The Hungarian Writing System

The Hungarian writing system is based on the Latin alphabet and contains a total of 44 letters when including the q, w, x, and y, which are only found in foreign words.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Hungarian writing system has been based on a modified version of the Latin alphabet since the 13th Century. Hungarian's orthography began to stabilize in the 16th Century as more and more books were published in the language.1

The additional letters in the Hungarian alphabet are vowels with acute accents (á,é,í,ó,ú), the diereses ö, ü, ő, and ű, and the two-letter consonants cs, gy, ly, ny, ty, sz, zs. The á,é,í,ó and ú letters "represent long vowels," while ő and ű are simply "long counterparts" to ö and ü.2

Additional resources on the Hungarian writing system can be found on the Web at:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hungarian.htm

http://impulzus.sch.bme.hu/info/magyar.shtml#letters

For information on The Hungarian Language, please see our Quick Facts Library.

1 "Hungarian language" Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9041547
[Accessed December 8, 2004]

2 "Hungarian alphabet" Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Language
[Accessed December 8, 2004]