István Kniezsa (1 December 1898, Trsztena,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

, now

Trstená Trstená ( or ''Árvanádasd''; ; German: ''Bingenstadt'') is a town in Tvrdošín District, Žilina Region, Northern Slovakia. Location Trstená is situated on the Orava River at the Orava (reservoir) in the Slovak part of the Orava valle ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

– 15 March 1965,

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

) was a Hungarian

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

Slavist Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was ...

, corresponding (1939) and regular (1947) member of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

. He was one of the most significant figures in

Hungarian language Hungarian, or Magyar (, ), is an Ugric language of the Uralic language family spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighboring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Out ...

historical research in the 20th century, achieving significant scientific results in the study of place and personal names in the

Carpathian Basin The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeastern Central Europe. After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, the geomorphologic ...

, in researching the medieval state and writing practice of the Hungarian language, as well as in the exploration of foreign words of Slavic origin. His major contribution was to the research of Slavic

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

s in the

and

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper na ...

. He was awarded by

Kossuth Prize The Kossuth Prize (, ) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1936, by the Hungarian National Assembly, to acknowledge outstanding personal and grou ...

in 1953.

Works

According to an investigation based on place-names in the medieval

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

made by István Kniezsa, 511 settlements of

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

and

Banat Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...

appear in documents at the end of the 13th century: 428 (83.8%) had names of Hungarian origin, and 3 (0.6%) had names of Romanian origin. Until 1400, total 1757 Transylvanian settlements are mentioned in documents which are still existing today: 1355 (77.1%) had names of Hungarian origin, and 76 (4.3%) had names of Romanian origin. (The other place names are of Slavic or German origin.) His study was criticized by Romanian linguist and Slavist

Emil Petrovici Emil Petrovici (; 1899–1968) was a Romanian linguist, dialectologist and Slavist. He studied both Romanian and Serbian languages. His studies included Romanian phonology, and Romanian, Serbian, and other Slavic dialectology. Petrovici was born ...

Selected works

*''A magyar helyesírás a tatárjárásig.'' Budapest, Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság, 1928, 32 p. *''A szlávok.'' Budapest, 1932. = Kincsestár, 26. *''Pseudorumänen in Pannonien und in den Nordkarpathen.'' Budapest, 1936. = Ostmitteleuropäische Bibliothek, 2. *''Magyarország népei a XI. században.'' in: Emlékkönyv Szent István király halálának 900. évfordulóján. Budapest, Franklin, 1938, 368–472. *''Cirillbetűs szláv szövegek nemzetközi tudományos átírása.'' Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, 1939, 14 p. *''Az esztergomi káptalan 1156-i dézsmajegyzékének helységei.'' Századok 1939, 167-187. *''Adalékok a magyar–szlovák nyelvhatár történetéhez.'' Budapest, Athenaeum, 1941, 62 p. *''Erdély víznevei.'' 1942. *''Az Ecsedi-láp környékének szláv eredetű helynevei.'' Debrecen, 1943, 42 p. *''Nyelvészet és őstörténet.'' in: A magyarság őstörténete. Szerk. Ligeti Lajos. Budapest, 1943. *''Keletmagyarország helynevei.'' in: Magyarok és románok I–II. Szerk. Deér József & Gáldi László. Budapest, Athenaeum, 1943, 111–313. *''A párhuzamos helynévadás: Egy fejezet a településtörténet módszertanából.'' Budapest, Magyar Történettudományi Intézet, 1944, 59 p. *''A zobori apátság 1111. és 1113. évi oklevelei, mint nyelvi (nyelvjárási) emlékek.'' Debrecen, Debreceni Tudományegyetem, 1949, 52 p. *''A magyar helyesírás története.'' Budapest, Tankönyvkiadó, 1952, 29 p. *''Helyesírásunk története a könyvnyomtatás koráig.'' Budapest, Akadémiai, 1952, 204 p. = Nyelvészeti Tanulmányok. *''A magyar nyelv szláv jövevényszavai I/1–2.'' Budapest, Akadémiai, 1955. *''A magyar állami és jogi terminológia eredete.'' in: MTA Nyelv- és Irodalomtudományi Osztályának Közleményei 1955. 237–266. *''A magyar szlavisztika problémái és feladatai.'' in: MTA Nyelv- és Irodalomtudományi Osztályának Közleményei 1958. 69–124. *''A magyar és szlovák családnevek rendszere.'' Budapest, ELTE, 1965, 112 p. *''Az -i helynévképző a magyarban.'' *''Párhuzamos helynévadás.''

References

Bibliography

*Hadrovics László: ''Kniezsa István.'' in: Magyar Tudomány 1965. *Kiss Lajos: ''Kniezsa István 1898–1965.'' in: Magyar Nyelvőr 1965. *Kiss Lajos: ''Kniezsa István.'' Budapest, 1994.
Kniezsa-hagyaték
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kniezsa, István 1898 births 1965 deaths Hungarian academics Linguists of Slavic languages People from Trstená 20th-century Hungarian linguists