Phonological history of Hungarian

There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Uralic languages. For example, Hungarian á corresponds to Khanty o in certain positions, and Hungarian h corresponds to Khanty x, while Hungarian final z corresponds to Khanty final t. For example, Hungarian ház "house" vs. Khanty xot "house", and Hungarian száz "hundred" vs. Khanty sot "hundred".

The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular. The relationship is most obvious when comparing all the Ugric languages with all the Finnic languages, for then individual idiosyncrasies are averaged out, but here we will just compare Hungarian with Finnish and Estonian. One important difference between Hungarian and the Finnic languages is that Hungarian underwent the most salient features of Grimm's Law while the Finnic tongues did not.

• Hungarian [f] corresponds to Finnish and Estonian [p] (just like English [f] in father corresponds to Latin [p] in pater):

Hungarian	Finnish	Estonian	meaning
fa	puu	puu	tree
fél	pelätä	pelgama	to fear
fészek	pesä	pesa	nest

• Hungarian [k] corresponds to Finnish and Estonian [k] before front vowels:

Hungarian	Finnish	Estonian	meaning
könny	kyynel	küünistama	tear
kéz	käsi	käsi	hand, arm
kő	kivi	kivi	stone

• Hungarian [h] corresponds to Finnish and Estonian [k] before back vowels (just like English [h] in hound corresponds to Latin [k] in canis)

Hungarian	Finnish	Estonian	meaning
hal	kala	kala	fish
ház	kota	koda	house (Hung.), hut (Finn. and Est.)
húgy	kusi	kusi	urine

• Hungarian [t] corresponds to Finnish and Estonian [t] at the beginning of a word:

Hungarian	Finnish	Estonian	meaning
tél	talvi	talv	winter
tud	tuntea	tundma	to know
tavasz	touko		spring

• In the middle of words (note that due to the loss of the word final vocals in the Old-Hungarian language these are now at the end of the words) Hungarian [z] corresponds to Finnish [t] (which can alterate with [s]) and Estonian [d] or [t] (which is also able to alterate with [s]):

Hungarian	Finnish	Estonian	meaning
ház	kota	koda	house (Hung.), hut (Finn.)
kéz	käsi : käte-	käsi : käte-	hand, arm
fazék	pata	pada	pot

This is just a sample. Even in the small number of words above, other regular sound correspondences can be seen, such as Hungarian [l] corresponding to Finnish and Estonian [l].

See also

• Selected cognates in the Uralic languages
• Common vocabulary among Finno-Ugric languages
• The living fish swims in water