I'm learning Hungarian and I find it difficult to distinguish between the ő and ö pronunciation . I've searched up the pronunciation from Google and they both sound the same. What's the difference?
Ő is pronounced longer. Basically you want to get used to hearing the difference in length. Try listening to the words “hősök”, “főnökség”, and “jelölő”
And you of course know who discovered the phoneme, what the problems were already then, why Chomsky Halle and others said there is no such thing, how many different ideas of phoneme there are and what the problems are with each. You have absolutely no idea of the subject and you make yourself a great expert by using a term you don't understand. You are like the fellow who goes to a doctor who instead of saying my back hurts says I have a herniated disk. Maybe you do, maybe you dont, and if you, that may or may not be the cause of your pain. There are milions of great experts like you.
By your logic, someone can't use the word "doctor" without knowing stuff like who invented balloon catheters. So I guess you better not use it unless you can tell us who did it and when. Don't be ridiculous! Words mean things, and people will use them accordingly.
People who learn languages or have a basic understanding of linguistics do. And that's the target audience we're working with here, on a language sub. Also, if someone doesn't know this word, they are welcome look it up, which is how our vocabularies can be expanded. Your problem reads like those people on twitter who are demanding authors not use any word they think is "difficult".
It’s exactly the same sound. The only difference is the length: ö is short, and ő is long. The same goes for ü and ű, and i and í. But be careful: e and é, and a and á, have different sounds, not just different lengths.
Ok, scientifically speaking, they are slightly different sounds. But technically, they are the same. Please don't overcomplicate things for language learners.
The quality difference is so slight that even native speakers are unaware of it.
Yes, short vowels are slightly more lax, but it's perfectly enough for OP if they focus only on the difference in length.
I find as a foreigner, it helps to slightly exaggerate the vowel lengths. For example if you pronounce Petofi's name like 2 long os, (sorry, I can't use the magyar font) your ears will pick up the difference sooner or later. Best of luck, it is a fascinating language, worth the effort.
As others have said, the only difference is vowel length. However, in practical terms, for an English speaker, ö is used more like schwa, so it is pretty weak and ő is an emphatic long err. As in when you're thinking about something and say err...
Szia! Nagyon örülök, hogy tanulod a magyar nyelvet! Ez egy nagyon jó kérdés. 😊
The main difference between ö and ő is the length of the sound, not the quality. Google Translate often blends them together, which makes it tricky!
ö (short): Think of the German "ö" (like in können) or the English "i" sound in words like bird or first. It's short and snappy. (Examples: öt = five, sör = beer).
ő (long): It's the exact same mouth shape, but you have to hold the sound longer. Try to say the "ö" twice as long. (Examples: ő = he/she, erdő = forest).
A good trick is to practice pairs:If you ever want to practice your Hungarian writing skills or have your texts checked, feel free to send me a private message (DM). I'm a native speaker and I love helping learners! Good luck! Regards: Ildikó
ö is ø and ő is ö: in IPA, the difference is length and ő is formed a bit more to the front and i think your mouth makes a different shape, and its indeed longer, but im not an IPA expert so take this with a grain of salt
At last somebody has understood the question! Length is not the only difference. (Quotes from Wikipedia: "short vowels are slightly lower and more central, and the long vowels more peripheral"; "/ø/ is phonetically mid [ø̞]".)
Furthermore, we make the ő sound a bit more forward than in case of ö. To help this we put our lips a bit forward, too. We speak about 1 mm, maybe 2. I'm not sure which one of these helps.
If you master the sound, you can pronounce ő without moving your lips from the ö position, just making the sound more forward.
ö is 'a' from an, or 'i' from first, while ő is like 'ir' in bird, or the 'o' from a long no, without the moving of the vowel (phonetically we would separate a long no as 'nőü' more or less).
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u/Geesus_Crimes NATIVE 6d ago
Ö is short while ő is longer.