the δ of the modern Greeks. If the Polish and Bohemian tongues present a strange appear- ance to the eye, it arises from the blending to- gether of many consonants to represent a single sound. The letters c, q, and x, are wanting to the Magyar alphabet. Some of the inconveni- ences of the small number of letters are avoided by accents. In the word értelëm, for example, the e has three distinct sounds.
The introduction of an accent frequently gives
a word a completely different signification.—Sas,
eagle; sás, reed; szü, woodworm; szű, heart;
por, dust; pór peasant.
So again many words have two meanings; as,
idö́, time and weather; hét, week and seven;
nap, sun and day.—These, however, bear the ob-
vious names of original identity.
The native Hungarian cannot combine two
consonants in the same syllable. The words in
the language which present such a combination
are foreign. The presence of many consonants
in a word is always a source of difficulty to
foreigners, and is one of the main sources of mo-
difications. In Spanish, s followed by a conso-
nant has almost always an e, making another
syllable before it; as, estrada for strada; espada,
for spada: so the Magyar iskola for school.
