Sámuel Gyarmathi () (July 15, 1751, Kolozsvár — March 4, 1830, Kolozsvár) 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 ...

, born in Cluj (then Kolozsvár,

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 ...

). He is best known for his systematic demonstration of the

comparative history Comparative history is the comparison of different societies which existed during the same time period or shared similar cultural conditions. The comparative history of societies emerged as an important specialty among intellectuals in the Enlight ...

of the

Finno-Ugric languages Finno-Ugric () is a traditional linguistic grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except for the Samoyedic languages. Its once commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is based on criteria formulated in the 19th centur ...

in the book (1799), which rested on the earlier work of

János Sajnovics János Sajnovics de Tordas et Káloz ( Tordas, 12 May 1733 – Pest, 4 May 1785) was a Hungarian linguist and member of the Jesuit order. He is best known for his pioneering work in comparative linguistics, particularly his systematic demonstr ...

Life and works

Gyarmathi studied to be a teacher in Nagyenyed (Aiud) before training to be a doctor in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, after which he practised medicine in Transylvania. In 1789 he read of a competition offering a prize for linguistic research in a Hungarian newspaper and spent the next two years working on his ''Okoskodva tanító magyar nyelvmester'' (''Hungarian Grammar Taught Rationally''). The

Transylvanian Diet The Transylvanian Diet (; ; ) was an important legislative, administrative and judicial body of the Principality (from 1765 Grand Principality) of Transylvania between 1570 and 1867. The general assemblies of the Transylvanian noblemen and the jo ...

made funds available for its publication and it appeared in two volumes in 1794. Through the success of this book, Gyarmathi joined the household of Count Gergely Bethlen as a family physician and tutor to the Bethlen children. His position gave him plenty of leisure for his research into languages and allowed him to accompany Bethlen's son on a trip to the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, then a leading centre for

comparative linguistics Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness implies a common origin or proto-language and comparative linguistics aim ...

. Here he made the acquaintance of the historian

August Ludwig von Schlözer August Ludwig von Schlözer (5 July 1735, in Gaggstatt – 9 September 1809, in Göttingen) was a German historian and pedagogist who laid foundations for the critical study of Russian medieval history. He was a member of the Göttingen schoo ...

, who was a specialist in Northern and Eastern Europe. In Göttingen, Gyarmathi developed the theories of

, which had shown a relationship between Hungarian and

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

(Lapp). The result of Gyarmathi's studies was ''Affinitas'', published in Göttingen in 1799. In the first part of the work, Gyarmathi compares Hungarian, Finnish and Sami. In the second, he treats of the similarities between Hungarian and

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

. In the third, he covers several other

Uralic languages The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...

. ''Affinitas'' sought to show that these languages were part of the same family, by demonstrating similarities in grammatical structure between them. The book was immediately recognised as a major contribution to linguistics. After leaving Göttingen, Gyarmathi became a teacher/administrator at the Calvinist College in Zilah (Zalău), before returning to work as the family physician to the Bethlens in 1810. His last major work was ''Vocabularium'', published in Vienna in 1816. This is a word list that compares Hungarian vocabulary with 57 other languages. It also contains valuable information on the Szekler dialect of Transylvania. Gyarmathi died in Cluj at the age of 79.

Notes

References

*Editorial material in Sámuel Gyarmathi ''Grammatical Proof of the Affinity of the Hungarian Language With Languages of Fennic Origin'' (a translation of the ''Affinitas'' by Victor Egon Hanzeli, Amsterdam Classics in Linguistics Vol.19, 1983)

External links

*
Affinitas linguae hungaricae cum linguis fennicae originis grammatice demonstrata
' (1799) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gyarmathi, Samuel 1751 births 1830 deaths 18th-century Hungarian people 19th-century Hungarian people 18th-century linguists 19th-century linguists Linguists from Hungary Historical linguists Hungarian Finno-Ugrists Writers from Cluj-Napoca Scholars from the Austrian Empire