The Hungarian Alphabet

Q: What is the Hungarian language?

Hungarian (magyar nyelv, ISO 639-1: hu) is a Ugric Uralic language [1] and the official language of Hungary. With around 13 million speakers in Hungary and neighbouring countries, it is by far the largest Uralic language. Unlike its Indo-European neighbours, Hungarian is unrelated to German, Slavic or Romance languages. Hungarian has a long written tradition. The Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics [1] and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences [2] maintain the standard language, its orthography and its grammar.

Q: How many letters are in the Hungarian alphabet?

The Hungarian alphabet has 44 letters [1] . This total includes the basic Latin letters, the accented vowels (Á, É, Í, Ó, Ö, Ő, Ú, Ü, Ű), and the digraphs (CS, DZ, GY, LY, NY, SZ, TY, ZS) and one trigraph (DZS) that are each counted as single letters with their own place in alphabetical order. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences [2] defines the official inventory and ordering of these letters in the rules of Hungarian spelling, which the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics [1] documents in its research on the language .

Q: What are Ő and Ű in Hungarian?

Ő and Ű are long front rounded vowels [1] , written with a double acute accent. Ő is the long counterpart of Ö, and Ű is the long counterpart of Ü. The double acute is a distinctive feature of the Hungarian alphabet, marking that these front rounded vowels are held for a longer duration.

Q: Why are digraphs like SZ and GY single letters in Hungarian?

In Hungarian, digraphs such as SZ, GY, CS, NY and others represent single sounds and are treated as single letters [1] . For example, SZ is the plain "s" sound and GY is a palatal "d". They have their own positions in dictionary ordering, so a word beginning with CS comes after all words beginning with C. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences [2] sets the rules for how these multi-letter units are written, doubled and alphabetised. This is why the Hungarian alphabet has 44 letters rather than the 26 of the basic Latin script [1] .

Q: What language family does Hungarian belong to?

Hungarian belongs to the Ugric branch of the Uralic language family [3] . Its only relatives within Ugric are Khanty and Mansi, the Ob-Ugric languages of Western Siberia. More broadly, Hungarian is related to Finnish, Estonian, the Permic and Mordvinic languages, and the Samoyedic languages, all within Uralic. Despite this ancestry, Hungarian has developed independently in Central Europe for over a thousand years and is not mutually intelligible with any other language. UiT The Arctic University [3] studies these deep Uralic connections through comparative research .

Q: Is Hungarian related to Finnish?

Yes, but distantly [3] . Hungarian and Finnish both belong to the Uralic family, but they sit on different branches — Hungarian in Ugric, Finnish in Finnic — separated by thousands of years of divergence. They share some basic vocabulary and grammatical features but are not mutually intelligible. The relationship is comparable in depth to that between distantly related Indo-European languages.

Q: Where is Hungarian spoken?

Hungarian is the official language of Hungary [1] , and is also spoken by large communities in neighbouring countries — Romania (especially Transylvania), Slovakia, Serbia (Vojvodina), Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria — as well as in a worldwide diaspora. It is a recognised minority language in several of these countries.

Q: What is the ISO code for Hungarian?

The ISO 639-1 code for Hungarian is hu , and the ISO 639-3 code is hun [1] . These codes are used in language technology, publishing and academic databases to identify Hungarian, the largest language of the Uralic family.

Q: How is the Hungarian language standardised?

Hungarian is standardised by two main institutions: the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics [1] in Budapest (research on the structure and history of the language) and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences [2] (which publishes the official rules of Hungarian spelling and grammar). Comparative research placing Hungarian within the Uralic family is also carried out at institutions such as UiT The Arctic University of Norway [3] . Together these bodies maintain the 44-letter Hungarian alphabet and the standards that keep Hungarian writing consistent across education, publishing and media .

Hungarian Alphabet at a Glance

Hungarian (magyar nyelv, ISO 639-1: hu) is a Ugric Uralic language ^[1] and the official language of Hungary, with around 13 million speakers in Hungary and neighbouring countries. It is by far the largest and westernmost Uralic language, isolated geographically from its nearest relatives
The Hungarian alphabet has 44 letters in the Latin script. It includes accented vowels — Á, É, Í, Ó, Ö, Ő, Ú, Ü, Ű — and a set of digraphs (CS, DZ, GY, LY, NY, SZ, TY, ZS) and one trigraph (DZS) that are each treated as single letters ^[1]
The Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics ^[1] in Budapest is the leading institution for research on the Hungarian language, documenting its structure, history and standard orthography
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ^[2] sets the official rules of Hungarian spelling and grammar, publishing "A magyar helyesírás szabályai" (the rules of Hungarian orthography) that govern how the 44-letter alphabet is used
UiT The Arctic University of Norway ^[3] conducts comparative research on the Uralic family, situating Hungarian as the westernmost Ugric language in relation to its Siberian relatives Khanty and Mansi
Hungarian belongs to the Ugric branch of Uralic ^[3], whose only other members are Khanty and Mansi of Western Siberia. Despite this distant relationship, Hungarian has developed independently for millennia in Central Europe and is unlike any of its European neighbours

Hungarian Vowels

Hungarian has 14 vowel letters arranged in short/long pairs: A/Á, E/É, I/Í, O/Ó, Ö/Ő, U/Ú, Ü/Ű. The long front rounded vowels Ő and Ű use a double acute accent and are unique to Hungarian. Vowel length is meaningful and always marked ^[1].

The Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics ^[1] documents the Hungarian vowel system, which is governed by vowel harmony. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ^[2] sets the rules for writing these accented vowels correctly.

[aw]

[AH]

[eh]

[AY]

[ee]

[EE]

[oh]

[OH]

[ur]

[UR]

[oo]

[OO]

[ue]

[UE]

[aw]

short open back vowel, as in British "hot"

[AH]

long open front vowel, as in "father"

[eh]

short open front vowel, as in "bed"

[AY]

long close-mid vowel, as in "say"

[ee]

short, as in "sit"

[EE]

long, as in "see"

[oh]

short rounded, as in "port"

[OH]

long rounded, as in "go"

[ur]

short front rounded, as in German "schön"

[UR]

long front rounded — a signature Hungarian letter with double acute

[oo]

short, as in "put"

[OO]

long, as in "moon"

[ue]

short front rounded, as in German "über"

[UE]

long front rounded — a signature Hungarian letter with double acute

Hungarian Consonants

Hungarian has a set of single-letter consonants: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V, Z. Note that S alone represents "sh", while the digraph SZ represents plain "s" — the reverse of English intuition ^[1].

The Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics ^[1] documents the Hungarian consonant system, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ^[2] sets the spelling rules that keep these consonant values consistent across written Hungarian.

[B]

[TS]

[D]

[F]

[G]

[H]

[Y]

[K]

[L]

[M]

[N]

[P]

[R]

[SH]

[T]

[V]

[Z]

[B]

as in "bat"

[TS]

as in "cats"

[D]

as in "dog"

[F]

as in "fun"

[G]

hard g, as in "go"

[H]

as in "hat"

[Y]

as in "yes"

[K]

as in "key"

[L]

as in "lamp"

[M]

as in "man"

[N]

as in "not"

[P]

as in "pen"

[R]

rolled r

[SH]

as in "ship" — note S alone is "sh" in Hungarian

[T]

as in "top"

[V]

as in "van"

[Z]

as in "zoo"

Hungarian Digraphs and Trigraph

Hungarian treats several digraphs (CS, DZ, GY, LY, NY, SZ, TY, ZS) and one trigraph (DZS) as single letters of the alphabet, each with its own place in dictionary order. GY, TY and NY are palatal consonants; ZS sounds like the "s" in "measure" ^[1].

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ^[2] defines how these multi-letter units are alphabetised and how they behave when doubled in spelling. The Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics ^[1] documents their pronunciation across the standard language.

[CH]

[DZ]

DZS

[J]

[DY]

[Y]

[NY]

[S]

[TY]

[ZH]

[CH]

digraph treated as a single letter, as in "church"

[DZ]

digraph treated as a single letter, as in "adze"

DZS

[J]

trigraph treated as a single letter, as in "jam"

[DY]

digraph — palatal d, roughly as in "during"

[Y]

digraph — historically a palatal l, now pronounced as "y"

[NY]

digraph — palatal n, as in "canyon"

[S]

digraph — plain s, as in "sun"

[TY]

digraph — palatal t, roughly as in "tune"

[ZH]

digraph — as in "measure"

Hungarian Digits

Hungarian uses Arabic numerals (0–9). Hungarian number words: nulla (0), egy (1), kettő (2), három (3), négy (4), öt (5), hat (6), hét (7), nyolc (8), kilenc (9).

Some Hungarian numerals preserve very old Uralic roots — for example három (3) and öt (5) — that can be traced, at great time depth, back to shared ancestors with Khanty and Mansi. UiT The Arctic University ^[3] and the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics ^[1] study these deep Ugric cognates.

[nulla]

[egy]

[kettő]

[három]

[négy]

[öt]

[hat]

[hét]

[nyolc]

[kilenc]

[nulla]

Hungarian: nulla

[egy]

Hungarian: egy

[kettő]

Hungarian: kettő

[három]

Hungarian: három

[négy]

Hungarian: négy

[öt]

Hungarian: öt

[hat]

Hungarian: hat

[hét]

Hungarian: hét

[nyolc]

Hungarian: nyolc

[kilenc]

Hungarian: kilenc

[aw]

[AH]

[B]

[TS]

[CH]

[D]

[DZ]

DZS

[J]

[eh]

[AY]

[F]

[G]

[DY]

[H]

[ee]

[EE]

[Y]

[K]

[L]

[Y]

[M]

[N]

[NY]

[oh]

[OH]

[ur]

[UR]

[P]

[R]

[SH]

[S]

[T]

[TY]

[oo]

[OO]

[ue]

[UE]

[V]

[Z]

[ZH]

Expand All Collapse All

What is the Hungarian language?

How many letters are in the Hungarian alphabet?

What are Ő and Ű in Hungarian?

Why are digraphs like SZ and GY single letters in Hungarian?

What language family does Hungarian belong to?

Is Hungarian related to Finnish?

Where is Hungarian spoken?

What is the ISO code for Hungarian?

How is the Hungarian language standardised?

References:

[1] Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics (Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont), Budapest. "Hungarian Language Structure and Orthography" — the centre is the leading institution for research on the Hungarian language (magyar nyelv, ISO 639-1: hu), a Ugric Uralic language of Hungary, documenting its 44-letter Latin alphabet including digraphs and accented vowels. Retrieved from Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics
[2] Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA), Budapest. "Hungarian Language Standardisation" — the Hungarian Academy of Sciences sets the standards for Hungarian orthography and grammar, publishing the rules of Hungarian spelling (A magyar helyesírás szabályai). Retrieved from Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
[3] UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Department of Language and Culture. "Uralic Language Typology — Hungarian" — UiT conducts comparative research on the Uralic language family, including Hungarian as the largest and westernmost Ugric language, situating its structure within the broader Finno-Ugric and Uralic context. Retrieved from UiT The Arctic University of Norway