Hurdy-gurdy Hungarian lowlands, but was the normal term for the instrument on Csepel island directly south of Budapest. The equivalent names "ninera" and "niněra" are used in Slovakia and the Czech Republic respectively. In Russian and Ukrainian the instrument is called "wheel lyre" ("колёсная лира", "колісна ліра"). In Poland it is called "cranked lyre" (lira korbowa). "Leier", "lant", and related terms today are generally used to refer to members of the lute or lyre family, but historically had a broader range of meaning and were used for many types of stringed instruments. In her overview of the instrument's history, Palmer recorded
String instrument metal fret. Pressing the string against a fret while plucking or strumming it shortens the vibrating part and thus produces a different note. Some zithers combine stoppable (melody) strings with a greater number of "open" harmony or chord strings. On instruments with stoppable strings, such as the violin or guitar, the player can shorten the vibrating length of the string, using their fingers directly (or more rarely through some mechanical device, as in the nyckelharpa and the hurdy-gurdy). Such instruments usually have a fingerboard attached to the neck of the instrument, that provides a hard flat surface the player can