Hungarian language, weirdness with 1st and 2nd person pronouns

by Don  

I mentioned previously that Hungarian verbs have indefinite and definite conjugattions. Here is the past tense conjugation of the verb 'see.'

IndefiniteDefinite
SingularPluralSingularPlural
1stláttam láttunk láttamláttuk
1st to 2ndláttalak
2ndláttál láttatok láttad láttátok
3rdlátott láttaklátta látták

So here are some example sentences:

János saw Ágnés at the park. János látta Ágnést a parkban.
Ágnés saw János at the park. Ágnés látta Jánost a parkban.

Notice that the verbs are both in the definite. But now let's look at what happens if the direct object is a first- or second-person pronoun:

János saw me at the park. János látott engem a parkban.
Ágnés saw us at the park. Ágnés látott minket a parkban.

Now isn't that odd. 1st and 2nd person pronouns are about as definite as you can get. Generally definite direct objects co-occur with definite verbs, but first- and second-person direct objects co-occur with indefinite verbs. I admit to major discombobulation on this issue. I don't think I've ever seen anything that makes less linguistic sense than this.

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