Stephen Rojak ) wrote:
: I am studying Hungarian on my own, and I am having a hard time with the
: verbal prefix *meg-*. I have not been able to find a pattern in the
: words I have encountered.

I don't think there's any pattern -- some verb makes sense with a certain
verbal prefix, some don't.   I'm afraid you need to learn them one-by-one.

Verbal prefixes usually indicate some kind of direction, ie:

be/ki, le/fel, meg/el, a't/ra', ide/oda, sze't/o:szze/viszza

so you have to decide whether a given action makes sense, or not.  

For instance, the 'olvas' (read) makes no or very little sense with 
meg/ide/oda/sze't/vissza, etc.   On the other hand, the verb 'basz' 
works fine with all prefixes, but it's meaning can change a lot 
depending on the prefix.

Somewhat similar in English, usage wise: "get, got, gotten"
In hungarian this verbal prefix seems like makes the verb ,
more positive, stronger.

DR. LASZLO   THYC43A @Prodigy.com.

In article > Janos Szamosfalvi,
 writes:
>For instance, the 'olvas' (read) makes no or very little sense with 
>meg/ide/oda/sze't/vissza, etc.

Megolvas means count (megszamol) and you may 'szetolvas' a book
if it comes apart in your hands after the tenth start... :)

Tamas

Itt Los Angelesben van egy volt Makoi lakos, 56-os Magyar, o is azt 
mondja 
mindig, hogy Mako az elso. Ugy hivjak hogy Biro Barna. Mindig guritunk 
neki egy nagy voroshagymat mikor meglatjuk.

DR. LASZLO   THYC43A @Prodigy.com.

Excerpts from netnews.soc.culture.netherlands: 20-Aug-95 Re: Ostrich
meat - the cult.. by Dwen  
> That nigerians make ostrich fofoo?

*chuckle* It's usually spelt fufu :) At least  the Ghanaian way :)

Conal

In article > , 
writes:
>Wouldn't his initials be K. B. by any chance? ;-)

Talált, süllyedt.

Tamás

In article > ,
 writes:
>i've just heard on the local pacifica radio station here in san 
>     francisco that hungary has the highest suicide rate in the world (on a 
>     per capita basis).  

Yes, the Hungarian suicide rate is higher than the USA suicide and
murder rates *together*.

Recently however Estonia overtook us.

>     the rate in hungary is several times higher than finland's, which 
>     occupies the second place in this particularly morbid statistic.  
>     apparently, the rate of non-ethnic hungarians living in hungary 
>     (slovaks, jews, romanians, etc.) is significantly lower than the one 
>     of the pure breed magyars.  also, the rate for the hungarian ethnics 
>     living in neighboring countries is higher than for the ethnic majority 
>     in those countries.  i wonder if any similar statistics have been done 
>     for the hungarian community in the usa, for instance?...

Not the whole country is suicidal. The center is a southeast-Hungarian
region where in certain villages the suicidal rate is sky-high. Every
single family there have suicide even usualy more than one. In the last
few year however the north-Hungarian steel-industrial region took the
lead. The steel idustry is collapsed in Hungary, the unimployment there
now exceeds 50 %. The region has large gipsy minority (even majority
on some place) and they commit suicide as well. For this reason I don't
think the suicidal tendencies are genetically predetermined. 
  
>     apparently, there are no clear explanations for this so far.  
>     however, it is interesting to note that hungary and finland occupy the 
>     top places.  a genetic link perhaps? 

In case of the above mentioned region it is a 'custom' that the old
sick people commit suicide because they don't want to be a burden
on the family. You may take into account the alcoholism, and the
neurosis. The last one is very important. We are a pessimistic nation,
and we are lacking of samples of personal strategies to apply in
such dire straits....or in other way, the suicide is the Hungarian
'solution' for neurosis.  For example, the professorin who started
and led the long-running Hungarian anti-suicide program committed
suicide couple of years ago..

Tamas

Can somebody get the English translation of
Sandor Petofi's poet "Szabadsag, Szerelem!"?

Szabadsag, szerelem!
E ketto kell nekem.
Szerelmert folaldozom
Az eletet,
Szabadsagert folaldozom
Szerelmemet

Thanks! 
Atsushi
	

There was an article in the New York Times a few months ago about the suicide r
ate 
in Hungary.  It said that Hungarians who do not live in Hungary also have a hig
h 
suicide rate.  I will try to get the publication date if anyone is interested.

Laura

Keresem azok jelentkezeset, akik Kazincbarcikaiak, vagy a kornyekere valoak.
Kerlek irj valamelyik E-mail cimemre egy par sort.
Koszi!

--
     //////////////////////////////////////|
     ||  Laszlo Prising                   ||
     ||    Toronto, Ontario, Canada       || 
     ||    E-mail :        ||
     ||           :      ||
     ||           :    ||
     |/////////////////////////////////////

In article > Linda Bihary,
 writes:
>To sum it all up,I believe the root cause of the 
>problem is not being independent due to circumstances beyond the control 
>of its people.It's bound to attract lots of hopelessness.

Linda,

If you were right with your  'not being independent' conclusion then
there would be no country called Slovakia or Romania at all... :) :) :)

Tamas

Glurp.. glurp elles va.   Va syns du at Estonia .   Ja siger kun Glurpppp..

 (AND Books) wrote:
     
      wrote:
     
     >>....that hungary has the highest suicide rate in the world (on a 
     >>per capita basis). 
     
     <snip>
     
     >>however, it is interesting to note that hungary and finland occupy 
     >>the top places.  a genetic link perhaps? 
     
     >>-cristian    
     
     >ostensively you have become aware of the Finn-Ugric Sumerian 
     >agglutinative link betwixt magyar and finn. 
     
     is sumerian thrown in there to spice up the flavor? :-)
     
     >both languages are also #1 in poetic expression (a clue to their 
     >linguistic insight to the flaw and futility of the human 
     >condition)... lighten up! 
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^
     .....contextual maliciousness....:-)
     
     >both languages are also #1 in poetic expression (a clue to their 
     >linguistic insight to the flaw and futility of the human 
     >condition)...[snip]...a culture that creates the greatest logicians 
     >must have a concomitant down-side of members who emote personally to 
     >their ultimate conclusions... that's the cultural price paid by us 
     >all. 
     
     need existential re-evaluation cause: 
     
     "Rather than a complete mistake life is lack of taste neither death 
     nor poetry can fix."
               
     -Emil Cioran 
     
     >If your observation was NOT correct, i would begin to doubt the 
     >universality of mathematics.
     
     euclidean or non-euclidean?...
     
     >csendo"r ba'tya'm! ugye jo' vicc!
     >
     >janos
     
     is this some kind of battle cry?
     
     -cristian

 (Pal Hidas) wrote:
     
      wrote:
      
     >>hungary has the highest suicide rate in the world (on a 
     >>per capita basis).  
     >>[snip]
     >>it is interesting to note that hungary and finland occupy the 
     >>top places.  a genetic link perhaps? 
     
     >I doubt that the genetic link can be the reason, because it is 
     >proved, that there is hardly no genetic link between the Finnish and 
     >the Hungarian population (there is some 90-99% difference) despite 
     >the language relationship.
     
     true that the language link is much stronger than the ethnic one (due 
     to historical dilution and geographical dispersion...).
     
     tamas also mentioned that estonia overtook hungary, according to the 
     most recent statistics.  and estonia has a very close genetic and 
     linguistic link to finland (and a more distant one to hungary as 
     well).  hmmm.....it seems to me to be too much of a coincidence...  
     
     >Perhaps the lifestile (we are also on the top of list of the "best 
     >drinkers")
     
     how about the swedes or russians then?  or the french (i believe 
     they're numero uno in absolute alcohol quantities - mostly wine....)?
     
     >I do not know whether the geopolitical and geolinguistical situation 
     >can be the reason (we are alone in the see of the Indoeuropeans), I 
     >doubt it. 
     
     me too.  there are many other similar (or worse) situations.
     
     >Suicide usually a consequence of personal (family and sometimes 
     >professional) problems.
     
     many people are depressed, or go through periodic depressions for a 
     multitude of reasons.  but why some step over the point_of_no_return 
     threshold? and why so many more in hungary?  that's what's really 
     puzzling!?...
     
     but otoh,
     
     einstein (and maybe chomsky) argued the point that language and 
     mentality are related.  (it also makes sense to a layman like me).
     
     could it be that excessive melancholic nuances in the linguistic 
     patterns could (more easily) shape the thought processes towards such 
     a final resolution?
     
     i am obvioulsy speculating since i lack a basic knowledge of 
     finno-ugric languages.  
     
     -cristian

T. Kocsis > writes:

>In article > Janos Szamosfalvi,
 writes:
>>For instance, the 'olvas' (read) makes no or very little sense with 
>>meg/ide/oda/sze't/vissza, etc.

>Megolvas means count (megszamol) and you may 'szetolvas' a book
>if it comes apart in your hands after the tenth start... :)

Not to mention that you can "visszaolvas" some numbers, say, for checking
their correctness. :) 

>Tamas

Miklos
-- 
 Pm
>----
 Miklos Prisznyak   (KFKI RMKI Theor. Dep. Budapest, Hungary H-1525 P.O.B 49)
                     WWW page:    http://sgi30.rmki.kfki.hu/~prisz/prisz.html