“Time is out of joint ~ Cursed spite! That ever I was born to set it right!”
~ Shakespeare - Hamlet Act 1, Scene 5


“O Beata Ungheria! Se non si lascia piu malmenare!” 
~ Dante


“… there’s but one language, and that is the Hungarian”
~ Teller Ede


“The majority of the European peoples learned to read and write only after they were converted to Christianity, while the Magyars lost their own runic script after their conversion because the Church regarded it as pagan.”
~ Adorján  Magyar


„ ...again and again we have to realise, we have to come to the conclusion that the Magyar language is the miraculous expression of Nature, the realities of nature, their mirror image expressed in sounds, which will serve as a base to much research in the future.”

„The Magyar language could not have been created by human minds, it was created by the forces of Nature, just as the snowflakes and crystals.”
~ Adorján  Magyar


” The Hungarian language goes far back. It developed in a very particular manner and its structure reaches back to times, when most of the now spoken European languages did not even exist. It is a language which developed steadily and firmly in itself, and in which there is logic and mathematics with the adaptability and malleability of strength and chords. The Englishman should be proud that his language indicates an epic of human history. One can show forth its origin; and alien layers can be distinguished in it, which gathered together during the contacts with different nations. Whereas the Hungarian language is like a rubble-stone; consisting of only one piece, on which the storms of time left not a scratch. It’s not a calendar that adjusts to the changes of the ages. It needs no one, it doesn’t borrow, does no buckstering, and doesn’t give or take from anyone. This language is the oldest and most glorious monument of a national sovereignty and a mental independence. What scholars cannot solve, they ignore. In philosophy it’s the same way as archeology. The floors of the old Egyptian temples, which were made out of only one rock, can’t be explained. No one knows where they came from, or from which mountain the wondrous mass was taken. How they were transported and lifted to the top of the temples. The genuineness of the Hungarian language is a phenomenon much more wondrous than this. He who solves it shall be analyzing the Divine secret; in fact the first thesis of this secret: “In the beginning there was Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

"The Magyar language stands afar off and alone. The study of other tongues will be found of exceedingly little use towards its right understanding. It is moulded in a form essentially its own, and its construction and composition may be safely referred to an epoch when most of the living tongues of Europe either had no existence, or no influence on the Hungarian region."
POETRY OF THE MAGYARS,  by John Bowring, 1830. Preface 6.
- Sir John Bowring on the Magyar language


“After studying the Hungarian language for years, I can confidently conclude that had Hungarian been my mother tongue, my work it would have been more precious. Simply because through this extraordinary, ancient and powerful language it is possible to precisely describe the tiniest differences and the most secretive tremors of emotions.”
~ Sir Bernard Shaw


“...this would include, for example, developing Greek in its present area since 6500 B. C., and Celtic in Ireland since 3500 B. C. The antiquity of Magyar in Hungary may be equally surprising; I find it to be a Mesolithic speech that predates Neolithic entry.” (Page 10-11)

“It is usually stated that the Uralic Magyars Moved into Hungary from an eastern source in the 9th Century A. D. I find instead that all the other Uralic speakers expanded out of Hungary in the opposite direction, and at a much earlier date.” (Page 11)
~ Grover S. Krantz - Geographic Development of European Languages


"Hungarian language is logical and has a perfect structure and surpasses every other language."
- Jakob Grimm


“The structure of the Hungarian language is such that it appears that linguists could have created it with the purpose of incorporating in it every rule, conciseness, melody and clarity and besides all this it avoided any commonness, difficulty in pronunciation and irregularities.”
- N. Erbersberg; Viennese scientist


"Now that I have an idea of the structure of language, it is my opinion: the Hungarian language is the top product of human logic."
- Ove Berglund; Swedish physician and translator


"If we leave out of account purely imitative words, as those derived from the voices of animals, and from natural sounds, which necessarily resemble each other everywhere, it will be found that the most persistent words are those like "God," "house," "man," etc., which express objects or ideas of constant recurrence in the speech of everyday life, and which in consequence become most perfectly stereotyped in the usage of primitive peoples. Further, a very slight acquaintance with these languages is sufficient to show that they are connected with the older languages of the Eastern continent by a great variety of more permanent root words, and with some even on grammatical structure. So persistent is this connection trough the time, that pages might be filled with modern English, French, or German words, which are allied to those of the Algonquin tribes as well as to the oldest tongues of Europe, Basques and Magyar, and the East.”
- Arthur Custance quotes the Canadian Sir William Dawson
 from his book titled Fossil Men and Their Modern Representatives of 1883.


“Such skill at innovative thinking could well be rooted in the complexity of the Hungarian language, which has three levels of formality, direct and indirect conjugation of verbs, and also demands rhyming vowel harmony. Saying anything in Hungarian demands an instantaneous series of mental calculations before a sentence can be constructed and a clear meaning communicated. A Hungarian, the old joke goes, is someone who enters a revolving door behind you but comes out in front. This inbuilt skill at seeking solutions to complex problems, and a talent for quick lateral thinking, proved vital for the Magyars during centuries of foreign rule and was especially useful under Communism.”
The Economist: The marvellous Magyar microcars
How Hungary circumvented Stalin and also had a bit of fun
Dec 16th 2010 | BUDAPEST | from PRINT EDITION


“A persistent rumor circulates in the USA: There are two intelligent races living on the surface of planet Earth:
the standard people and the Hungarians.”
- Isaac Asimov


"The universe is vast, containing myriads of stars, many of them not unlike our Sun. Many of these stars are likely to have planets circling around them. A fair fraction of these planets will have liquid water on their surface and a gaseous atmosphere. The energy pouring down from a star will cause the synthesis of organic compounds, turning the ocean into a thin, warm soup. These chemicals will join each other to produce a self-reproducing system. The simplest living things will multiply, evolve by natural selection and become more complicated till eventually active, thinking creatures will emerge. Civilization, science, and technology will follow. Then, yearning for fresh worlds, they will travel to neighboring planets, and later to planets of nearby stars. Eventually they should spread out all over the Galaxy. These highly exceptional and talented people could hardly overlook such a beautiful place as our Earth. - "And so, " - Fermi came to his overwhelming question, - "if all this has been happening, they should have arrived here by now, so where are they ? " - It was Leo Szilard, a man with an impish sense of humor, who supplied the perfect reply to the Fermi Paradox: - "They are among us," - he said, - "but they call themselves Hungarians. "
~ Marx György- The Martians: ( Marx György - A Marslakók Érkezése; "The Voice of the Martians" )

YOU KNOW YOU’RE HUNGARIAN WHEN…


1. you know the phrase “three is the Hungarian truth”

2. you can swear for five minutes straight, with one breath, not using the same word, ever

3. you never heard anybody say anything positive about politics

4. you don’t know at least half of the people at family celebrations

5. you love Túró Rudi but can’t really explain to foreigners what the hell it is until they try it

6. for every notion there are about five words

7. you have at least one relative who’s named Attila. Or József. Or János. Or László. Or István.

8. zou can't tzpe on an English kezboard because y and z are mixed up

9. any foreigners passing mention of Transylvania will set off a twenty-minute rant about the Treaty of Trianon (see link PDF, and site link)

10. you, being a girl, smell like a mixture of 20 different perfumes on Easter Monday

11. you, being a boy, run around with your mother’s old perfumes to earn more red Easter eggs on Easter Monday

12. you love Mákos Guba but you can’t explain what MÁK is, neither GUBA to anyone… and if you finally can, everyone thinks that you’re some kind of weirdo for eating that

13. you know your Name Day!

14.you call a 79 km long lake (the Balaton) the Hungarian Sea. And you are able to swim across it!

15.Santa brings you presents on the 6th of December and not at Christmas

16. you know how to open a bottle of wine with only a screw and a pair of pliers

17.you call the triangle shaped cheese that comes in a circle shaped box a cheese cube

18.you know how to tell the age of an apple

19.you think that a glass of ‘pálinka’ or ‘forralt bor’ is better than medicine

20. you can say “megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért” and even know what it means

The Hungarian Anthem as sung usually

Hungarian Anthem sung by male choir

Szózat (Appeal - Alternate National Anthem)

The Rákóczi March (Rákóczi induló)

Rákóczi March as sung in Csángó Land (Gyimes)

Boldogasszony Anyánk (Our Blessed Lady Mother
 - Catholic Anthem)

The Anthem of the Székelys (Szeklers)

7 FACTS ABOUT THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL  ANTHEM


1. What was before it? Before Kölcsey created this piece of art (1823), the Catholics and the Reformed Protestants of Hungary had different anthems. In the early 19th century, the Austrian imperial anthem was used at formal occasions, but the Rákóczi March was also played often.

2. When was it first performed? It was set to music in 1844, by Ferenc Erkel. Its first public performance was on August 10, 1844, at the inauguration of the Széchenyi steamboat.

3. An anecdote about its removal says that Mátyás Rákosi wanted Gyula Illyés to write another new national poem, but the poet did not undertake the task. The party also tried to convince Zoltán Kodály, but the composer said: ’Why do you need a new one? The old anthem is good for us.’ After this, the issue was taken off from the agenda.

4. How to sing the lyrics? The singing of the national anthem is complicated by the fact that in Hungarian, the sixth row (”hozz rá víg esztendőt”) consists of six syllables, but the rhythm is made up of seven sounds. The modern performances overcome this problem by bending the word ”hozz”. It is a curiosity that Bálint Hóman, Religion and Education Minister made a decree in 1939, saying that for the ease of singing, the original text has to be changed to ”hozz reá víg esztendőt”.

5. It is included in the passport. The current Hungarian passports contain the anthem in two ways: a piece of the manuscript is embossed on the plastic sheet, while the sheet music can be seen under UV light.

6. It has a statue. The statue was inaugurated on May 7, 2006, in Budakeszi. The work of Mária V. Majzik is nine meters long and four and a half meters tall. It displays the lines of the poem on the radii of a circle, and a bronze God-figure is put in the center. At formal occasions, 21 bronze bells play the anthem.

7. When did it become official? Although the Hungarian government recognized the official status of the anthem is 1903, the bill was not sanctioned by Franz Jospeh I., King of Hungary; therefore, it did not enter into force. It was formally included in the constitution only in 1989.

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Brief History of Hungary
9 foreigners who became heroes in Hungary
Who are the heroes of Heroes’ Square?
Hungary’s March 15th holiday