Vowel harmony is one of the key features in Hungarian. It dictates that suffixes and link-vowels must harmonize with their stems.

Consider városban (város + ban) and hűtőben (hűtő + ben). Here, the suffixes -ban and -ben are actually two forms of the same suffix.

Consider also lányok (lány + o + k) and székek (szék + e + k). Here the suffix -k is attached to the stems with the two different link-vowels o and e.

In this article, I am only going to look at suffixes, without any link-vowels involved.

Before I can come to suffixes, however, the main categories of vowels must be established.

Hungarian has 14 vowels: a, á, o, ó, u, ú, e, é, ö, ő, ü, ű, i, í.

The proper understanding of vowel harmony comes down to the appropriate categorization of vowels, and in turn stems and suffixes, which contain those vowels.

Categories of vowels are based on articulatory variables: the vertical position of the tounge, the horizontal position of the tongue and lip rounding. Vowels are also categorized by length. Those categories are introduced below.

Note: The categories below do not reflect every detail of articulation, but these categories are sufficient for understanding vowel harmony.

In terms of the horizontal position of the tongue, vowels fall into two categories: front and back.

Front vowels: i, í, e, é, ü, ű, ö, ő.

Back vowels: a, á, o, ó, u, ú.

In terms of the vertical position of the tongue, two vowel categories are distinguished: low and high.

Note: The alternative terms open and closed are also in wide-spread use for these categories, based on the openness of the mouth. The two terminologies are essentially the same, as the the position of the tongue is lower when the mouth is more open. I will stick to the terms low and high for the sake of notational clarity.

Low (open) vowels: a, á, o, ó, e, é.

High (closed) vowels: i, í, ü, ű, u, ú.

Note: Explanations in earlier grammar books employed the terms mély (low) and magas (high) vowels. This terminology is confusing and has been deprecated, because these terms actually refer to back and front vowels.

In terms of lip rounding, vowels are either rounded or unrounded.

Rounded vowels: ü, ű, ö, ő, u, ú, o, ó.

Unrounded vowels: i, í, e, é, á.

For further discussion, the three categories introduced above will also be denoted by properties F, L and R, as follows.

• A vowel is a front vowel if it has the F property, otherwise it is a back vowel.
• A vowel is a rounded vowel if it has the R property, otherwise it is an undrounded vowel.
• A vowel is low vowel if it has the L property, otherwise it is a high vowel.

This notation is just a more concise, more technical way of describing the very same categories introduced above. Also see the diagram below for an overview.

In terms of length, vowels are either short or long. In fact all vowels can be grouped into short–long pairs.

Short vowels: a, o, u, e, ö, ü, i.

Long vowels: á, ó, ú, é, ő, ű, í.

Notice that short vowel letters either have no diacritical mark (a, o, u, e), or they have one or two dots placed above the letter (i, ö, ü). Long vowel letters always have one or two strokes (accents) placed above the letter.

Most of the suffixes in Hungarian have two alternating forms. Those forms only differ in the vowel in them (eg. -ban/-ben).

A few suffixes have three different forms, but they also only differ in their vowels (e.g. -on/-ön/-en).

When a two-form or three-form suffix is attached to a stem, the form harmonizing with the stem must be used.

A few suffixes only have a single form. These single-form suffixes do not harmonize.

As you can see, Hungarian has harmonizing and non-harmonizing suffixes. I will introduce both categories in more detail below.

As mentioned above, harmonizing suffixes come in either two forms or three forms.

For two-form suffixes, the difference of vowels in the two forms is that one vowel is a back vowel (it lacks the F property), and the other is a front vowel (it has the F property). Consider: -ban / -ben (eg. házban, hűtőben).

All vowels, except i and í, form back–front pairs, and those pairs in turn define the two different forms of two-form suffixes. (The two forms alternate, hence these suffixes are also called alternating suffixes. I will stick to the term harmonizing suffixes.)

Here are all six back–front vowel pairs:

(If you look closely, you may notice that there are in fact only 3 pairs, because the other 3 pairs have long vowels instead of short ones.)

Below are examples of two-form suffixes, based on each vowel pair above:

Vowels and, in turn, suffixes harmonize based on their back/front quality. That type of vowel harmony is called frontness harmony.

The back form of a two-form suffix may be considered the base form. Certain stems will change the suffix into its front form.

Technically speaking, the back form does not have the F property, while the front form has the F property. Frontness harmony is thus technically considered the propagation of the F property from stems to the suffixes.

I will explain in detail how F propagation works a little later. First, I need to make mention of another type of vowel harmony, which is at play with three-form suffixes.

Three-form suffixes have three alternating forms: one back form, and two front forms. Consider házhoz (ház + hoz), hűtőhöz (hűtő + höz) and székhez (szék + hez).

Three-form suffixes follow a similar pattern to two-form suffixes, but three-form suffixes are defined by a vowel triplet, instead of vowel pairs. The vowel triplet contains one back vowel and two front vowels. The two front vowels are distinguished by another quality: roundedness. That is, one of the front vowels is rounded, and the other front vowel is unrounded.

The only vowel triplet is the following:

Here are a few examples of three-form suffixes, based on the vowel triplet above:

The difference between the front forms is in the roundedness of their vowels. The unrounded suffix form (the one with the vowel e) must be used when the last vowel of the stem is unrounded.

Technically speaking, if the last vowel in a stem has no R property, it will remove the R property from the suffix.

That type of vowel harmony is called roundness harmony, or more technically, R removal.

For the sake of completeness, it is important to note that some suffixes in Hungarian are exceptional, single-form suffixes, which do not obey vowel harmony.

Three subcategories are usually distinguished here:

1. Suffixes with only the vowel i or í: -i, -ik, -ig, int, -ni, -nyi, ít.
2. Suffixes with only the vowel é: -é, -ék, ért, -ként, -né.
3. Other suffixes: -kor, -ista, -izmus, -ológia, -us, -kó.

Suffixes in subcategory 1 cannot harmonize because neither of the vowels i and í form vowel pairs, and so no alternate forms exist for such suffixes.

Suffixes in subcategory 2 could, in theory, harmonize because the vowel é forms a pair with the vowel á. For some reason, however, such suffixes not harmonize with the stem, no alternate forms exist for them either.

Suffixes in subcategory 3 could also harmonize in theory, because the vowels o, ó, a and u all form vowel pairs with other vowels. Yet, for some reason, these vowels will not harmonize with the stem, and so such suffixes do not have any alternate forms either.

See the following diagram for an overview.

Frontness harmony, as I showed earlier, mandates that the appropriate suffix form (back or front) be attached to a given stem. But how is it decided which suffix form is appropriate? That decision is based on the vowels in the stem.

Vowels in stems are also categorized. They fall into two categories: neutral (or transparent) and harmonic.

Front, unrounded vowels are called neutral vowels or transparent vowels. Notice that there are only four of them.

Neutral/transparent vowels: i, í, e, é.

Using the technical notation, they all have the F property, and all lack the R property.

Non-neutral or non-transparent vowels, that is, all the rest of the vowels, are called harmonic vowels.

Harmonic vowels: a, á, o, ó, ö, ő, u, ú, ü, ű.

In modern lingustics, frontness harmony is regarded as the propagation of the F property from the stem to the suffix. If the F property is propagated, the suffix will have the F property, that is, the suffix will take its front form. Otherwise, the the suffix will take its base form, which is its back form.

The F property is propagated in three basic cases:

1. If the last vowel of a stem has the F property as well as the R property. That is, the last vowel is a front, harmonic vowel (ü, ű, ö, ő).
2. If all vowels of a stem has the F property. There are around 60 stems that are exempt from this rule. More on that later.
3. If the last vowel of a stem has the F property and the L property (e, é), or if the last vowel of a stem has the F property and the penultimate vowel also has the F property, and the stem also has a vowel that does not have the F property.

To be cont’d…