# szegletének



## pacákutí

Hi everyone, I will have to speak in English because unfortunately my Hungarian sucks xD
I listen a lot to Hungarian rap, and so I was listening to this song Hogy üssön from Akkezdet Phiai. Somewhere in the lyrics I noticed this sentence:
"Lakás mélyén Pest lelakott szegletén."

I kind of get what it means, 
(something about an apartment deep in an outlived sector/part of Pest)
but I was quite confused about the 'én' at the end of szeglet. I would have expected szegleten not én.
I found some other sentences with szegletén, and also one with szegletének, which confused me further.
"A piac felső szegletének" which was translated as "the upper end of the market"

Could someone explain what these -én and -ének suffixes are and why they are there?


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## AndrasBP

Hi pacákutí,

"szegletén" is composed of "szeglet" + possessive suffix "e" + locative postposition "n" (like English "on"): szeglet*e* + n = szeglet*é*n
The vowel change *e > é* is regular (also *a > á*, with back vowels).

Similar structures:
a város szél*e* - a város szél*én* (*on* the edge/outskirts of the city)
Pest közep*e* - Pest közep*én* (*in* the middle of Pest)
a lány fej*e* (the girl's head) - a lány fej*én* (*on* the girl's head)

.

szeglete + nek = szegletének
The suffix -nak/-nek is used in double possessive constructions but it also has a lot of other meanings.


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## Zsanna

AndrasBP said:


> ... szeglete + nek = szegletének
> The suffix -nak/-nek is used in double possessive constructions but it also has a lot of other meanings.



Quite so, but the "é" appears exactly for the same reason as in the previous example: because "short" vowels (usually those without any accent) become long when a suffix comes after them beginning with a consonant.  (Whatever sort of a suffix it may be.)


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## pacákutí

Thanks a lot Andras and Zsanna! The examples make it very clear. I had heard about those vowel changes but it didn't quite click yet


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## AndrasBP

Zsanna said:


> because "short" vowels (usually those without any accent) become long when a suffix comes after them beginning with a consonant. (Whatever sort of a suffix it may be.)


Yes, but not exactly: short "i" and "u" do *not *change to "í" and "ú". (*kocsi, áru* - kocsit, kocsim, kocsiból, árut, árum, árunak, etc.)

Some more examples for the *a>á* / *e>é* change before suffixes:

alm*a* (apple) - alm*á*k, alm*á*d, alm*á*t, alm*á*hoz, alm*á*ról, alm*á*nál.
tev*e* (camel) - tev*é*k, tev*é*d, tev*é*t, tev*é*hez, tev*é*ről, tev*é*nél.


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## Zsanna

Yes, you are right (there are also other cases that don't fit this ready made rule that we all know from school) but I just wanted to keep it simple as the main aim was just to reassure pacákuti (or pacákutí?, sorry I may need new glasses!) that in both cases it is the same rule that works.


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## AndrasBP

Zsanna said:


> I just wanted to keep it simple


I think the simplest thing to say is that the rule only applies to "a" and "e", because the other short vowels either don't change (i, u) or virtually never occur word-finally (o, ö, ü).


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