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From: "Paul J. Kriha" <kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz>
Subject: Re: Hungarian / Czecho-Slovakian
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Date: Thu, 9 Feb 1995 03:35:26 GMT
References: <rharmsen.176.00160003@knoware.nl> <3gl52f$7c2@netnews.upenn.edu> <banicz.792085870@hpl3pur2>
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banicz@hpl3.cern.ch (Karoly Banicz) wrote:
>
> 
> 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.
> 

I have made a similar observation in Oberoestereich region
of Austria (Linz / Braunau) when listening to the local
German dialect from distance.

Across the border in Czech Sumava Region there exist several
Czech dialects with "singing" intonation quite different from
Slovak and similar to the intonation of German dialects south
of the border.
When I am close to the speaker I can hear no similarity to Czech
but overhearing distant conversation in the open I sometimes
cannot tell whether they speak Czech or German.

Paul JK.


 

