Are Hungarian and Turkish related?
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I was told by somebody who has lived near Hungary that she thought that Hungarian and Turkish were related, and that their languages are very similar. A brief google search seems to support this, with things like this wikipedia article.
However, that article does say that this grouping is "criticized by some contemporary linguists" and the article doesn't seem to be linked from the main Turkish language page (it is on the Hungarian one though). The main consensus seems to be that Hungarian is more related to Finnish than Turkish as well.
Today, are these considered related languages in terms of origin? And which is Hungarian really closer to, Finnish or Turkish? (Hungary seems ethnically closer to Turkey but it's not quite geographically close to either)
turkish turkic-languages hungarian uralic finno-ugric
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up vote
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I was told by somebody who has lived near Hungary that she thought that Hungarian and Turkish were related, and that their languages are very similar. A brief google search seems to support this, with things like this wikipedia article.
However, that article does say that this grouping is "criticized by some contemporary linguists" and the article doesn't seem to be linked from the main Turkish language page (it is on the Hungarian one though). The main consensus seems to be that Hungarian is more related to Finnish than Turkish as well.
Today, are these considered related languages in terms of origin? And which is Hungarian really closer to, Finnish or Turkish? (Hungary seems ethnically closer to Turkey but it's not quite geographically close to either)
turkish turkic-languages hungarian uralic finno-ugric
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add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
I was told by somebody who has lived near Hungary that she thought that Hungarian and Turkish were related, and that their languages are very similar. A brief google search seems to support this, with things like this wikipedia article.
However, that article does say that this grouping is "criticized by some contemporary linguists" and the article doesn't seem to be linked from the main Turkish language page (it is on the Hungarian one though). The main consensus seems to be that Hungarian is more related to Finnish than Turkish as well.
Today, are these considered related languages in terms of origin? And which is Hungarian really closer to, Finnish or Turkish? (Hungary seems ethnically closer to Turkey but it's not quite geographically close to either)
turkish turkic-languages hungarian uralic finno-ugric
New contributor
I was told by somebody who has lived near Hungary that she thought that Hungarian and Turkish were related, and that their languages are very similar. A brief google search seems to support this, with things like this wikipedia article.
However, that article does say that this grouping is "criticized by some contemporary linguists" and the article doesn't seem to be linked from the main Turkish language page (it is on the Hungarian one though). The main consensus seems to be that Hungarian is more related to Finnish than Turkish as well.
Today, are these considered related languages in terms of origin? And which is Hungarian really closer to, Finnish or Turkish? (Hungary seems ethnically closer to Turkey but it's not quite geographically close to either)
turkish turkic-languages hungarian uralic finno-ugric
turkish turkic-languages hungarian uralic finno-ugric
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Riker
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3 Answers
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Turkish and Hungarian are typologically similar: They are both agglutinating languages with vowel harmony and rather rich vowel inventories.
They are, to our best knowledge, not genetically related. Hungarian belongs to the Uralic language family including Finnish, Estonian, Sami, and a couple of more languages spoken in Russia. Turkish belongs to the Turkic language family. Many linguists in the past and in the present have speculated about larger language families comprising both Uralic and Turkic, but no demonstrable regular correspondences have been found so far.
2
It worth mentioning that "Hungarian is a Turkic language" is still a popular theory in Hungary. It is, of course, completely unfounded and is espoused for ideological reasons, but the situation can be confusing for laypeople.
– user54748
3 hours ago
@user54748 What ideological reasons do people espouse it for, anyway? I find it kind of surprising that Hungarians would generally want to associate themselves more closely with Turkish peoples (I mean, feel a close cultural and/or historical connection)...?
– Owen_R
1 hour ago
add a comment |
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Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric subgroup of the Uralic language family, while Turkish belongs to the controversial Altaic language family. Nevertheless, Hungarian has had some kind of contact with Turkic languages, hence the influence in its vocabulary. However language relationship cannot be based on loanwords and contact based influence, but systematic correspondences in phonology (regular sound laws) and grammar. So, Hungarian is undoubtedly closer to Finnish as a member of the same language family, but not closer than what Spanish is to Russian (both Indo-European languages in different subgroups). Hungarian is closer to other Ugric languages which like Finnish and Estonian belong to the Uralic language family.
Do you have some evidence regarding how they are similar in more precise terms? (i.e. what kinds of correspondences)
– Riker
3 hours ago
@Riker Do you refer to Hungarian and Finnish specifically?
– Midas
2 hours ago
Yes, sorry. That's what I meant.
– Riker
2 hours ago
@Riker: To get a simple idea you can look at this: helsinki.fi/~jolaakso/f-h-ety.html I will have a look for something on grammar that is not too complicated.
– Midas
1 hour ago
@Riker: It is hard to get simple when it comes to grammar comparisons. Anyway, here is another paper analyzing grammatical aspects of Finno-Ugric. On page 44 you will also find a tree of the Uralic family. This is going to give you an idea on the linguistic distance between these languages. kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/81543/…
– Midas
1 hour ago
add a comment |
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0
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From 1541 to 1699, a big part of Hungary was the part of the Ottoman Empire, see Ottoman Hungary. And of course, those 158 years had a great impact on the Hungarian language (and on the culture as well).
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
Turkish and Hungarian are typologically similar: They are both agglutinating languages with vowel harmony and rather rich vowel inventories.
They are, to our best knowledge, not genetically related. Hungarian belongs to the Uralic language family including Finnish, Estonian, Sami, and a couple of more languages spoken in Russia. Turkish belongs to the Turkic language family. Many linguists in the past and in the present have speculated about larger language families comprising both Uralic and Turkic, but no demonstrable regular correspondences have been found so far.
2
It worth mentioning that "Hungarian is a Turkic language" is still a popular theory in Hungary. It is, of course, completely unfounded and is espoused for ideological reasons, but the situation can be confusing for laypeople.
– user54748
3 hours ago
@user54748 What ideological reasons do people espouse it for, anyway? I find it kind of surprising that Hungarians would generally want to associate themselves more closely with Turkish peoples (I mean, feel a close cultural and/or historical connection)...?
– Owen_R
1 hour ago
add a comment |
up vote
3
down vote
Turkish and Hungarian are typologically similar: They are both agglutinating languages with vowel harmony and rather rich vowel inventories.
They are, to our best knowledge, not genetically related. Hungarian belongs to the Uralic language family including Finnish, Estonian, Sami, and a couple of more languages spoken in Russia. Turkish belongs to the Turkic language family. Many linguists in the past and in the present have speculated about larger language families comprising both Uralic and Turkic, but no demonstrable regular correspondences have been found so far.
2
It worth mentioning that "Hungarian is a Turkic language" is still a popular theory in Hungary. It is, of course, completely unfounded and is espoused for ideological reasons, but the situation can be confusing for laypeople.
– user54748
3 hours ago
@user54748 What ideological reasons do people espouse it for, anyway? I find it kind of surprising that Hungarians would generally want to associate themselves more closely with Turkish peoples (I mean, feel a close cultural and/or historical connection)...?
– Owen_R
1 hour ago
add a comment |
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
Turkish and Hungarian are typologically similar: They are both agglutinating languages with vowel harmony and rather rich vowel inventories.
They are, to our best knowledge, not genetically related. Hungarian belongs to the Uralic language family including Finnish, Estonian, Sami, and a couple of more languages spoken in Russia. Turkish belongs to the Turkic language family. Many linguists in the past and in the present have speculated about larger language families comprising both Uralic and Turkic, but no demonstrable regular correspondences have been found so far.
Turkish and Hungarian are typologically similar: They are both agglutinating languages with vowel harmony and rather rich vowel inventories.
They are, to our best knowledge, not genetically related. Hungarian belongs to the Uralic language family including Finnish, Estonian, Sami, and a couple of more languages spoken in Russia. Turkish belongs to the Turkic language family. Many linguists in the past and in the present have speculated about larger language families comprising both Uralic and Turkic, but no demonstrable regular correspondences have been found so far.
answered 3 hours ago
jknappen
9,66322246
9,66322246
2
It worth mentioning that "Hungarian is a Turkic language" is still a popular theory in Hungary. It is, of course, completely unfounded and is espoused for ideological reasons, but the situation can be confusing for laypeople.
– user54748
3 hours ago
@user54748 What ideological reasons do people espouse it for, anyway? I find it kind of surprising that Hungarians would generally want to associate themselves more closely with Turkish peoples (I mean, feel a close cultural and/or historical connection)...?
– Owen_R
1 hour ago
add a comment |
2
It worth mentioning that "Hungarian is a Turkic language" is still a popular theory in Hungary. It is, of course, completely unfounded and is espoused for ideological reasons, but the situation can be confusing for laypeople.
– user54748
3 hours ago
@user54748 What ideological reasons do people espouse it for, anyway? I find it kind of surprising that Hungarians would generally want to associate themselves more closely with Turkish peoples (I mean, feel a close cultural and/or historical connection)...?
– Owen_R
1 hour ago
2
2
It worth mentioning that "Hungarian is a Turkic language" is still a popular theory in Hungary. It is, of course, completely unfounded and is espoused for ideological reasons, but the situation can be confusing for laypeople.
– user54748
3 hours ago
It worth mentioning that "Hungarian is a Turkic language" is still a popular theory in Hungary. It is, of course, completely unfounded and is espoused for ideological reasons, but the situation can be confusing for laypeople.
– user54748
3 hours ago
@user54748 What ideological reasons do people espouse it for, anyway? I find it kind of surprising that Hungarians would generally want to associate themselves more closely with Turkish peoples (I mean, feel a close cultural and/or historical connection)...?
– Owen_R
1 hour ago
@user54748 What ideological reasons do people espouse it for, anyway? I find it kind of surprising that Hungarians would generally want to associate themselves more closely with Turkish peoples (I mean, feel a close cultural and/or historical connection)...?
– Owen_R
1 hour ago
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric subgroup of the Uralic language family, while Turkish belongs to the controversial Altaic language family. Nevertheless, Hungarian has had some kind of contact with Turkic languages, hence the influence in its vocabulary. However language relationship cannot be based on loanwords and contact based influence, but systematic correspondences in phonology (regular sound laws) and grammar. So, Hungarian is undoubtedly closer to Finnish as a member of the same language family, but not closer than what Spanish is to Russian (both Indo-European languages in different subgroups). Hungarian is closer to other Ugric languages which like Finnish and Estonian belong to the Uralic language family.
Do you have some evidence regarding how they are similar in more precise terms? (i.e. what kinds of correspondences)
– Riker
3 hours ago
@Riker Do you refer to Hungarian and Finnish specifically?
– Midas
2 hours ago
Yes, sorry. That's what I meant.
– Riker
2 hours ago
@Riker: To get a simple idea you can look at this: helsinki.fi/~jolaakso/f-h-ety.html I will have a look for something on grammar that is not too complicated.
– Midas
1 hour ago
@Riker: It is hard to get simple when it comes to grammar comparisons. Anyway, here is another paper analyzing grammatical aspects of Finno-Ugric. On page 44 you will also find a tree of the Uralic family. This is going to give you an idea on the linguistic distance between these languages. kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/81543/…
– Midas
1 hour ago
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric subgroup of the Uralic language family, while Turkish belongs to the controversial Altaic language family. Nevertheless, Hungarian has had some kind of contact with Turkic languages, hence the influence in its vocabulary. However language relationship cannot be based on loanwords and contact based influence, but systematic correspondences in phonology (regular sound laws) and grammar. So, Hungarian is undoubtedly closer to Finnish as a member of the same language family, but not closer than what Spanish is to Russian (both Indo-European languages in different subgroups). Hungarian is closer to other Ugric languages which like Finnish and Estonian belong to the Uralic language family.
Do you have some evidence regarding how they are similar in more precise terms? (i.e. what kinds of correspondences)
– Riker
3 hours ago
@Riker Do you refer to Hungarian and Finnish specifically?
– Midas
2 hours ago
Yes, sorry. That's what I meant.
– Riker
2 hours ago
@Riker: To get a simple idea you can look at this: helsinki.fi/~jolaakso/f-h-ety.html I will have a look for something on grammar that is not too complicated.
– Midas
1 hour ago
@Riker: It is hard to get simple when it comes to grammar comparisons. Anyway, here is another paper analyzing grammatical aspects of Finno-Ugric. On page 44 you will also find a tree of the Uralic family. This is going to give you an idea on the linguistic distance between these languages. kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/81543/…
– Midas
1 hour ago
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
up vote
1
down vote
Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric subgroup of the Uralic language family, while Turkish belongs to the controversial Altaic language family. Nevertheless, Hungarian has had some kind of contact with Turkic languages, hence the influence in its vocabulary. However language relationship cannot be based on loanwords and contact based influence, but systematic correspondences in phonology (regular sound laws) and grammar. So, Hungarian is undoubtedly closer to Finnish as a member of the same language family, but not closer than what Spanish is to Russian (both Indo-European languages in different subgroups). Hungarian is closer to other Ugric languages which like Finnish and Estonian belong to the Uralic language family.
Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric subgroup of the Uralic language family, while Turkish belongs to the controversial Altaic language family. Nevertheless, Hungarian has had some kind of contact with Turkic languages, hence the influence in its vocabulary. However language relationship cannot be based on loanwords and contact based influence, but systematic correspondences in phonology (regular sound laws) and grammar. So, Hungarian is undoubtedly closer to Finnish as a member of the same language family, but not closer than what Spanish is to Russian (both Indo-European languages in different subgroups). Hungarian is closer to other Ugric languages which like Finnish and Estonian belong to the Uralic language family.
edited 1 hour ago
answered 3 hours ago
Midas
1,597714
1,597714
Do you have some evidence regarding how they are similar in more precise terms? (i.e. what kinds of correspondences)
– Riker
3 hours ago
@Riker Do you refer to Hungarian and Finnish specifically?
– Midas
2 hours ago
Yes, sorry. That's what I meant.
– Riker
2 hours ago
@Riker: To get a simple idea you can look at this: helsinki.fi/~jolaakso/f-h-ety.html I will have a look for something on grammar that is not too complicated.
– Midas
1 hour ago
@Riker: It is hard to get simple when it comes to grammar comparisons. Anyway, here is another paper analyzing grammatical aspects of Finno-Ugric. On page 44 you will also find a tree of the Uralic family. This is going to give you an idea on the linguistic distance between these languages. kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/81543/…
– Midas
1 hour ago
add a comment |
Do you have some evidence regarding how they are similar in more precise terms? (i.e. what kinds of correspondences)
– Riker
3 hours ago
@Riker Do you refer to Hungarian and Finnish specifically?
– Midas
2 hours ago
Yes, sorry. That's what I meant.
– Riker
2 hours ago
@Riker: To get a simple idea you can look at this: helsinki.fi/~jolaakso/f-h-ety.html I will have a look for something on grammar that is not too complicated.
– Midas
1 hour ago
@Riker: It is hard to get simple when it comes to grammar comparisons. Anyway, here is another paper analyzing grammatical aspects of Finno-Ugric. On page 44 you will also find a tree of the Uralic family. This is going to give you an idea on the linguistic distance between these languages. kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/81543/…
– Midas
1 hour ago
Do you have some evidence regarding how they are similar in more precise terms? (i.e. what kinds of correspondences)
– Riker
3 hours ago
Do you have some evidence regarding how they are similar in more precise terms? (i.e. what kinds of correspondences)
– Riker
3 hours ago
@Riker Do you refer to Hungarian and Finnish specifically?
– Midas
2 hours ago
@Riker Do you refer to Hungarian and Finnish specifically?
– Midas
2 hours ago
Yes, sorry. That's what I meant.
– Riker
2 hours ago
Yes, sorry. That's what I meant.
– Riker
2 hours ago
@Riker: To get a simple idea you can look at this: helsinki.fi/~jolaakso/f-h-ety.html I will have a look for something on grammar that is not too complicated.
– Midas
1 hour ago
@Riker: To get a simple idea you can look at this: helsinki.fi/~jolaakso/f-h-ety.html I will have a look for something on grammar that is not too complicated.
– Midas
1 hour ago
@Riker: It is hard to get simple when it comes to grammar comparisons. Anyway, here is another paper analyzing grammatical aspects of Finno-Ugric. On page 44 you will also find a tree of the Uralic family. This is going to give you an idea on the linguistic distance between these languages. kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/81543/…
– Midas
1 hour ago
@Riker: It is hard to get simple when it comes to grammar comparisons. Anyway, here is another paper analyzing grammatical aspects of Finno-Ugric. On page 44 you will also find a tree of the Uralic family. This is going to give you an idea on the linguistic distance between these languages. kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/81543/…
– Midas
1 hour ago
add a comment |
up vote
0
down vote
From 1541 to 1699, a big part of Hungary was the part of the Ottoman Empire, see Ottoman Hungary. And of course, those 158 years had a great impact on the Hungarian language (and on the culture as well).
New contributor
add a comment |
up vote
0
down vote
From 1541 to 1699, a big part of Hungary was the part of the Ottoman Empire, see Ottoman Hungary. And of course, those 158 years had a great impact on the Hungarian language (and on the culture as well).
New contributor
add a comment |
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
From 1541 to 1699, a big part of Hungary was the part of the Ottoman Empire, see Ottoman Hungary. And of course, those 158 years had a great impact on the Hungarian language (and on the culture as well).
New contributor
From 1541 to 1699, a big part of Hungary was the part of the Ottoman Empire, see Ottoman Hungary. And of course, those 158 years had a great impact on the Hungarian language (and on the culture as well).
New contributor
New contributor
answered 1 hour ago
Botond
1011
1011
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