# Vowel Harmony



## McBabe

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the Hungarian language and am trying to find out how to actually say 'vowel harmony' in Hungarian..for such an important grammatical concept in Hungarian, I can't find a translation anywhere!

Thanks in advance


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## Zsuzsu

Hi McBabe and welcome to the forum!

In Hungarian it is called "magánhangzó-harmónia".


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## McBabe

Thanks zsuzsu,

now I know the name I can maybe try to get to grips with this concept


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## McBabe

I've just been told it can also be called 'hangrend'.

Is there any difference between the two terms? Are they the same thing, with magánhangzó-harmónia being the technical name and hangrend more colloquial? Or are they separate things?

Thanks!


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## Zsuzsu

Hi McBabe,

As far as I know, the two words are not the same. By hangrend we describe the character of the vowels in a word, i.e. "látogató" is a back-vowelled word because it contains only back vowels, while "sikerül" is a front-vowelled word having only front vowels in it. There are also mixed-vowelled words, like "béka", "játék", etc.
Even the words of the languages where there is no magánhangzóharmónia have hangrend, but we do not speak about it because it is irrelevant (due to the lack of magánhangzóharmónia).


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## McBabe

Fascinating! Thanks for the information...I'm sure one day I'll learn to love maganhangzoharmonia, instead of finding it a nuisance for the learner!


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## gorilla

"magánhangzó-harmónia" is just the literal translation of "vowel harmony".

In my school grammar books I never saw this expression. It was always "hangrendi illeszkedés" or "illeszkedés törvénye" (law of matching/fitting).

"Hangrend" is the property of the word, according to which it is considered in vowel harmony rule.


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## Zsanna

I haven't heard the word _magánhangzóharmónia_ (like this or hyphenated), either and it does sound weird (as well as a word by word translation of its foreign - English or even French - equivalents) ... but then there are other weird terms used nowadays so it may just be part of it. 
(Maybe Zsuzsu could confirm if that is the "official" version in Hungary at the moment?)

I'd certainly suggest using gorilla's terms (e.g. hangrendi illeszkedés) because they sound good to my (admittedly 50 year old) ears.


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## McBabe

Thanks Gorilla and Zsanna for your suggestions.

Nothing wrong with it sounding nice to 50 year old ears, I am rather a grammar geek in my own language and find the 'traditional' grammatical terms to be the most pleasing, even to my 20 year old ears


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## Zsuzsu

Hi everybody,

Although I don't remember either having used _magánhangzó-harmónia_ at school, but as a student of Mongolian (in this respect it is similar to Hungarian) I heard it (alongside with _hangrendi illeszkedés_!!!)  one-million times in university lectures and seminars.
Just for the record:
google - _hangrendi illeszkedés: _ 2 150 matches  (0,18 sec)
_         - magánhangzó-harmónia: _12 100 matches  (0,37 sec)


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## francisgranada

And _magánhangzó-illeszkedés_ (google 7260  )


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## ib343

And the easiest is just to say _illeszkedés_ and it still means the same thing.


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## francisgranada

ib343 said:


> And the easiest is just to say _illeszkedés_ and it still means the same thing.



Amennyiben két nyelvész beszélget egymással ... Egyébként székeket is lehet "illesztgetni" (bocs, csak viccelek ). 

Személyszerint, régebbi kiadású nyelvészeti irodalomban (talán) csak a  _magánhangzó illeszkedés _kifejezéssel találkoztam. Viszont fogalmam sincs, hogy ma az iskolákban hogy tanítják.


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## ib343

francisgranada said:


> Amennyiben két nyelvész beszélget egymással ... Egyébként székeket is lehet "illesztgetni" (bocs, csak viccelek ).
> 
> Személyszerint, régebbi kiadású nyelvészeti irodalomban (talán) csak a  _magánhangzó illeszkedés _kifejezéssel találkoztam. Viszont fogalmam sincs, hogy ma az iskolákban hogy tanítják.



Az iskolában? Így.  Ezért ez a válasz. Nyilván a szövegkörnyezettől függ. Ha nyelvtani jelentéskörű mondatban van, akkor nem a szék jut az ember eszébe...


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## Zsanna

Description and more explanation about it here.


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