Help With Hungarian/Slovak Pronunciation?

Question

Out of a love of criminals and killers who are refered to by some as vampires, and a love of my Hungarian ancestory, I just wrote a mini-biography for my English class on Elizabeth Báthory, The Blood Countess of Čachtice. We're going to soon be recording our own reading of our paper as a Podcast, and I'm not 100% sure of some of the names.

Help?

I'm not totally sure of Čachtice, György, Ferenc Nádasdy, Ecsed, or Fogarasfold (really just the stressed and unstressed syllables in that).

Pretty sure of Erzsébet (err-seh-bet), Nyírbátor (roughly near-bah-tor), Sárvár (roughly sahr-vahr ?), Trencsén (roughly trehnch-ayn ? am I even close?).
I have little experience with words including the acute accent, and no experience with the Caron or Diaeresis accents. Soooo, yeah, thanks.

I think the o in György is supposed to sound like e as in let, but that seems really odd. and it would come out sounding something like dju-ehr-djy ? And for Ecsed it would be esch-ed ? Nádasdy = nah-dawsh-dy ? I don't know, those are just going off some Hungarian Pronunciation help page so...

Answer 1

Here is the pronounciation af all Hungarian sounds.
To open words and pictures click here
http://www.magyarora.com/phonetics/abece_kepekkel.pdf
and then simultaneously listen the words here
http://www.magyarora.com/magyar/shortaudio.html
click
1. A magyar ábécé - Hungarian alphabet
-
Vowel „ö“ like in György, Fogarasföld (not Fogarasfold)
Open
http://www.magyarora.com/magyar/shortaudio.html
Click
5. Magánhangzók: ö-ő = The ö and ő sounds
(Click both pdf=text and audio.)
György = George (in English) = Juraj (in Slovak)
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Hungarian vowels „e“ (short e) like in Ferenc, Ecsed, Erzsébet, Trencsén
and „é“ (long e) like in Erzsébet, Trencsén
are different than in English.
Click
3. Magánhangzók: e-é = The e and é sounds
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All your words are Hungarian with exception of „Čachtice“ which is Slovak. Hungarian name for Čachtice is „Csejte“. Čachtice is a village and castle in present Slovakia.
http://s210.photobucket.com/albums/bb64/oregfiu/?action=view¤t=cachtice_28th_sep_2007.jpg
Pronounciation of Čachtice is:
Č – like „ch“ in „chicken“ – Hungarian equivalent is „cs“ (the same pronounciation)
a – like „u“ in „cut“
ch – like „ch“ in „Loch Ness monster“ (English and Hungarian does not have this sound)
t – like „t“ in „time“
i – like „i“ in „in“
c – like „ts“ in „tsunami“
e – like „e“ in „hen“
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Trencsén (Hungarian) = Trenčín (Slovak) = town in present Slovakia.
Pronounciation:
“Trencs-“ and “Trenč-„ is like English „trench“.
Slovak and Hungarian pronounciation differs in the second vowel only.
“-én“ contains this special hungarian vowel (other languages does not have it) and Slovak „-ín“ is pronounced like „-een“ in „been“.
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Answer 2

My answer isn't related to the actual question, for which I'm sorry for, I just feel the need to clear the air.
I'm sorry to destroy your illusions with the cold hard facts of reality, but the truth is that Báthori Erzsébet was neither a vampire, nor a killer. She was the wealthiest woman in Hungary during the early 1600's. Thurzó György, the palatinus (second man after the king) started the whole affair. He accused Báthori of murder, no trial was held, and she was thrown into prison without an official sentence. The accusations of withcraft came from a certain Ponikénusz János, who was a Lutheran pastor and another rival of the Calvinist Báthori. According to Ponikénusz, Báthori used charms and sent cats to destroy him (lol). According to medieval laws, every noble is granted the right of a fair trial, and Báthori Erzsébet herself asked for a trial, so she could clear her name. She was held captive against the law in her palace in Csejte (modern-day Cachtice). Thurzó the palatinus investigated the allegations against Báthori for years, and he couldn't come up with enough evidence to convict her.
Báthori Erzsébet died in 1614 and the stories about her being a vampire surfaced AFTER her death. The image of the perverted countess who bathed in the blood of virgin girls ony appeared in 1729 (!) a century after she died, written by a jesuite priest who used this story to denounce Calvinists.

Answer 3

Try Palabea.net I bet someone there speaks Hungarian.