György Györffy

Hungarian historian

György Györffy

Born|

Györffy György

(1917-09-26)26 September 1917

Szucság, Hungary (today part of Baciu, Romania)

Died| 19 December 2000(2000-12-19) (aged 83)

Budapest, Hungary

Nationality| Hungarian
Occupation| Historian
Awards| Herder Prize (1988)
Széchenyi Prize (1992)

The native form of this personal name is Györffy György. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

György Györffy (26 September 1917 – 19 December 2000) was a Hungarian historian, and member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungarian: MTA).

## Biography

[edit]

Györffy was born in Szucság (Suceagu, today part of Baciu, Romania), Hungary the son of ethnographer István Györffy and Anna Papp. He finished his secondary schooling in the St. István Grammar School in 1935. Between 1935 and 1939 he studied at the Peter Pázmány University (now Eötvös Loránd University) under the historian Sándor Domanovszky, Elemér Mályusz, and the linguist and turkologist Gyula Németh.

Towards the end of this time he took a sabbatical around the Baltic Sea, Finland and Lapland. When he received the news of the start of World War II he returned to Hungary, arriving back in October 1939.

In June 1940, he was awarded a Doctorate in Hungarian Cultural History with his thesis "Besenyők és magyarok" ("Pechenegs and Hungarians").

From September 1940 until the end of 1941 he worked in the university library as a trainee. From 1942 he was a trainee in the Department of Historical Research within the Pál Teleki Scientific Institute, where he later became a lecturer. From 1945 to 1949 he was the Head of the Department of Ethnology at the Institute.

At the end of 1951 he received an offer for the position of Senior Lecturer at the University of Debrecen but he refused it because of the serious political situation in Hungary at that time.

At the Department of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) he became a Fellow, a Senior Fellow and then a Consulting Fellow. In 1987 he started using a computer to ease editing his work. He used it to process details of Pozsony (Bratislava), but this work was left unfinished.

In 1988 he retired and became a Fellow Emeritus. He died in Budapest, aged 83.

## Awards

[edit]

* 1952 – Kandidátus of Historical Science.
* 1969 – Doctor of Historical Science with his thesis A magyar várostörténet kezdetei és Budapest kialakulása ("Early History of Hungarian Cities and the Evolution of Budapest")
* 1988 – Herder Prize
* 1990 – Associate Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
* 1991 – Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
* 1992 – Széchenyi Prize
* 1997 – His work became a part of the Magyar Örökség ("Hungarian Heritage").

## Work

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Györffy's work concentrates on Hungarian history, such as the Great Migration from the Far East into Hungary, the Árpád Dynasty, the exploration of the Far East, topography, and ancient given names and settlement names. He excelled in linguistics and was a Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He contributed to the Academy's learned journal Magyar Nyelv ("Hungarian Language").

In 1957 he introduced ideas that would later make up his magnum opus Az Árpád-kori Magyarország történeti földrajza. ("History of Hungarian Geography during the Árpád Dynasty"). In this work he recorded regional geographical names, settlement names, names of areas and borders, rivers, hills, forests and so on, and a great number of given names. He recorded the names in the original spelling. He recorded the names of trees in the border regions and other features of the landscape. His work is important in Hungarian linguistic studies.

## Selection of notable works on linguistics

[edit]

(All works are in Hungarian; the translations of titles are not published English book titles.)

* Tanulmányok a magyar állam eredetéről. A nemzetségtől a vármegyéig, a törzstől az országig. Kurszán és Kurszán vára. ("Studies of the Evolution of Hungary. From Roots to Shire Counties, from Clans to Country. Lord Kurszán and his Castle.") Budapest, 1959.
* Az Árpád-kori Magyarország történeti földrajza. ("History of Hungarian Geography During the Árpád Dynasty.") I–IV. Budapest, 1963–1998.
* Napkelet felfedezése. Julianus, Plano Carpini és Rubruk útijelentései. ("Discovery of the Far East. Dispatches of Friar Julian, Plano Carpini and Rubruk.") Budapest, 1965.
* A magyarok elődeiről és a honfoglalásról. Kortársak és krónikások híradásai. ("Hungarian Ancestry and the Great Migration. Contemporary and Chroniclers' Dispatches.") 2nd edition, enlarged. Budapest, 1975.
* Julianus barát és Napkelet fölfedezése. ("Friar Julian and the Exploration of the Far East.") Budapest, 1986.
* Anonymus. Rejtély avagy történeti forrás? ("Anonymus. Mystery or Historical Resource?") Selected studies. Budapest, 1988.
* A magyarság keleti elemei. ("Eastern Hungarians.") Budapest, 1990.
* Krónikáink és a magyar őstörténet. Régi kérdések – új válaszok. ("Chroniclers and Hungarian History. Old Questions – New Answers.") Budapest, 1993.
* Pest-Buda kialakulása. Budapest története a honfoglalástól az Árpád-kor végi székvárossá emelkedéséig. ("Evolution of Pest and Buda. History of Budapest from the Great Migration until the End of the Árpád Dynasty.") Budapest, 1997.
* István király és műve. ("King Stephen and his work.") 3rd edition, enlarged and revised. Budapest, 2000.

## Sources

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* Magyar nyelv ("Hungarian Language") Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine (in Hungarian)

## External links

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* Hungarian Science, 2001/5 (in Hungarian)
* Hungarian Encyclopaedia of Ethnography (in Hungarian)
* Historia.hu (in Hungarian)
* epa.osk.hu A biography of Gyöffrey (in Hungarian)

* v
* t
* e

Herder Prize laureates

1964–1970|

* 1964: Oto Bihalji-Merin
* Jan Kott
* Stanisław Lorentz
* Lucijan Marija Škerjanc
* 1965: Tudor Arghezi
* Manolis Hatzidakis
* Emanuel Hruška
* Zoltán Kodály
* László Németh
* Hugo Rokyta
* Hristo Vakarelski
* 1966: Ján Cikker
* Dezső Dercsényi
* Zlatko Gorjan
* Aleksander Kobzdej
* Anton Kriesis
* Niko Kuret
* Dimiter Statkov
* 1967: Iván Fenyő
* Vladimír Kompánek
* Witold Lutosławski
* Spyridon Marinatos
* Alexandru A. Philippide
* Mihai Pop
* Svetozar Radojčić
* 1968: Constantin Daicoviciu
* Roman Ingarden
* Miroslav Krleža
* Ludvík Kunz
* Anastasios Orlandos
* Lajos Vayer
* Pancho Vladigerov
* 1969: Jolán Balogh
* Albín Brunovský
* Bohuslav Fuchs
* Mihail Jora
* Marijan Matković
* Ksawery Piwocki
* France Stele
* 1970: Jan Białostocki
* Jan Filip
* Zoltán Franyó
* Milovan Gavazzi
* Gyula Illyés
* Yiannis Papaioannou
* Zeko Torbov

1971–1980|

* 1971: Jiří Kolář
* Blaže Koneski
* Georgios Megas
* Kazimierz Michałowski
* Mihail Sokolovski
* Zaharia Stancu
* Bence Szabolcsi
* 1972: Dragotin Cvetko
* Atanas Dalchev
* Branko Maksimović
* Gyula Ortutay
* Jaroslav Pešina
* Henryk Stażewski
* Virgil Vătășianu
* 1973: Veselin Beshevliev
* Stylianos Harkianakis
* János Harmatta
* Zbigniew Herbert
* Eugen Jebeleanu
* Petar Lubarda
* Jan Racek
* 1974: Władysław Czerny
* Ivan Duichev
* Ivo Frangeš
* László Gerő
* Stylianos Pelekanidis
* Ján Podolák
* Zeno Vancea
* 1975: Józef Burszta
* Hristo M. Danov
* Stanislav Libenský
* Maria Ana Musicescu
* Gábor Preisich
* Pandelis Prevelakis
* Stanojlo Rajičić
* 1976: Jagoda Buić
* Marin Goleminov
* Ioannis Kakridis
* Dezső Keresztury
* Nichita Stănescu
* Rudolf Turek
* Kazimierz Wejchert
* 1977: Nikolaos Andriotis
* Riko Debenjak
* Emmanuel Kriaras
* Albert Kutal
* Máté Major
* Krzysztof Penderecki
* Anastas Petrov
* Ion Vladutiu
* 1978: Eugen Barbu
* Đurđe Bošković
* Kazimierz Dejmek
* Stoyan Dzudzev
* Béla Gunda
* Jiří Hrůza
* Yiannis Spyropoulos
* 1979: Magdalena Abakanowicz
* Ferenc Farkas
* Zdenko Kolacio
* Atanas Natev
* András Sütő
* Pavel Trost
* Apostolos E. Vacalopoulos
* 1980: Gordana Babić-Đorđević
* Iván Balassa
* Kamil Lhoták
* Manousos Manousakas
* Vera Mutafchieva
* Alexandru Rosetti
* Wiktor Zin

1981–1990|

* 1981: Emil Condurachi
* Sándor Csoóri
* Stefka Georgieva
* Dimitrios Loukatos
* Vjenceslav Richter
* Eugen Suchoň
* Elida Maria Szarota
* 1982: Athanasios Aravantinos
* Ana Blandiana
* Vojislav J. Đurić
* Sona Kovacevicová
* Aleksandar Nichev
* Jan Józef Szczepański
* Imre Varga
* 1983: Władysław Bartoszewski
* Géza Entz
* Jozef Jankovič
* Gunther Schuller
* Zdenko Škreb
* Stefana Stoykova
* C. A. Trypanis
* 1984: Emilijan Cevc
* Konstantinos Dimaras
* Karel Horálek
* György Konrád
* Constantin Lucaci
* Krasimir Manchev
* Krzysztof Meyer
* 1985: Branko Fučić
* Růžena Grebeníčková
* Adrian Marino
* Demetrios Pallas
* Károly Perczel
* Simeon Pironkov
* Andrzej Wajda
* 1986: Georgi Baev
* Tekla Dömötör
* Boris Gaberščik
* Konrad Górski
* Johannes Karayannopoulos
* Jiří Kotalík
* Anatol Vieru
* 1987: Roman Brandstaetter
* Doula Mouriki
* József Ujfalussy
* Vladimir Veličković
* Velizar Velkov
* Gheorghe Vrabie
* 1988: Roman Berger
* Christos Kapralos
* Zoe Dumitrescu-Bușulenga
* György Györffy
* Donka Petkanova
* Mieczysław Porębski
* Edvard Ravnikar
* 1989: Maria Banuș
* Ákos Birkás
* Jerzy Buszkiewicz
* Václav Frolec
* Nikolai Genchev
* Petar Miljković-Pepek
* Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis
* 1990: Liviu Calin
* Bronisław Geremek
* Aris Konstantinidis
* Dejan Medaković
* Virginia Paskaleva
* Adriena Šimotová
* András Vizkelety

1991–2000|

* 1991: Maja Bošković-Stulli
* Gerard Labuda
* Andor Pigler
* Yorgos Sicilianos
* Emil Skála
* Marin Sorescu
* Stoimen Stoilov
* 1992: Manolis Andronikos
* Jenő Barabás
* Blaga Dimitrova
* Stefan Kaszynski
* Jiří Kořalka
* Zmaga Kumer
* Jon Nicodim
* 1993: Vasilka Gerasimova-Tomova
* Petro Kononenko
* György Kurtág
* Jerzy Tchórzewski
* Răzvan Theodorescu
* Elena Várossová
* Māra Zālīte
* Dionysis Zivas
* Viktor Žmegač
* 1994: István Borzsák
* Dževad Juzbašić
* Ștefan Niculescu
* Andrzej Szczypiorski
* Jitka and Květa Válová
* Takis Varvitsiotis
* Zigmas Zinkevičius
* 1995: Sándor Kányádi
* Mirko Kovač
* Milcho Lalkov
* Michael G. Meraklis
* Mindaugas Navakas
* Wisława Szymborska
* Jaan Undusk
* 1996: Tamás Hofer
* Karel Hubáček
* Konstantin Iliev
* Marin Mincu
* Jože Pogačnik
* Pēteris Vasks
* Marian Zgórniak
* 1997: Tasos Athanasiadis
* Bogdan Bogdanović
* Oskár Elschek
* Ferenc Glatz
* Lech Kalinowski
* Jaan Kross
* Dunja Rihtman-Auguštin
* 1998: Imre Bak
* Andrei Corbea-Hoișie
* Eliška Fučíková
* Ismail Kadare
* Justinas Marcinkevičius
* Dorota Simonides
* Elena Toncheva
* 1999: Svetlana Alexievich
* Vera Bitrakova-Grozdanova
* Mircea Dinescu
* István Fried
* Henryk Górecki
* Dževad Karahasan
* Ferdinand Milučký
* 2000: Ján Bakoš
* Ivan Čolović
* Nikola Georgiev
* Imre Kertész
* Milan Kundera
* Karolos Mitsakis
* Arvo Pärt

2001–2006|

* 2001: Yurii Andrukhovych
* Janez Bernik
* János Böhönyey
* Maria Kłańska
* Marek Kopelent
* Andrej Mitrović
* Evanghelos Moutsopoulos
* 2002: George Demetrius Bambiniotis
* Māris Čaklais
* Péter Esterházy
* Radost Ivanova
* Nedjeljko Fabrio
* Aurel Stroe
* Lech Trzeciakowski
* 2003: Vasil Gyuzelev
* Drago Jančar
* Károly Manherz
* Stanisław Mossakowski
* Ales Rasanau
* Ludvík Václavek
* Ana Maria Zahariade
* 2004: Theodore Antoniou
* Michał Głowiński
* Dušan Kováč
* Fatos Lubonja
* Éva Pócs
* Kazimir Popkonstantinov
* Romualdas Požerskis
* 2005: Károly Klimó
* Hanna Krall
* Primož Kuret
* Jiří Kuthan
* Andrei Marga
* Eimuntas Nekrošius
* Krešimir Nemec
* 2006: Włodzimierz Borodziej
* Nicos Hadjinicolaou
* Gabriela Kiliánová
* Ene Mihkelson
* Vojteh Ravnikar

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