Hungarian dialects
Hungarian has ten dialects. These are fully mutually intelligible, and do not differ significantly from standard Hungarian except for the Csángó dialect. They are mostly distinguished by pronunciation; although there are differences in vocabulary, these are usually small and do not hinder intelligibility. Due to increased internal migration and urbanization during the 20th century, most of the characteristics of the different dialects can only be observed in smaller towns and villages, and even there mostly among the elderly; the population of the larger cities and especially the capital has been mixed for generations and the dialectal differences have been lost. A notable exception is the Western Transdanubian pronunciation, which is distinctly noticeable even in Szombathely, the largest city in the region.
The following dialectical regions are currently distinguished by researchers:
- Western Transdanubian
- Central Transdanubian – Little Hungarian Plain
- Southern Transdanubian
- Southern Great Plain
- Palóc
- Northeastern
- Transylvanian Plain '
- Székely
- Moldavian '
A former classification distinguished the following dialects: Great Hungarian Plain, West Danube, Danube-Tisza, King's Pass Hungarian, Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian, Székely, West Hungarian and Csángó. This classification was also used by Ethnologue, with the exception of the Csángó dialect, which was mentioned but not listed separately.
In addition there are seven dialects of Hungarian Sign Language.
Dialects
Western Transdanubian dialect
Formerly called West Hungarian. Due to the proximity of Austria its vocabulary is somewhat affected by German; for "yes", German ja is commonly substituted for standard Hungarian igen. Its pronunciation is characterized by the shortening of long vowels and the lengthening of consonants. This dialect also uses the ë vowel profusely. The consonant "l" is often lost after a long vowel or at the end of words. Consonants are often palatalized, however, "ly" becomes "l" instead of the more common "j".Central Transdanubian / Little Hungarian Plain dialect and Southern Transdanubian dialect
Formerly called Transdanubian dialect. Central Transdanubian has several subdialects including the Csallóköz, the Mátyusföld and the Szigetköz dialects. These dialects share some similarities with Western Transdanubian, both in pronunciation and in vocabulary, but the latter was also affected by the South Slavic languages, due to their geographical proximity. Ja for igen is common; they distinguish between open and closed e sound, though here it is the open e that differs from standard Hungarian, sounding more like a short a.Southern Great Plain dialect or Southern dialect
Spoken mostly between the rivers Danube and Tisza; also in the Banat. This was also the dialect of Budapest and its surroundings. Its vocabulary does not show significant differences from standard Hungarian; its dialect words come from Transdanubian, Palóc and Tisza regions. This has historical causes: the area suffered the most significant losses during Hungary's Ottoman occupation in the 16th-17th centuries, and was repopulated from different regions of the country. In pronunciation it often uses a vowel which is a cross between "e" and "ö".Palóc or Northwestern dialect
Spoken in the northwestern part of the Cisdanubian region; mostly in the counties of Nógrád, Heves and the former county of Borsod, a part of Pest and Bács-Kiskun; also spoken in Southern Slovakia. Its vocabulary may use words from Slovak. Standard a is substituted by a short á, while standard á is substituted by a vowel closer to standard ó. Its best known distinguishing characteristic is the use of diphthongs. It is one of the few dialects that still pronounce ly, the palatalized version of l which, in other dialects, has already merged into another consonantTisza-Körös dialect or Eastern dialect
Formerly called Tisza dialect. It is spoken east of the river Tisza, also by Hungarians living in Romania. It has vocabulary similarities with the nearby Transylvanian Plain dialect. Its pronunciation is marked by the use of í instead of the standard é: níz instead of néz, píz instead of pénz. East of Debrecen the vowel e is commonly pronounced instead of standard ö, though not in all words. As common in dialects this side of the Danube, open and closed e is not distinguished. The consonants l, r and j at the end of a syllable often lengthen its vowel.Northeastern dialect
Spoken in the eastern part of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, also in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, Ukraine and parts of Slovakia. It was the main dialect of the region where important literary figures such as Ferenc Kazinczy and Ferenc Kölcsey lived and worked; also, of Vizsoly, where the first extant Hungarian Bible translation was published. Due to the dialect forming the basis of standard literary Hungarian, it has no significant differences from it, although it is not identical with it. The small differences are mainly in vocabulary, though in some parts, close to the connecting Tisza-Körös region, í is commonly pronounced instead of standard e and there are differences in verb conjugation – a distinctive characteristics that was not adopted by standard Hungarian is the different future tense of auxiliary verbs kell and lehet, with kell lesz and lehet lesz used instead of the standard kell majd and lehet majd. The dialect's characteristics, such as not differentiating between open and closed e, and pronouncing the consonant ly, have had a lasting effect on the standardized spelling of Hungarian.Transylvanian Plain dialect
Formerly called King's Pass, after a mountain pass in Transylvania. It is spoken in the non-Székely parts of Transylvania, a region of Romania formerly belonging to Hungary. Its characteristics are the pronunciation of a instead of standard o, and á instead of a. In several parts of the region the vowels are shortened. Interestingly, it retains the preterite tense, the use of which has been steadily declining in other dialects since the Middle Hungarian period; in standard Hungarian its last appearance was in literary texts of the second half of the 19th century, and it has been obsolete since then.Székely dialect
The dialect most commonly associated with Transylvania has a distinctive vocabulary. Together with the region's traditions and folk culture it has given rise to significant literary works. The Székely dialect makes use of several Romanian loan words, which are not always understood by speakers of standard Hungarian.Moldavian dialect
Commonly called the Csángó dialect, this dialect differs the most from standard Hungarian, as a result of isolation from other Hungarian regions. The region where it is spoken is completely separated from the current territory of Hungary. The dialect has two subdialects: the archaic dialect and the Székely-Csángó dialect, the former being the only independently developed dialect of Hungarian, and could also be considered a regional language, while the latter was heavily influenced by the neighbouring Székely dialect. The Romanian census lists Csángó speakers separately from Hungarians.The archaic Csángó dialect still retains several characteristics of Middle Hungarian, the medieval version of Hungarian, but has a number of Romanian loanwords. Due to its extensive use of archaisms and words specific to the dialect, it is difficult to understand even for Hungarians who also speak Romanian. It has about 10–15,000 speakers, with a further 10–13,000 speakers who use a mixture of Archaic and Székely-Csángó dialects.
Székely-Csángó dialect shows similarities with Székely subdialects, but it lacks words created during the language reform and has a larger number of Romanian loanwords. The majority of Csángós, around 40,000 persons, speak this dialect.