Hungarian poets with -val, -vel
In his poem entitled (Őrizem a szemed, Endre Ady, another famous figure in Hungarian literature, makes the following use of the case endings (-val/-vel, -ig, -ert) introduced in this chapter. To enjoy two verses of the poem, some vocabulary help is provided: megfog - grabs, clasps; megmarad - remains; őriz - guards; szem - eye(s): vénülő - ageing.
Eger and the Ottoman era in Hungary
In the above text, you read about Mr. Newman’s visit to Eger. Eger is a small town, situated in north-eastern Hungary. The city has a quaint architecture and is rich in relics from the Turkish era. It has for example, the northernmost minaret of the entire Ottoman Empire.
The year 1526 marks the beginning of the Turkish configuration occupation of the country, when the Hungarians lost the Battle of Mohács. Two decades later, the Turks captured Buda and the country was divided into three regions: the autonomous east (Erdély ‘Transylvania’), the Hapsburg-controlled west and the central area dominated by the Turkish conquerors. Buda was recaptured only 160 years later, in 1686.
Hungary has retained many traces of the Ottoman era in culture, architecture (e.g. minarets, steambaths), cuisine, place names (e.g. Törokbálint, Törökszentmiklós) as well as in the language itself. It was during this era that the only three-letter consonant entered the language. Although it is quite rare, you can see it in words like dzsámi ‘mosque’, findzsa ‘pot’, dzsida ‘lance’ or handzsár sword/Turkish dagger’.
The name Rózsadomb (lit. ‘Rose Hill’), a well-known district in Buda, comes from a Turkish dervish who lived in the area, and was respected by both Hungarians and Turks. His name was Gül laba (lit. ‘Rose Father’ in Turkish). According to the legends, he introduced roses to Budapest, hence the name Rózsadomb.
14 In other words
expressive meaning are not simply a matter of whether an expression of a certain attitude or evaluation is inherently present or absent in the words in question. The same attitude or evaluation may be expressed in two words or utterances in widely differing degrees of forcefulness. Both unkind and cruel, for instance, are inherently expressive, showing the speaker’s disapproval of someone's attitude. However, the element of disapproval in cruel is stronger than it is in unkind.
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The meaning of a word or lexical unit can be both propositional and expressive, e.g. whinge, propositional only, e.g. book, or expressive only, e.g. bloody and various other swear words and emphasizers. Words which contribute solely to expressive meaning can be removed from an utterance without affecting its information content. Consider, for instance, the word simply in the following text:
Whilst it stimulates your love of action, the MG also cares for your comfort. Hugging you on the bends with sports seats. Spoiling you with luxuries such as electric door mirrors, tinted glass and central locking. And entertaining you with a great music system as well as a simply masterful performance.
(Today’s Cars, Austin Rover brochure; my emphasis)
There are many highly expressive items in the above extract, hungarian intensive course district 9 but the word simply in the last sentence has a totally expressive function. Removing it would not alter the information content of the message but would, of course, tone its forcefulncss down considerably.
2.2.2 Presupposed meaning
Presupposed meaning arises from translation agency budapest district 19 co-occurrence restrictions, i.e. restrictions on what other words or expressions we expect to see before or after a particular lexical unit. These restrictions arc of two types:
1 Selectional restrictions: these are a function of the propositional meaning of a word. We expect a human subject for the adjective studious and an inanimate one for geometrical. Selectional restrictions are deliberately violated in the case of language but are otherwise strictly observed.
2 Collocational restrictions: these arc semantically arbitrary hungarian private language course district 19 restrictions which do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of a word. For instance, laws are broken in English, but in Arabic they are ‘contradicted’. In English, teeth are brushed, but in
Equivalence at word level 15
German and Italian they are ‘polished’, in Polish they are ‘washed’, and in Russian they are ‘cleaned’. Because they are arbitrary, collocational restrictions tend to show more variation across languages than do selectional restrictions. They are discussed in more detail in Chapter 3, section 3.1.
4. Running a translation business
"Creditors have better memories than debtors."
Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790
4.1 Starting a business
I would like to quote the Open Business School (part of the Open University), "Running a business can be a dangerous activity for yourself and for others - just ask any of the 170,000 businesses that cease trading each year. In fact it is estimated that one in three businesses cease trading within their first three years of life - and two in three within their first ten years. And yet, although you need a licence to drive a car or fly a plane, you need nothing but official certificate translation Hungarian reckless nerve and a first client to start a business."
Make sure you understand the implications and responsibilities of running a business before you commit yourself. The business world can be very harsh and can show very little sympathy. Make sure that you have written terms and conditions of doing business that you can apply. However, it is not enough to make a unilateral declaration of your terms and conditions. They have to be accepted in writing by your client to be valid.
Quite often, a client will attempt to impose his terms. The important consideration is to work to a mutually-agreed set of terms. Then, if a delay in payment occurs, you will at least have this as a basis for voicing your concern. More on this, however, in Chapter 11 What to do if things go wrong.
The simplest type of business is operating as a "sole proprietor". This incurs the least amount of administration and fewest legal formalities. There are many books readily available to advise and which contain far more useful information than I am able to offer. Local technical colleges often run short courses for people starting out in business. The courses are usually held in the evenings and cover topics such as taxation for small businesses, basic book keeping and accounting, and marketing.
38
RUNNING A TRANSLATION BUSINESS
4.2 Support offered to new businesses
A number of enterprises offer support for new businesses. Knowing where to get information on such support can soften the burden of starting a business both in terms of advice and financial assistance through grants and subsidised schemes.
The Department of Trade and Industry offers support and advice through the Small Business Enterprise Scheme or Small Firms Advice Service. This will in all probability be operated through a local Business Link or firm of consultants.
Your bank will have an advisory service for small businesses. Seek the advice of this service since the scope of the public and private schemes that are available does change.
4.3 Counting words
The most common method applied for charging (at least in the United Kingdom) is per thousand words - usually source rather than target words. It is ideal if the client can specify the number and, if you consider the count to be correct, there need be no discussion of what is to be charged.
You will gradually develop a feel for how many words you can complete in an hour. Thus if you produce, say, 600 words an hour in draft form, a job that takes 4 hours to type should be around 2400 words long. This is providing you have not had to spend time on figures and layout.
There is always the thorny question of numerical data in a translation, particularly in financial reports. If you have to retype sets of figures the usual maxim is to count three blocks of figures (e.g. £7,600 £5,623 £1,893) as one word for the purpose of charging. Figures are more difficult to type and check than words. The client may not need the figures retyped and may be satisfied with the relevant headings and captions being typed and annotated. Ask about this when preparing a quotation.
There is always disparity between the number of source words and target words. Up to 30% in some cases depending on your own style and the languages involved. You can get the computer to count the translated words. This word count is usually provided at the end of a spell check. Unfortunately, there is little or no comparable ratio that can be applied to all word processing packages. The only advice I can offer is agree with the client in advance on how you are going to charge.
Some translators are in favour of charging according to target language words. There is a good argument for this since you can get the computer program to do a word count for you. The difficulty is quoting to a client on the basis of source language words. It is possible to apply a conversion factor but the resultant target language total depends on how verbose, or otherwise, the translator is.
Other methods are applied to charging. These include per line or per page. The difficulty is however deciding "What is a standard line?" or "What is a standard page?"
The short vowel e is similar to the English voweL in net, leapt, etc. As there are no diphthongs in Hungarian, the pronunciation of e [e:] and 6 [o:] has to be discussed briefly for those with an English background. English short vowels are longer if a voiced consonant (e.g. b, d, g) follows. A (long) vowel like the one in bed comes close to the Hungarian e vowel. This vowel in its articulation is very similar to the English vowel a in late and make (see below).
As already observed, Hungarian has no diphthongs. If you speak the BBC variety of English, the vowel a in came has the same length as the Hungarian vowel e in kern - spy. The quality of e, however, is that of bed (see above). For those with an American pronunciation, the situation will be easier: in 'general American' (GA) the vowels in Kate and low are usually pronounced as long non-diphthongised vowels.
The short Hungarian vowel o for BBC speakers can be best defined as the vowel o in port and cork (minus their length). This short vowel must be sounded sufficiently different than the vowel in wash and pot because in Hungarian a * o (i.e. the two vowels can distinguish words: e.g. lap - page, lop - steal). More precisely, the vowel a is lower in pronunciation than the vowel o.
• The vowel a is close to the BBC sound in wash. For GA speakers this vowel is non-existent: try to lower the pronunciation of the vowel o in port and cork.
• The vowels 6 - ii are especially difficult for both BBC and GA speakers.
The vowel 6 is similar to the English unstressed vowel in about and aloud. The vowel ii is pronounced like i with added roundedness.
• The vowels 6 - u are long vowels. Prolong your rounded i's and e's and you will have the right result. (6 = e + roundedness + length; u = i + roundedness + Length)
• The voiceless consonants p, t and k are not pronounced aspirated, i.e. with a small puff of air. Thus, Hungarian t in tea does not sound like English tea, it sounds like the t in steam.
• The degree of voicing of the Hungarian voiced consonants (b, d, dz, dzs, g, v, z, zs) is stronger than in English.
• In contrast to BBC English, r is always pronounced and rolled: orr - nose.
• In conclusion it can be stated that the vowels of Hungarian can be both non-round (a, e, e, i, I) and round (a, o, 6, 6, 6, u, u, ii, ii).
• Of the 14 vowels of Hungarian only three cannot occur word-finally (-0/-0 and -a). Of the rest that can, -e and -a are lengthened before most suffixes.
Vowel harmony
In Hungarian there is a functional difference between front and back vowels. The front vowels are: i, i, e, e, 6, 6, ii, ii
The back vowels are: a, a, o, 6, u, a