Colloquial Hungarian [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONThis book is intended to be a convenient and attractive first course in Hungarian, for those English-speakers who are not professional linguists. It is limited to :(a)A vocabulary of about 1,200 words and(b)A full knowledge of the structure of everyday Hungarian.The work to be done is divided into forty lessons, preceded by an introductory sketch of the characteristics of the language. This includes notes on the pronunciation for those who have no teacher. Each lesson contains:(1)A grammatical section: five of the two hundred points into which it was found practicable to divide[b) above. The points are illustrated with examples.(2)A word list: 25-30 new words to be learned.(3)Small change" : useful expressions involving something from (1) and (2).(4)A reading-piece, giving practice in the foregoing, and(5)Exercises on the whole, in the form of conversations to be put into Hungarian.The reading-pieces form consecutive parts of a simple story describing a visit to Budapest. They are intended as a guide, not to Budapest, but to the means of enjoying such a visit. The student is taken on a leisurely canter, by easy paths through the strange wood. Though the wood may appear formidable at first glance, yet it consists of nothing worse than trees. Some may be a little strange in appearance, but they need be no more difficult to get past than the familiar English trees. A little clowning has been introduced into the ride to offset any sombreness along the path.Given the task of producing a minimum vocabulary of twelve hundred words, forty individuals will provide at least forty different selections : the list I have made is claimed only as one such selection, useful both to those