INFO SHEET - Hungarian future employers, which can lead to exciting jobs. About the Language Overview • The Hungarian alphabet has 44 letters, including 14 vowels: a, st • Levels Offered: 1 year á, e, é, i, í, o, ó, ö, ő, u, ú, ü, ű. • Minor Available: No. • Hungarian has no grammatical gender, unlike German, • Placement Test: Required for students with prior knowledge French, Italian, and Spanish and uses 1 pronoun, ő, for he/she. • Hungarian can express a complete sentence Why you should study Hungarian (subject/verb/object) with a single conjugated verb form, e.g., szeretlek (I love you), látlak (I see you), ismerlek (I know you). Hungary has a rich and fascinating history, culture, literature, which • Hungarians had a well-developed runic script called székely- can be better understood and appreciated, if one speaks Hungarian. magyar rovásírás before the Latin-based alphabet was The richness of the language makes translation of literary works introduced in the 11th century? This 6000-year-old writing challenging, or in certain cases almost impossible. Hungary has been system has been used successfully to interpret Egyptian undergoing numerous changes in the last 30 years and it is a hieroglyphs and is being revitalized in corners of Hungary goldmine for those who seek a better understanding of the political today. and cultural processes in the region. • Like Japanese speakers, Hungarians introduce themselves Hungarian is the official language of Hungary and is spoken by 15 with their last name first and first name last. million people worldwide, of whom 10 million live in Hungary, making it the most widely-spoken non-Indo-European language in Did you know? Europe. Hungary is a member of the European Union and many Hungary is an exceptionally talented nation and Hungarians have Hungarian-speaking minorities live in neighbouring countries: the contributed significantly to modern science. Hungarians invented (or Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria. were instrumental in the invention of): Rubik’s cube, noiseless More than 315,000 Canadians (2006) are of Hungarian origin, of matches, ballpoint pen, colour TV, BASIC programming language, whom about 50% live in Ontario. electric transformer, light bulb, and many more. If you are interested in cultural anthropology, history, linguistics, or Also, the first Tibetan-English dictionary and grammar book were political science, Hungary can be a rewarding region for your compiled by Hungarian linguist Sándor Kőrösi Csoma in 1834. research. If you have cultural connections (e.g. grandparents, parents, and friends) or you wish to do business in Hungary, In fact, relative to its population of about 10 million, Hungary has mastering the language will strengthen these connections and offer produced 13 Nobel Prize Laureates, more per capita than countries possibilities for visiting Hungary and gaining insight into the scope of like Finland, Spain, Canada, and Australia. the distinctive Hungarian history, culture, and traditions.

By learning Hungarian, you will stand out of the crowd. Having an exotic language on your CV can awaken the interest and curiosity of languages@carleton.ca