Hungarian orthography () consists of rules defining the standard written form of the Hungarian language. It includes the spelling of lexical words, proper nouns and foreign words (loanwords) in themselves, with suffixes, and in compounds, as well as the hyphenation of words, punctuation, abbreviations, collation (alphabetical ordering), and other information (such as how to write dates).
Alphabet
Hungarian is written with the Hungarian alphabet, an extended version of the Latin alphabet.AkH.12 2 b Its letters usually indicate sounds,AkH.12 2 c) except when constituting morphemes are to be marked (see below). The extensions include consonants written with digraphs or a trigraphAkH.12 7. a) and vowel letters marked with diacritics. Long consonants are marked by a double letter (e.g. > and > )AkH.12 7. b) while long vowels get an acute accent (e.g. > ) or their umlaut is replaced with a double acute accent ( > ).AkH.12 4. b) Only the first letter of digraphs and of the trigraph is written in upper case when capitalizing in normal text, but all letters are capitalized in acronyms and all-uppercase inscriptions.AkH.12 8.
The letters q, w, x, y are only included in the extended Hungarian alphabet and they are rarely used in Hungarian words, where they are normally replaced with their phonetic equivalents kv, v, ksz, i/j (only the x is relatively common, e.g. ). However y occurs in several native digraphs, which are treated as letters by themselves: gy, ly, ny, ty. Digraph ch is not part of the alphabet but it still exists in some words (like , 'technology' or 'technique').AkH.12 10–11. In traditional surnames, other digraphs may occur as well, both for vowels and consonants.AkH.12 12.
Four principles of spelling Hungarian orthography is based on four main principles: following pronunciation,AkH.12 17. word analysis (reflecting the constituting morphemes),AkH.12 49. keeping traditionsAkH.12 85. and simplification.AkH.12 91.
The first principle is that the Hungarian writing system is phonemic by default, i.e. letters correspond to phonemes (roughly, sounds) and vice versa. In some cases, however, vowel length or consonant length is not the same in writing as in pronunciation (e.g. 'mosquito', 'fight', 'animal', 'one').OH. pp. 56–57, 60–61List of Hungarian common nouns with pronunciation variability and with a spelling different from pronunciation (Hungarian Wikipedia)
Suffixed or compound words usually obey the second main principle, word analysis. This means that the original constituents (morphemes) of a word should be written the same way, regardless of pronunciation assimilations. This, however, applies only when the resulting pronunciation conforms to some regular pattern; irregular assimilations are reflected in writing too. For example, + ("you should leave [some]") is pronounced like "haggy", but written as according to the principle of word analysis. This is because the composition of and gives a long in Hungarian phonology anyway, so spelling out the original morphemes is considered clearer. By contrast + ('you should believe') is pronounced "higgy" and also written as , since this pronunciation cannot be regularly deduced from the morphemes and basic phonological rules. Compound words are generally written so that all constituents retain their spelling, but some compounds have become vague enough not to be considered true compounds any more, especially if one of the elements is obsolete. An example is 'glove', which originally comes from 'hand' and an obsolete and in this case the spelling no longer reflects the derivation.AkH.12 45.
The third principle, tradition, affects, for example, surnames, where many spellings predate the modern spelling rules of Hungarian. For example, "smith" may be spelt , or as a surname. Another example of tradition is that the digraph is still used despite the fact that it stands for the same sound as in today's standard Hungarian.AkH.12 88.
The fourth principle, simplification, affects only a handful of cases. If a common noun ending in a double consonant has a suffix beginning with the same consonant, the third instance is dropped, e.g. + > . This rule doesn't apply to given names or surnames, e.g. + > "from Bernadette", "Mrs. Wittmann": all three consecutive identical consonants are preserved, but a hyphen is inserted, just as in compounds and in suffixed proper names ( "chess group", "with Bonn").
The simplification principle is also applied to double digraphs at the border of suffixes, thus + becomes (e.g. + > "with Kovács"). However, there is no simplification in compounds: e.g. "bunch of keys".AkH.12 92. Also, in cases of suffix-like derivational elements such as and "-like", simplification is not applied to words ending in single digraphs, such as + > "wax-like", similarly to doubled forms: + > "jazz-like".AkH.12 92.
The rules concerning cases like (Hungarian given names) and cases like changed in 2015, with the 12th edition of the regulations being released. Prior to that, spellings like and were preferred.
Word breaks: writing as one word or as separate words Compound words are typically spelt as one word (without spaces) and phrases are normally spelt as more than one word (with one or more spaces), but this is not always the case. Hyphenated spelling is considered an alternative to writing as one word and is used, e.g., if a compound contains a proper name.
Coordination As far as repeated words are concerned, they are normally written separately (with a comma),AkH.12 96. but a hyphen is used if their connection is more than occasional (e.g. 'who' but 'everyone').AkH.12 97. If a word is repeated with a different suffix or postposition, the words are written separately ( 'day by day', lit. 'from day to day'), except if an element only exists in this phrase, in which case the words are written with a hyphen ( 'old' 'ancient old').AkH.12 99.
Coordinated words are normally written separately (with a comma).AkH.12 101. a) If the meaning of the result is different from that of the two words together, but both elements take suffixes, they are written with a hyphen (e.g. 'cook', consisting of words referring to frying/roasting/baking versus cooking in water, 'they cook'). A hyphen is needed in cases when a phrase is only used with certain suffixes.AkH.12 101. b), 102. a) Connections of words which are completely fused and thus take suffixes only at the end of the second element are written as one word (e.g. 'sorrow and grief', 'stricken with sorrow and grief').AkH.12 101. c), 103. b) However, there are phrases that only take suffixes at the end but their elements are still connected with a hyphen, as when words are contrasted (e.g. 'bittersweet').AkH.12 102. a), 104. a) Certain phrases can be suffixed either at the end of both elements or only at the end of the second element (e.g. 'fame': or 'his/her/its fame').AkH.12 102. b), 104. b)
Subordination As shown by printed material and street inscriptions, this field is probably the most problematic for the majority of native speakers even at a reasonably educated level. The main principle is that these compounds have to be written without spaces if any of these three criteria are met:AkH.12 94. there is a change of meaning, which cannot be deduced from the elements alone, an inflectional suffix is omitted, tradition (the examples in this group are limited, though).
This applies to phrases and compounds of many types, like those where the first element is the subject of the second (which is a participle),AkH.12 105. or it is the adjectiveAkH.12 105. of the second (e.g. means 'fast train', while means 'express train' as a type of train: the change in meaning makes it necessary to write the latter as one word). Problematic point(s): it is virtually unpredictable whether the change in meaning (as compared to the mere sum of its elements) is attributed to one element or the whole compound. For example, 'live programme' is written as two words, even though the word is used differently from its basic meaning – probably because it was decided that this component can carry the change of meaning, so writing the compound as one word is not necessary. On the other hand, 'fast food restaurant' (lit. 'fast restaurant') is written as one word – probably because the change of meaning was attributed to the whole compound, leaving the lexical meaning of the word intact. Some phrases without any change of meaning are written as one word, e.g. 'travel companion', while most other phrases are written regularly: 'travel destination.'
Sometimes the original meaning of the adjective is retained, but the whole compound still means something more specific than the sum of the elements. For example, , lit. 'sour cabbage', actually 'sauerkraut', is more than a cabbage that tastes sour: it means a type of pickled food, yet it is written with a space. On the other hand, 'mobile phone' is written in one word, although it is actually a telephone that is mobile – writing in one word may be justified by the different technology, as distinguished from a cordless telephone, which is also portable.
As far as the suffix omission is concerned, often there is a grammatical relationship between two nouns of a compound which could also be expressed in a marked, more explicit way: for example 'window pane' could be expressed as 'the pane of the window,' and based on this derivation, it needs to be written as one word. The word 'confusion, turmoil' also needs to be written as one word, despite the marked possessive, so as to avoid the literal meaning 'house of fools' (1st case). Other compounds, where the first element gives the object,AkH.12 110. the adverb,AkH.12 110. or the possessor,AkH.12 110. are also written in one word where the suffix is omitted, or if the actual meaning is different from the sum of its elements. Thus, 'wind-protected' can be deduced from 'protected from [the] wind', and it is written together as the suffix is omitted.AkH.12 110. Verbal phrases where the suffix is marked are usually written in two words, even if the meaning has become figurative, (e.g. 'take part'),AkH.12 106. while other phrases with a marked suffix are written in one word (e.g. 'notice, spot', literally "take on the mind").AkH.12 106. Problematic point(s): there are more than a hundred verbal phrasesOH. pp. 94–96 that are used exactly like verbs with a verbal prefix (cf. "eat up" in English), like above, but they must be written as two words.
Verbal prefixes (cf. in German) are only written together with the verb they belong to if they immediately precede that verb. If the same verbal prefix is repeated to express repeated action, the first is divided by a hyphen, the second is written in one word ( 'keep stopping once in a while'). If two verbal prefixes with an opposite meaning follow each other, both are written separately ( 'walk up and down'). Verbal prefixes may be written separately if the meaning of the prefix is stressed and the prefix is meant in a literal sense, but they must be written as one word if the meaning is changed (e.g. 'stay upstairs' but 'survive, remain'). Some verbal prefixes coincide with adverbs that can have personal endings. In this case, they can only be written as one word if they are in the third person singular (unsuffixed lemma form) and the prefix/adverb is not stressed on its own (especially if the meaning is changed). Otherwise (if another person is used and/or the prefix/adverb is stressed) they should be written in two words.AkH.12 120.