Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language

by Ignácz Singer

 

SIMPLIFIED GRAMMAR

 

OF THE

 

HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE.

 

BY

IGNATIUS SINGER.

 

LONDON:
TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59, LUDGATE HILL.

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1882.

[All rights reserved.]

 

PREFACE.

The intention of the Author in the following pages is to supply the student of Hungarian with a handbook that will enable him to overcome the initial difficulties which have hitherto attended the study of this language.

To the English student Hungarian is accessible only through the medium of German; but the chief difficulty which the student has to contend with lies in the peculiarities of the language itself. With the exception of a few words borrowed from the German or Slav languages, Hungarian is so different in its structure from the other European languages (excepting Finnish and Turkish) that a new grammatical system, as well as a new vocabulary, has to be learnt. It is therefore obvious that Hungarian cannot be treated according to the rules usually adopted, and yet in most Hungarian Grammars the language is forced to accommodate itself to this framework of the Latin system; where this has been found impossible, as is generally the case, the student was left to shift for himself.

Owing to this imperfect method, a language so expressive and so simple in its grammatical construction as Hungarian has been decried as "extremely difficult," "barbarous," and the like.

The language is here treated from a different standpoint. Instead of attempting to accommodate the language to a system altogether foreign to its spirit, the Author has analysed the language itself, and given the results of his analysis in a series of rules. For this reason the terminology usually adopted has been abandoned and replaced by more appropriate expressions, which in most cases have been obtained by translating directly from Hungarian the corresponding grammatical terms.

Ignatius Singer.

London, June, 1882.

 

A HUNGARIAN GRAMMAR.

CONTENTS
THE ALPHABET		1
	Letters, Pronunciation, Vowel Harmony, Stress
ACCIDENCE		5
NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE		6
	General; Articles; Of Suffixes; The Number of Nouns; Cases of the Noun; Declension of the Substantive; Personal Suffixes; Suffixes for Place and Direction; Postpositions
THE ADJECTIVE		26
	General; Comparison of Adjectives; Numerals
THE PRONOUN		32
	General; Personal Pronouns; Reflexive Pronouns; Demonstrative Pronouns; Relative Pronouns; Interrogative Pronouns
THE VERB		45
	General; Of Moods; Of the Tenses of the Verb; Of Numbers, Person, and Form; I. Active Verbs; Participles; Conjugation of the Transitive Verbs; II. Medial Verbs; Examples of Conjugation; Compound Verbs; Irregular Verbs; Impersonal Verbs; Defective Verbs
ADVERBS		77
	General; Comparison of Adverbs
CONJUNCTIONS		81
INTERJECTIONS		82
GENDER		82
ETYMOLOGY		82
SYNTAX		87

 

TRÜBNER'S COLLECTION

OF

SIMPLIFIED GRAMMARS

OF THE PRINCIPAL

ASIATIC AND EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

EDITED BY E. H. PALMER, M.A.

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II.

THE HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE,

BY IGNATIUS SINGER

 

 

Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO., EDINBUGH
CHANDOS STREET, LONDON