Topic: Hungarian

"Ők olaszok vagy oroszok?"

Translation:Are they Italian or Russian?

July 6, 2016

7 Comments

https://www.duolingo.com/JustinHuberts

    These words differ very badly from the languages I've known.

    July 6, 2016
    https://www.duolingo.com/norveeg

      "olasz" has Slavic origins, as I've just learnt. it comes from the south-slavic "vlasi" (=italian), through this transition: vlasz > ulasz > olasz. you can also say "talján" for Italian, but only a few people will understand this word, it is used so rarely...

      July 13, 2016
      https://www.duolingo.com/Kefir87
      • 855

      "Vlasi" was originally not used for Italians, but for romance (latin) -language speaking nations of Balkans, that means mostlyRomanians and Vlachs.

      October 9, 2016
      https://www.duolingo.com/Gerardd88

        The Polish word for Italians is "Włosi". It must be connected with "vlasi". And it has a similar etymology: "Wołosi" means Vlachs.

        November 25, 2016
        https://www.duolingo.com/mizinamo

          You should be able to recognise at least the rosz in oroszok - I believe that's related to the Rus/Ros of Russian, russky, Rossiya, etc.

          July 7, 2016
          https://www.duolingo.com/JustinHuberts

            Yes, I did, but the 'o' at the beginning of the word got me confused.

            July 7, 2016
            https://www.duolingo.com/vvsey

              Prussian should not be a problem for you now! :)

              July 17, 2016
              AboutDuolingo English TestMobileGearHelpGuidelinesJobsTermsPrivacy
              Learn Hungarian in just 5 minutes a day. For free.