Hungarian Historical Phonology:Vowels
Overview of the regular reflexes of Proto-Uralic vowels in Hungarian
Proto-Uralic *a > Hungarian a, á in *-a-stems (unknown conditions; see Zhivlov 2014; 2023: 141)
Proto-Uralic *kala > Hungarian hal ‘fish’
Proto-Uralic *adma > Hungarian álom ‘dream’
> Hungarian a in *-ǝ-stems (Aikio 2015: 51–53)
Proto-Uralic *waji ‘fat’ > Hungarian vaj ‘butter’
*a > o before *ć
Proto-Uralic *paćka > Hungarian fos
*o > á in *-a-stems (see Zhivlov 2014; Aikio 2015: 60–62)
Proto-Uralic *kota > Hungarian ház ‘house’
> a? Few examples
Proto-Uralic *worka- > Hungarian varr ‘sew’
*o > a in -ǝ-stems (see Zhivlov 2014: 136–139)
Proto-Uralic *wolǝ- > Hungarian val- ‘be’
*o > o before *ć (Zhivlov 2014: 124)
Proto-Uralic *moćkǝ- > Hungarian mos ‘wash’
*u > o (Sammallahti 1988)
Proto-Uralic *tulka > Hungarian toll ‘feather’
> ú (Sammallahti 1988; unknown conditions)
Proto-Uralic *kuńćǝ > Hungarian húgy 'urine'
> a (few examples with debated conditions; Holopainen [in press])
Proto-Uralic *kulkǝ- ‘go’ > Hungarian halad ‘proceed’
*e̮ > a, á in -a-stems (see Sammallahti 1988; unknown conditions for the distribution of *a and *á)
Proto-Uralic *će̮ta > Hungarian száz ‘hundred’
> i, í in *-ǝ-stems
Proto-Uralic *ńe̮lǝ > Hungarian nyíl (: nyilat) ‘arrow’
*ä > e, alternating with é
Proto-Uralic *kätǝ > Hungarian kéz (: kezet) ‘hand’
> é (word initially and in cases of contraction)
Proto-Uralic *äni ‘voice’ > Hungarian ének ‘song’
Proto-Uralic *näkǝ- > Hungarian néz ‘see’
*e > é
Proto-Uralic *pesä > Hungarian (der.) fészek ‘nest’
*i > ë (usually)
Proto-Uralic *pilwǝ > Hungarian (der. or opaque compound) fëlleg ‘cloud’
> e (unknown conditions; see Zhivlov 2023: 142for a possible solution)
Proto-Uralic *šiŋǝrǝ > Hungarian egér (: egeret) ‘mouse’
? *i > a in *i_a stems (Aikio 2022: 8)
Proto-Uralic *kićka- > Hungarian hasad ‘split’ (Aikio 2022: 8)
*ü > ö, ő
Proto-Uralic *sülǝ > Hungarian öl ‘fathom’
Proto-Uralic *sükǝćǝ > Hungarian ősz ‘autumn’
References
Aikio, Ante. 2013. Kantauralin vokaalistosta. Handout, Aulis J. Joen & Erkki Itkosen juhlaseminaari, 19.4.2013, Helsinki.
Aikio, Ante. 2015. The Finnic ‘secondary e-stems’ and Proto-Uralic vocalism. – Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 95: 26–66.
Holopainen, Sampsa. [in press]. Notes on an old problem of Hungarian historical vocalism: the sporadic (?) change of Uralic *u > Hungarian a, á. – To be published in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen 68.
Sammallahti, Pekka. 1988. Historical phonology of the Uralic languages with special reference to Samoyed, Ugric and Permic. In Denis Sinor (ed.), The Uralic languages: description, history and foreign influences (Handbuch der Orientalistik 8: Handbook of Uralic studies 1), 478–554. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Zhivlov, Mikhail. 2014. Studies in Uralic vocalism III. – Journal of Language Relationship 12: 113–148.
Zhivlov, Mikhail. 2023. Reconstruction of Proto-Uralic. In Daniel Abondolo & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi (eds.), The Uralic languages, 117–175. Second edition. London and New York: Routledge.