llareggub

I live in a village named Újszentgyörgy, so the 'gy' sound is one I use an hear all of the time. We had lessons for 6 months before we moved out and our teacher spent many of our lessons teaching us sounds. As the sounds are in many ways very different to English sounds she got us to make certain shapes with our mouths and tongues to approximate the noise, without question the most valuable lessons we ever had. We didn't grasp it before we moved over but it certainly made life easier.

I use the same mouth shape for 'gy' as I do for 'ny', front of the tongue behind the bottom teeth and the top of the tongue on the roof of the mouth but for 'gy' my tongue forms a broader shape pressed against the roof of my mouth than with 'ny'.

On the 'w'/'v' thing, I had a Finnish friend a number of years ago (Finnish is a language somewhat related to Hungarian) and Finns cannot say 'v' with the 'w' noise coming out. He got round this by using 'f' rather than 'v' and he was chuffed to bits to sound a little more natural, not come across a way to help Hungarians with the 'w'.

FenTiger

'gy' I find difficult ..... but the above is helpful ..... must keep practising ...

FenTiger

Voodvard sounds like a name out of Harry Potter!

Rural Hungary

I perfected the "gy" years ago whilst shouting GYERE! MOST! at my crazy daschund as it chased the neighbours down the road

duztee

As an arrogant englishman who had very little intention of bothering to learn Hungarian I have now been given the perfect learning tool, A 15 month old God-daughter.

After saying Ragja Meg (chew it) for the 1000's time it is definitely imbedded.

It works both ways of course and her 'All gone' is amazingly good

but I really hope she will NOT learn the expression I use when she is dragging everything out of the cupboards for the 1000th time!

Pollypaprika

Congrats

I always have difficulty with the meaning of 'meg' as it is used in many expressions, the main one being quite a rude one beginning with B I know it loosely means that one has completed something when used in expressions. Anyone else any good ideas?

duztee

The expression Pol refers to is actually the very first hungarian word I learned
Because it came from the kitchen on many occasions! I honestly thought it mean 'where is' and kept asking what she couldn't find, until I was told the actual meaning.

Had I not learned the true meaning it could have had disasterous results with me asking things like, Where is the station etc etc.

Pollypaprika

Nice one. Actually the BM word seems to be peppered into most locals sentences, so you may have gained yourself some street cred if you had asked where is the station in a rap like style.
I actually learned some words from a very funny book called 'Dirty Hungarian: Everyday Slang from "What's Up?" to ....'

llareggub

What's the news is with out doubt the filthiest saying I have ever heard Neanderthal man asking for carnal relations :O Never fails to make me smile!

Pollypaprika

But at least it helps to remember how to say it. I love all the 'ság' endings.

FenTiger

I got the book too ..... I'm most definitely going to take this with me in August and hope I earn as much street cred as Duztee!

Rural Hungary

So off to Amazon I went, to see exactly what you were all talking about. Totally shocked that my daughter knew what most of them meant and apparently the "life is not a whipped cream cake" is a common phrase amongst her friends Not sure if I should worry about their language or the state of their lives

duztee

Opps! think we might be in trouble now, but wether it is with Rural for introducing her to such literature, or with her daughter for allowing her mother to understand her conversations I don't know.....safe bet..probably both!

So to get back on to safer ground..
I couldn't understand why csuccs (sounds like chooch) was sit.
Apparently the sit I knew, ule is actually a short version of lecsucsul, or csucsulj le, sit down.
I am tempted to quote the above book on hungarians having an excessive number of verbs, nouns, whatever!
(Sorry you will have to fill in your own dots above the 'u's)

Rural Hungary

It didn't phase daughter in the least, I would probably have gotten a "whatever" were there a Hungarian equivalent (is there?).
Must admit that I have, at times, been shocked by the frequent usage of certain words when speaking with Hungarian friends - it reminds me of Ireland

duztee

I think you were away or unwell when this thread started Rural.
Pol gave 'Nekem nyloc' as the slang of 'it's all the same' or 'whatever' on page one.

Something to do with the figure 8 being made of two equal circles.