53 Comments
If you can explain what that would actually mean in English. :)
But once you start adding stuff around it in English (south of, to the south, in the south, etc.), the Hungarian "dél" will in turn take on various suffixes, and the meaning will be clear usually.
Délben, délig, déltől - these have to do with noon
Délen, délről - related to the South.
There are common ones but used in different contexts:
Délre, délhez - can be both noon and south related.
So there is little chance of a mix-up, especially in context.
1432
Vvsey, Aside from the current usage, historically, noon = south (synonyms if you would like) in several Indo-European languages. For example, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noon. Of course, this does not explain the current usage in Hungarian... BTW, THANK YOU for the many details you provide regarding the Hungarian language (hence the lingot)!
ID-07, that is very interesting information, thank you. And you are welcome.
Interestingly in Hungarian, while the word "dél" stands for both "noon" and "south", the word for "night" is at least very close to the word for "north":
"Éjszaka" - night
"Észak" - north
It might be just a coincidence but my feeling is that it is not.
Also, the Hungarian word "nap" stands for both "day" and "sun".
And while we are at it, the Sun ("nap") rises ("kel") in the East ("kelet"/"keleten") and sets ("nyugszik") in the West ("nyugat"/"nyugaton").
This is awesome. It shows that ancient Hungarians thought of space and time with a unity. When it is night the sun is north. When it is noon the sun is in its most southern position in a day. The sun rises in the east. Sun rests in the west. It totally makes sense when you consider that the originators were somehow blending directional coordinates with time.
Totally.
And furthermore, "kelet" and "nyugat" have their now less used longer forms:
"napkelet" - where the sun rises - East
"napnyugat" - where the sun sets - West
In contrast, the time when the sun
rises is: "napkelte" - sunrise
set is: "napnyugta" - sunset.
Reminds me of some slavic language one of it is Polish, where the word for noon and midnight are also mean south and north respectively: południe and północ
- 1432
Etymologically, Hungarian language may be different but the human logic/history remains the same across cultures! And I am sure that many ideas are imported into a given language...
Q: "Which pole do penguins live at, north or south?" A: "It is south."
Q: "Melyik sarkon élnek pingvinek, az északin vagy a délin?"
A: "A délin."
Or A: "And the answer is: the south (one)"
In Hungarian: "A délin"
So, your "It is south" is short for "the answer is: (the) south (one)", correct? The Hungarian would still be "a déli (sarkon)" or "a délin".
As I said, it will surely put on some suffix or something. Or the word order will change.
See, "dél" is a noun, and a noun only. To make an adjective, you change it to "déli". Or attach it to the front of another word, either directly or with a hyphen:
délkelet - south-east
Dél-Amerika - South America
So, is it North or South America where the Olympics will be held?
"It is South" - "Dél". Long answer: "Dél-Amerika az."
Dél van - it is noon.
Even if you travel to some southern state of the United States and exclaim: "Wow, this is (the) South" or "It is (the) South", the Hungarian version will be something like this:
"Ez a Dél".
There is just no way "dél van" could have anything to do with the South.
It is noon in the south - Délen dél van.
Délen - in the south
dél van - it is noon
It is noon at the South Pole - Dél van a déli sarkon. Or: A déli sarkon dél van.
A déli sarkon - at the South Pole
dél van - it is noon
Seriously, there is just no way.
- 1283
@vvsey Where is Ciudad de México in relationship to Texas? It is south.
- 1283
@vvsey Thx. I could not reply to your reply to me. Before DL, I knew no Hungarian. Is there something on the net to help with very basic Hungarian? Have a good day!
Dennie - you can try watching this on youtube: Kiliki a Földön. It is aimed at children, and starts at absolute zero.
No, not really. they are homonym words with multiple meanings. e.g. as fly, leaves.
"It is south" means "ez dél". "it is far in the south" - ez messze délen van.
The sentence "it is South" isn't really correct in english. It should be "it is Southward" which is where "délre van" or "délnek van" is the correct way of saying it.
- 322
I don't know about that; Hungarian isn't one of the 13 languages: https://youtu.be/AZaHKVVdUC0
Délben= at noon. For example: I am here at noon. / Dél van= it is noon. For example: It is 12:00pm.
- 568
This is recorded audio, not computer generated therefore it must be accurate. But bandwidth, gear quality and some other things can affect the sound and make it less useful. For example, my Dell notebook has a low and audio card and it sounds really "tél" (that means "winter" if you want to know), but on my high end tablet it is perfect. (No, mobile app doesn't feature Hungarian yet, but I use it in browser and desktop mode.)
- 189
Since my computer is a bit on the low end I guess that's the problem. I didn't know that they used recorded audio.
People, if "kelet" means East, so that hungarian train station - and beautiful place - Keleti Pályaudvar means East Train Station? I thought it was someone's name!
- 339
It's the name of the cardinal point. :D
But yes, keleti just means "eastern". (It's the adjective form of kelet.)
On my phone it sounds like /ti a/ This is useful and interesting to find the noon + south. Thank you.
- 339
Dél means "noon" (or "south") and délben means "at noon", i.e. "at that specific daytime".
"Afternoon" is pretty literally délután, and there is a "pre-noon" ("morning" in common English, usually around 10-11.30 am) named délelőtt.
