Xiaolei
Professional Teacher
English words in Hungarian

I am looking for a Hungarian teacher or person who can clarify some questions related to Hungarian grammar. So this question is not related to customs or habits, I am only asking about the official grammar. My problem is that in Hungarian people often need to use English words and it is confiusing when should I use the Hungarian pronunciation and when should I use the English one. The confusion is that I often hear NBA with English pronunciation, and FIFA with Hungarian. I am curious that according to the official Hungarian grammar rules NBA should be said with Hungarian pronunciation when I am referring to the National Basketball Association or the English pronunciation is the correct one? I hear the English one during a Hungarian Television broadcast as well. And comparing it with FIFA, I hear the Hungarian pronunciation, which does not make any sense for me, so I am looking for some sort of official clarification.

Sep 20, 2015 6:36 AM
Comments · 6
5

NBA and FIFA are acronyms. According to official postion (Dictionary of the Use of Hungarian Language), acronyms' pronunciation has to follow the rules of Hungarian pronunciation - e.g. USA [usa], FIFA [fifa], WHO [véháó]. However, a few examples contradict this and we pronounce them in the 'English way' - e.g. BBC, FBI. Recently appeared words tend to be pronunced as foreign words - e.g. HBO, GDP, but sometimes both ways are acceptable - e.g. PhD [píéjdzsdí or péhádé). 

 

 

The conclusion in the above mentioned dictionary is the following:

'the way of pronunciation is ruled by the habit"

Good luck with that! :)

 

 

Source: Magyar nyelvhasználati szótár (szerk. Balázs Géza – Zimányi Árpád, Pauz-Westermann, Celldömölk 2007.)

 

September 25, 2015
1

We pronounce "NBA" in English, while the pronunciation of "FIFA" is very similar in Hungarian and English, but it would sound strange if we pronounced it with an English accent.

September 20, 2015
Officially (according to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) every foreign word should be transcribed into Hungarian phonetic spelling, if it originates from a non-Latin-based writing system (e.g. Chinese).

However, it's more of a question of habits how abbreviations are pronounced.
For instance, we say "USA" (pronounce: usa, in Hungarian), instead of pronouncing it as in English.

The same would apply for FIFA and NBA as well. Nevertheless Hungarians got into the habit of pronouncing NBA as in English ("en-bi-éj", as contrasted to the officially correct form "en-bé-a"). This possibly shows how language usage is affected by television.

Still, this question (of pronouncing foreign abbreviations correctly) causes controversy and you can hear different variants from different people.
June 28, 2017

Hi. I speak in Hungarian. I can help you:)

November 15, 2015

We can tell, as a rule, if we can pronounce an acronym fluently we won' lettering. For example

 

"usa", "fifa" instead of "jú-esz-éj", "ef-áj-ef-éj" etc. In file associations you can hear "gif" instead of "dzsí-áj-ef" or "avi" instead of "é-vi-áj". Or .mov, .jpeg [jé-peg, jé-pé-gé, dzséj-peg]. But in the case if the acronym contains consonants, we pronounce letter by letter. For instance. .BMP [bé-em-pé] or WMF [vé-em-ef]. Another important thing that we never use W (duplavé). We ingnore it and pronounce V. BMW [bé-em-vé].

 

Actually, you have to learn every each acronym's pronounciation because there are no strict rules how to use them properly.

October 24, 2015
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