EXCERPT: Yet, even as this puzzle was partially solved, another presented itself: the world's most impossible language. Hungarian, as everybody knows, is extraordinarily difficult. Its sole linguistic link is to Finno-Ugric; Finnish inflections sound Hungarian, if you can't hear actual words. On the rare occasions when I meet other Hungarians' grandchildren, disbelief in our absurd ancestral language unites us. For the record, the best Hungarian word means central heating: központi fütés, pronounced kers-pontifutaysh; boldog születésnapot – bull-dog soo-lertaishnop (happy birthday) comes a close second. I am as astonished as you are by the spelling.
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Macska – motch-ko (cat)
Despite my linguistic ignorance I am, in one word only, bilingual, even actively Hungarian. Whenever I see a cat, I think "hello motchko", although my grandparents lived in a flat and did not, as far as I know, like cats.
Köszönöm szépen – kers-enem say-pen (thank you very much)
My grandmother was fantastically generous: not only with money, and visits to "poor sick boys" of 86, and accommodation for acquaintances' nieces' schoolfriends' visiting neighbours, but also in smaller ways. She went nowhere without multi-purpose presents: handkerchiefs, spectacle-cases, "sweeties", small Czech crystal animals. Every milkman or, horrifyingly, teacher, was rewarded; on holiday she left a brooch or a bracelet "for the chambermaid" beside her bed. When she died we found a vast supply of gifts, awaiting distribution.
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I enjoyed this personal experience article by the granddaughter of Hungarians in London.
