The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1849-09-12

day.
Hungarian Recommendations.
We suppose there are not many per-
sons in the United States who have not
been brothered for the want Of knowing
how to pronounce the names of Hupga-
rian men and places, which have SO
much abounded in the papers since tho
commencement of the Magyar War Of
Independence. AT any rate, We have
from time to time heard such names so
pronounced, by intelligent and even cd
ucated persons, education and intelli-
gence do not always go together } that
their owners would never suspect who
or what was meant by them. One
great reason Of such confusion is plain.
The characters Of the Roman alphabet,
as used by the Hungarians, stand for
certain sounds which either are not
found in our language, or are different
ly represented. Beside, as in English
the same letter may represent halfa-
dozen different sounds as the letter a,
for example, has one sound in fat, an
other ir fate, another in fall, another
in aUrath, and so on-who can tell which
of these sounds it stands for in an un.
known foreign word? The great diff
Guilty, as we see, lies in the absurdities
and contradictions Of our alphabet,
which can only be remedied by substitu-
ting for it a phonetic alphabet, in which
every sound Of spoken language shall
have its proper letter, and each letter
shall stand for one sound alone. The
want Of such an alphabet must make
the explanations we give below at best
only partially useful; but we must do
as we can with the means at hand. So,
let those who wish to learn Hungarian
pronunciation take their places for a
LESSONS:
Kossuth is pronounced if written
Kosh-oot Coo as in moon) Gorgey is
not like George the diminitive Of
George, but as if written Gayur-gay,
at least that is the best way we can think
of for conveying an idea Of the vowel
sound in the first syllable; the vowel it
self VIC have not in English. The name
| is sometimes spelt Georgey which is to-
ally wrong; if you want to spell it af.
ter the German fashion it must be
| Goergey as Gothic is sometimes written
Goethe.
The name Of Count Wass, the envoy
| in this country is pronounced Vosh;
that of Nadgy Sander, the famous Mag
var cavalry officer, in Nodi Shandor,
the in the second name (Which by the
wny is the christian name, the Hun
garians always put the surname first
and means Alexander being prououn-
ccd as in far; Magyar is Mod.yar;
Acs is like arch with thcr left out; De
brcczen (this is the true spelling of the
word though the Germans from whom
We generally copy, write the last sylla-
bic with y is Debrct.sane; Nliskolcz is
Mish-kolch; Bisztrick (the Germans
write it Bistricz) is Bistrits; Seeker is
is Sake-lcr; Szegcdin is Scgedin; Csor-
ma is Chorna; Saros is Sharosh, a as
in far.) Pesth is properly Pesht, but
the German pronunciation, Pest, uni.
ycrsally prevails in other countries.
Bacska is Batch-la ca as in far.
Kecskcmct is Ketch.ke-mate. Cseglcd
is Cheg-led. Percel is Pertscl, the e
in the first syllable being as in the first
syllable Of de,rg. Bekes is Baykaysh.
| Aszod is Ah.sode. Tcmesvar is tenn.
esh.var (thc as in far. Gyongyos is
IA stumper, and we defy any man to
describe the way it is pronounced, SO
that another can pronounce it Alright
from the description. Those who can't
find any one to teach them the sounds
orally, must content themselves with a
provisional pronunciation till they can.
Sony is not SO much unlike Siane-yi as
q barn door, but then it is by no means
thc same thing. Godollo is something
like Gay dcl.leh, but not exactly.
There are good many German
names in Hungary, both of men and
places, which arc pronounced according
| to German rules, as for instance, Thesis
pronounced 1fce;) the Magyar-name
Of that river is Tisza, (Tsa-sa) There
are also good many sclavonic names
which also have their own rules, as for
instance Jellacie, which is pronounced
Yel.latch.itch, with the emphasis on the
second syllable. Kossuth is also q
Sclayonic name, but has been Magyar
lied. Knicianin is Iiun,nieh-yan-in.
That is enough Of examples: let us
now have a small portion of principles.
| The vowel dis like our a in ave; a like