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04:02 Dec 15, 2009
Hungarian to English translations [PRO] Government / Politics
Hungarian term or phrase:Belugyi szamon
I am translating a long project, which includes an Access Permit card in Hungarian. The card holder participated in a course sponsored by ILEA (International Law Enforcement Academy.) The above sentence is part of that card.
MTIA,
Monika
Hi Katalin, Thank you and I understand your concern now that I know more about Hungarian, (Albanian is the same actually.) I did it because I was not aware of this fact, and also tried to obey the (no more than) 10-words KudoZ rule. Anyway, thanks for helping me with this situation: it was toward the end of the project and not even the client knew that the back of that card was in Hungarian. I would not have recognized the language either, if it wasn't for the "Budapest" clue I saw on the address.
Thanks again, Katalin!
Monika,
Since Hungarian often uses a different (reverse) word order than English, plus it uses inflections, conjugations as opposed to prepositions, it can be dangerous trying to break up sentences and translate them separately.
I assume the number you see there is more like an extension, not a full phone number, right? The reason I am asking is that the asked phrase means an internal number, used withing the offices of the Ministry of Interior (Belügyminisztérium in Hungarian, however, I am not sure anymore what the official name is, it seems it may have changed recently.)
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Answers
19 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
at the Department of Interior number...
Explanation: There must be some more context to clarify if this is correct. The Belugyi szam would be Department of Interior number; the preposition depends on the context. Also, in some contexts the word szam may be translated as other than number (numeral, key, whatever). Whithout context this is my best guess.
denny Local time: 15:55 Works in field Native speaker of: Hungarian PRO pts in category: 40
Explanation: If the entire line reads: 14-099 Belügyi számon, and this is also on that card that you asked about, you may want to match the word order to the other entries (business hours and such).
Katalin Horvath McClure United States Local time: 16:55 Native speaker of: Hungarian PRO pts in category: 24
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thank you so much, Katalin. Your suggestion fits the context perfectly. Thanks again!
3 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): -1
For internal calls on Homeland Security line:
Explanation: I know that my answer is a little bit different from those of my peers, but please, bear with me, and read the explanation. Belügyi is as short form for belügyminisztériumi (from the Ministry of Interior), however since the function of the Hungarian Ministry of Interior is different from the function of the U.S. Department of Interior, it would give the wrong association if we simply in. The function of the Hungarian Ministry of Interior is closest to that of the current Department of Homeland Security (you are familiar with it, because you are a U.S. resident), just like the function of Sigurimi in your home country. Now, regarding the phone line. I know of three organizations in Hungary (there might have been more) that had their internal phone network. These are the Ministry of Interior, Hungarian National Railroads, and Ministry of Defense. Apparently the cardholder is an employee of the Ministry of Interior, and is entitled to use the internal telephone network. Very important: not every Ministry of Interior employee was entitled to use the network, only those who had been given access. And the internal network was set up to assist primarily the people working for the Hungarian Homeland Security. If he was allowed to give out the internal network number, he was definitely linked to Homeland Security.
Here is some answer to the peer comments below, because it would not fit there. First of all in Hungary there is no Belügyminisztérium any more, because it was changed to Önkormányzati Minisztérium, but officially it was Ministry of Interior, at least by their own minister and the prime minister. See here: http://www.magyarorszag.hu/english/abouthungary/data/system/...
Yes, I agree, you can translate it Ministry of Internal Affairs, because this term is used in official English translations of Russia, Uganda, Liberia etc., but why go that far? The reason I used a US format is, because Monika lives in the U.S. and I presume that it is for an American client, plus the ILEA was set up by the U.S.A. in Hungary at the time of the political changeover. We translated a lot of material for them at that time, and this is how I know about the belügyi vonal. This is how I know that this special secure line was created to connect the police stations and other institutions of homeland security with the ministry and with each other. When we translate we try to use the most descriptive version, and I am convinced that mine was the most descriptive and true.
JANOS SAMU United States Local time: 10:55 Specializes in field Native speaker of: Hungarian PRO pts in category: 16
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
