Re: More Ere:tas: The fable of the North Wind and the Sun

On Tue, 30 Oct 2001, Muke Tever wrote:

> (Also my Hungarian book says it only has long /a:/, the short version being
> /O/... dunno if that's right.  I understand Sanskrit was something similar...
> English even hasn't got /a/, though other low vowels like /A/ and /&/...)

Yes. Hungarian has only long /a:/. The short "a" (without acute) is
something between /A/ and /O/, and in some dialects, notably Ba'na't
dialect of eastern Vojvodina (Yugoslavia - around
Zrenjanin/Nagybecskerek) and northwestern Transylvania
(around Timisoara/Temesva'r), Standard Hungarian /a:/ is pronounced
[A:]:

Std Hu: anya'd [On^ja:d] = thy mother
Banat: [On^jA:d]

The Uplands (Felvide'ki) dialects spoken in Slovakia have /A/, /O:/ and
/a:/. The above example would be [An^ja:d]. The /O:/ is found where in
StdHu an /l/ follows the "a", the "l" being assimilated:

StdHu: alma [OlmO] = apple
Felvideki: [O:mA]

In the dialect spoken around Debrecen and Nyiregyha'za (Nyirse'gi), short
/a/ exists, along with long /a:/. The above examples would be:

[an^ja:d]
[alma]

And the stereotypical phrase which Budapesters imitate the Nyirse'gi
dialect:

StdHu: hat hatvan [hOt HOtvOn] = six sixty (ie. 6 forint 60 filler)
Nyirsegi: [hat hatvan]

Understandably, the Nyirsegi dialect sounds as odd to most Hungarian
speakers as the Vasi dialect, which is replete with the [Z] sound as well
as numerous localisms:

Standard (Colloquial) Hungarian would say:

Hova me'sz, a falu' e'szaki ve'ge're, vagy az also' ve'ge're?
hovO me:sz  O fOlu  e:sOki  ve:ge:rE  vOd^j Oz AlSo: ve:ge:rE?
Where are you going? The the north end of the village or to the south end?

Vasi would say (StdHu says [vOSi], Vasi says [vAZi])

ha: me:n kEnd A f2vEgre vAd^j a l2vEgre?
which means the same as above, but literally:
Whither goes sir, the upend or the downend?

---frank