On the creation of a pronunciation dictionary for Hungarian

This report describes the process of creating a pronunciation dictionary and phonological lexicon for Hungarian for the purpose of aiding in linguistic research on Hungarian phonology and phonotactics. The pronunciation dictionary was created by transforming orthographic forms to pronunciation representations by taking advantage of systematic deviations between Hungarian orthography and pronunciation. It is argued that the “automated” creation of such a dictionary is reasonably expected to be accurate due to the relative similarity of Hungarian orthography to actual pronunciation. This document includes discussion of goals and standards for creating a Hungarian pronunciation dictionary, and each phonological change creating a mismatch between orthography and pronunciation is highlighted. Future developments and additions to the current dictionary are also suggested as well as strategies for evaluating the quality of the dictionary. Finally, potential applications to linguistic research are discussed.