# Pronounciation of á



## Ticks

Hello!

For some time now, I've been hearing two distinct pronunciations of the letter á. However, I'm unable to find anything supporting any such behavior of á, whether in my book or on the internet.

In particular, while I keep reading á is ~ open central, at times I also hear something more fronted, reminiscent of [æ] (almost like a "long _e_"). More recently, it's happened with sentences like "ők tan*á*rok". Now, listening to "tanár" in isolation in the vocab section (a different recording), I hear the usual central á... What's happening? And when do I use either variant? Or is there only one pronunciation and I am making things up in my head?

Thanks


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## gorilla

There is no difference between them. So you are either mishearing it or a different person with some slightly different regional accent reads the words.

here's Forvo's pronunciation page

Also, in general, when a language has no other nearby, similar phonemes, speakers tend to be less precise about and less sensitive to small differences in that area. So if there's no potential for confusion, we just perceive anything sufficiently "á"-like as "á". If you speak Swedish and in your language there's a distinction between two different sounds that are both somewhat like our á, then you may just be more sensitive to the differences that are just random or insignificant in Hungarian.


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## Ticks

Thanks for your quick reply gorilla!

What you say makes a lot of sense in general, I hadn't thought of it that way. Only, the odd variant for á that I'm talking about seems dangerously close to how you pronounce e, at least in vowel quality. But maybe the vowel length difference is enough to avoid any potential overlap, the latter being something that can cause difference in meaning on its own in Hungarian.

Though, if I may, I am curious of what you'd make of this piece: Colloquial Languages - Audio 1 - Track 16 - 0:32-0:38. Do you feel the á in tanárok and jogász especially are similar to the ás provided in your links? (Sorry if I'm violating any forum rules with that link)


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## gorilla

The difference is because "Ők tanárok?" uses the intonation pattern for a yes/no question, meaning that the last but one syllable is intonated in higher pitch. In the "Zoltán jogász, Zsófia pedig antropológus" sentence it's also an intonation thing, because it ends one item of an "enumeration" (in other words, it's before a comma in the sentence that separates items), so the á in jogász is also intonated higher.


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## uress

Well, there is only one á in Hungarian (you have to say it at the dentist ) but the exact pronounciation depends 1. on the surrounding sounds. So there are slight differences not realized by the Hungarians not having done phonetics and phonology. And 2. on the dialect, see e.g. the palóc dialect, or the Transylvanian ones.

I your example, the girl doesnt speak Hungarian with a beautiful pronounciation. Listen more to the guy, he is much better.


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