# Vowel length



## ronanpoirier

I have two question about vowels:

1) Do long and short vowels have phonetical diferences?

2) Do "e" and "o" (when they are at the last syllabe of a word between two consonants) always disappear when a suffix is attached? I mean, in cases like "három --> hármszor" or "lélek --> lélkem" and stuff like that.!

Köszi


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## berty bee

ronanpoirier said:
			
		

> I have two question about vowels:
> 
> 1) Do long and short vowels have phonetical diferences?
> 
> 2) Do "e" and "o" (when they are at the last syllabe of a word between two consonants) always disappear when a suffix is attached? I mean, in cases like "három --> hármszor" or "lélek --> lélkem" and stuff like that.!
> 
> Köszi



No. Not at all. The hungarian language don't tolerate the jam of consonants. That means, we don't preferre to prononciate more then two consonants together. But in the cases when the prononciation of two consonants is difficult we insert a vowel to make easyer the prononciation.

 Example 1:
 három (three) --> háromszor (three times)
 explication: It isn't difficult to pronounce m+ sz, so we don't insert a vowel among 'm' and 'sz'

Example 2: But
kertész (gardener) --> kertészek (gardeners)
explication: the -k is the sign of plural. Formally the plural of the word kertész (letter) would be kertészk . The pronounciation of sz +k is difficult, so we insert a vowel (corresponding to vowel harmony of the word) among 'sz' and 'k'. In this case the corresponding vowel is the e. 

Example 3:
árok (ditch) --> árkok (ditches)
explication: in this case the plural would be formally árokk.  The  root shortens  and we insert a vowel an 'o' (corresponding to vowel harmony of the word) among the 'k' of the root and '-k' of the plural the make easyer the prononciacion.


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## cajzl

1) Yes.

a-á different
e-é different
o-ó different

only a light difference (if any):
i-í
u-ú
ü-ű
ö-ő

It also depends on regions.

2) Some words (but not all) change their stems. You must learn them.

három - harmadik (three - the third)
lélek - lelkem (soul - my soul)


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## ronanpoirier

Could you tell me the difference of sounds? Using IPA or examples in Portuguese, French or English?

Köszi


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## cajzl

short a: somewhere between /a/ and /o/, but short *a* and short *o* are still clearly different
long á: /a:/ like in father
short e: very open *e *(like German ä)
long é: more close than short *e*, between /e:/ and /i:/
short o: /o/
long ó: more close than short *o*, between /o:/ and /u:/

short i: /i/
long í: /i:/
short u: /u/
long ú: /u:/
short ü: /y/ (like short German ü or French u)
long ű: /y:/ (like long German ü)
short ö: like short German ö
long ő: like long German ö or French eu in bleu

All long vowels are clearly longer than the short ones!


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