Native Hungarian speakers: in handwriting, how do you distinguish the umlaut from the hungarumlaut?

Vasil StanevVasil Stanev Posts: 759
edited August 2019 in Technique and Theory
>  Do you elongate it, do you depend on context, or is it something else? :)


Comments

  • Vasil StanevVasil Stanev Posts: 759
    edited August 2019
    I would also like to use this opportunity to ask if there are significant orthographic reforms in your language since 1956. I am using a dictionary of that year to teach myself a little Hungarian and this is the most recent one that I am aware of, despite of our otherwise strong traditions in Hungarian studies.  :#
  • Adam JagoszAdam Jagosz Posts: 689
    edited August 2019
    I'm not a Hungarian speaker, but my last name kind of looks Hungarian, plus the topic interested me, so here's my research (I Google translated handwriting — it's kézírás — then searched for images.

    This is Tiszta szívvel, a poem by József Attila.

    Nincsen apám, se anyám,
    se istenem, se hazám,
    se bölcsőm, se szemfedőm,
    se csókom, se szeretőm.

    Harmadnapja nem eszek,
    se sokat, se keveset.
    Húsz esztendőm hatalom,
    húsz esztendőm eladom.

    Hogyha nem kell senkinek,
    hát az ördög veszi meg.
    Tiszta szívvel betörök,
    ha kell, embert is ölök.

    Elfognak és felkötnek,
    áldott földdel elfödnek
    s halált hozó fű terem
    gyönyörűszép szívemen.

    As you can see, the solution of the problem seems simple — the two diacritics are simply distinguished as they are in print, no funny business. Matter of getting used to it, I guess. But some simplification in rapid writing must occur:

    Here in the fourth line you can observe the title of the post, töltőtoll, which coincidentally means fountain pen. It seems that the wiggle representing the double dot is more compact, condensed, dark, almost like a blot (but this probably depends on the writing tool), while the one representing double acute is more open, like an inverted tilde.
  • Adam JagoszAdam Jagosz Posts: 689
    edited August 2019
    Interestingly, it appears Hungarians are taught the acute as a vertical stroke. And you can observe this in the last handwriting sample in the previous post, the acute is vertical, if not even leaning to the left like the grave.

  • If this was a week ago I could've taken pictures for you! (I was in Budapest. Great city BTW.)
  • I have a soft spot for Hungary, don't know exactly why. Seems exotic and neighbourly at the same time. Plus, the language gives you a good training to talk to Finns in their language, and I think that's never a bad thing :)
    So, the umlaut is more toned down and the double acute more pronounced, as I suspected. I also imagined one of the two acutes in the hungarumlaut would be more elongated than the other one to distinguish it from the umlaut, and this was partially true. :) 
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