These pages contain some basic Hungarian examples which can serve as the basis of a rudimentary description, a simple comparison (with English or with other languages), and ultimately as the basis of a more in-depth description.

Users

The data are designed with students of introductory linguistics and other introductory courses (phonology, syntax, morphology) in mind. Others, including those planning to engage in doing fieldwork, may also benefit from analyzing some of these data.

Data

In each case, and English version is given, followed by one or more Hungarian equivalents, given in mp3 format. The Hungarian equivalents are recorded twice within the same file. For all relevant purposes, the two versions are identical.

The recorded format allows users to decode the data before analyzing it; the more familiar, written version is not supplied. In addition, the mp3 format permits a straightforward illustration of intonation and stress patterns, among others, and it also allows the use of Praat or similar programs on the data provided.

The data provided uses a limited vocabulary. It may be necessary, however, to consult other data (mostly from the 'Phonology' or the 'Morphology' sections) to identify specific lexical items. Also, the data are presented on discrete pages, but they are not independent. Assimilation, for example, is tied to morphology, and case marking has relevance for clause structure and word order. Thus in order to give a description of data on a single page, it may be necessary to consider other data as well.

The data are meant to be sufficient for a basic description; no other sources should be required.

Organization

The data is roughly organized into three areas (phonology, syntax and morphology); these areas can be reached via the links on the top of the page. Within these areas, smaller topics (e.g. 'Case marking' or 'Intonation') are defined.

The organization and classification of the data is somewhat arbitrary, however. For example, 'Tense marking' and 'Agreement' are within 'Syntax', but they could equally belong within the broader category of 'Morphology'. Similarly, the section on 'Possessives' bears on issues of 'Agreement', yet it is a topic of its own.

Downloading

Users may download data only for further analysis (e.g. by Praat) on their computers. Before downloading, please contact Aniko Csirmaz.

Further developments

In the future, the data set will be extended to data from other languages. The existing data from Hungarian will also be amended.

Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of

1. •the Teaching Committee of the University of Utah
   

2. •the Speech Acquisition Lab at the University of Utah
   

3. •the Technology Assisted Curriculum Center at the University of Utah
   

4. •the informants whose speech was recorded,
   

all of which were instrumental in this project.

Contact

Feedback, comments and suggestions are appreciated. Please send all comments to Aniko Csirmaz.