ földrajz. When more than two words are put together, the resultant new word is usually written as two words: /indo-perža-eredetyy/ ‘of Indo-Persian origin’ indoperzsa eredetŭ.

page 58 note 2 To this type of compound belong words formed with /kor/ ‘at the time of’ and /keep/ ‘in the manner of’ (which are usually listed as invariable noun-suffixes): /nee-oora-kor/ ‘at four o'clock’; /ajaandeek-keep/ ‘as a gift’.

page 69 note 1 The titles /baaroo/ ‘baron’, /doktor/ ‘doctor’, /groof/ ‘count’ and /herceg/ ‘duke’ may also be used as attributes before a name or equivalent phrase: /doktor boai tamaaš/ ‘Dr. Thomas Bogyay’, /groov ziči ištvaan/ ‘Count Stephen Zichy’.

page 70 note 2 Whether a particular substantive used adjectivally is to be classed as a noun or an adjective depends on its formal characteristics, cf. fn. 1 to ch. 3.

page 70 note 3 In phrases in which the attribute is a plural noun (types 1 and 2), the possessive suffix of the head is normally in the singular; /amejeknek a hataašai/ ‘whose (pl.) effects’; /az urak kabaat́t́a/ ‘the coat of the gentlemen’.

page 74 note 4 These adverbs are usually listed as ‘postpositions which require a special suffix to be taken by the noun they govern’; thus Várady 213–24, Lotz 237 and 241, Anal. Gr. 39–41. But they, as well as the participle /muulva/ ‘passing’ (cf. below, §5.44), cannot be counted as true postpositions, since they cannot be inflected with personal possessive suffixes.

page 76 note 5 Cf. T. A. Sebeok, ‘The Equational Sentence in Hungarian’, Lang. 19.320–7 (1943), for a discussion of the apparent exceptions to this rule.

page 76 note 6 We are justified in considering the direct object complement apart from the adverbial complement because of the formal difference in the personal pronouns (which have a special form for accusative, but none for adverbial relations), as well as on the basis of meaning.

page 77 note 7 The indefinite conjugation may occur with a demonstrative as direct object; this gives indefinite meaning to the demonstrative ('something of that sort, like that'): /ast nem igeerek/ ‘I'm not promising anything of that sort’ (Várady 125).

page 78 note 8 Except that a prefix may precede a verb in the imperative, giving to the sentence the meaning of a forceful command: /mek-tanuld a leckeet!/ ‘learn the lesson!!!‘ (Várady 326).

page 81 note 1 But after coordinate phrases (5.01) formed with /še(m) . . . še(m)/ ‘neither . . . nor’, only /nem/ may occur: /šem iirni, šem olvašni nem sabad/ ‘it is not permitted either to read or to write’ (Lotz 263–4).

page 82 note 2 Often the particle /e/ is added to the first word of a predicate beginning a clause, even if the first word be not the center of the predicate (e.g. a negative adverb or a verb-prefix): /nem-e seep ez a køɲv?/ 'isn't this book beautiful?'; /meg-e eerkezett a vonat?/ 'has the train arrived?/; but purists regard this construction as vulgar (Várady 330).

page 82 note 3 Cf. Sebeok, Lang. 19.321 (1943).