Carmelo
How much is today's Magyar languages different from the 19th century's one? I'm learning Magyar language (wonderful!) and accidentally I found and read a grammar from 19th century: (http://books.google.it/books?id=n5QZAAAAYAAJ&hl=it&source=gbs_navlinks_s) It is impressive to see how much Italian has changed from those times, is Magyar so different too? How much of that I read do I have to forget? For exemple, I read about a verbal imperfect tense but nowadays I can find it nowhere, has anyone memories of it?
Jul 6, 2014 3:29 AM
Answers · 5
4
If you noticed how much the Italian language has changed since the writing of this book, so has Hungarian. It dates back to 1827 when the Hungarian language was undergoing reforms and many words sound very archaic today. In contemporary editions of Hungarian books written in that age, you can find footnotes explaining old-fashioned expressions. If you like reading 19th century Hungarian literature in original, you won't have to forget all of it. On the other hand, you would have a hard time getting yourself understood if you spoke this kind of Hungarian. As for the imperfect tense, I'm not sure what you're referring to. Is the "mondá, nézém, beszéle" form? Or is it the "látá vala" form? Whichever it is, both of these are gone now.
July 6, 2014
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