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From: banicz@hpl3.cern.ch (Karoly Banicz)
Subject: Re: Hungarian / Czecho-Slovakian
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Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 15:51:10 GMT
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Jorma Kyppo writes:
> - When I went at first time to Czechoslovakia by train and didn't
> know a word of Slovak, I heard a group of students speaking Slovak
> in the train. It was strange but the way how they were "singing"
> the words made me think, that they were Hungarians!

An interesting observation.
Speaking neither Czech nor Slovak, the only way I can distinguish
them is through listening to the intonation, or how the
speaker is "singing". To me, a native Hungarian, Czech sounds more 
"affected" or foreign whereas Slovak quite "natural".
This method works even if I can barely hear the speakers and can't 
really make out individual sounds, let alone words. In fact, then 
it's hard for me to tell whether they're speaking Slovak or Hungarian.


Karoly Banicz
