Onufry Kopczyński (30 November 1736 – 14 February 1817) was an important

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

and grammarian of the

Polish language Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

during the

Polish Enlightenment The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment in Poland were developed later than in Western Europe, as the Polish bourgeoisie was weaker, and szlachta (nobility) culture (Sarmatism) together with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth political system (Gol ...

. Kopczyński, Onufry.
''

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

'' library catalog. ''Materials online.'' Retrieved September 21, 2011.Mirella Kosmala
Ksiądz Onufry Kopczyński
(PDF 2.06 MB) ''ZSP w Czerniejewie.'' Retrieved September 21, 2011.

Life and work

Born in Czerniejewo near

Gniezno Gniezno (; ; ) is a city in central-western Poland, about east of Poznań. Its population in 2021 was 66,769, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. The city is the administrative seat of Gniezno County (''powiat'') ...

, Kopczyński became an educator with the Piarist order, teaching at

Stanisław Konarski Stanisław Konarski, Sch.P. (actual name: Hieronim Konarski; 30 September 1700 – 3 August 1773) was a Polish pedagogue, educational reformer, political writer, poet, dramatist, Piarist priest and precursor of the Enlightenment in the Polish– ...

's Collegium Nobilium in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. In 1775 he became a member of the

Society for Elementary Textbooks The Society for Elementary Books (Polish language, Polish: ''Towarzystwo do Ksiąg Elementarnych''; 1775–92) was an institution formed by Poland's Commission of National Education (''Komisja Edukacji Narodowej'') in Warsaw in 1775. The Society ...

, and in 1809 visitor to the

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n- Polish schools. Kopczyński is best known for his efforts to improve the status of the Polish language by making it a principal subject of study in schools. He in fact created

Polish grammar The grammar of the Polish language is complex and characterized by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). There commonly are no articles (although this ...

terminology. His major work was ''Gramatyka dla szkół narodowych'' (A Grammar for the National Schools, 1785), in which he laid out a

formal grammar A formal grammar is a set of Terminal and nonterminal symbols, symbols and the Production (computer science), production rules for rewriting some of them into every possible string of a formal language over an Alphabet (formal languages), alphabe ...

and method of study for the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and Polish languages. The part of the book relating to the Polish language would be reprinted many times in the first half of the 19th century."Kopczyński, Onufry," ''

Encyklopedia Polski This is a list of encyclopedias by language. Albanian Encyclopedias written in Albanian. * '' Albanian Encyclopedic Dictionary'' (): published by Academy of Sciences of Albania; ** First Edition (1985; ''FESH'') ** New Edition (2008/09; ''Botim ...

'', p. 310.

Selected publications

* ''Essai de Grammaire Polonaise pratique et raisonnée pour les Français'' l'an 1807 * ''Grammatyka języka Polskiego ... Dziéło pozgonné'' * ''Poprawa błędów w ustnéy i pisanéy mowie polskiéy'', Warszawa 1808 * ''Grammatyka dla szkoł narodowych'', 1780–1807 * ''Układ grammatyki dla szkół narodowych z dzieła iuż skończonego wyciagniony'', 1785

Notes

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kopczynski, Onufry Grammarians from Poland Polish translation scholars Polish Roman Catholic priests Piarists 1736 births 1817 deaths People from Gniezno County

Life and work

Selected publications

See also

Notes