Ferenc Kazinczy
Hungarian linguist and writer (1759-1831)
Ferenc Kazinczy (in older English: Francis Kazinczy; October 27, 1759 – August 23, 1831) was a Hungarian author, poet, translator, neologist, an agent in the regeneration of the Hungarian language and literature at the turn of the 19th century. Today his name is connected with the extensive Language Reform of the 19th century, when thousands of words were coined or revived, enabling the Hungarian language to keep up with scientific progress and become an official language of the nation in 1844. For his linguistic and literary works he is regarded as one of the cultural founders of the Hungarian Reform Era along with Dávid Baróti Szabó, Ferenc Verseghy, György Bessenyei, Mátyás Rát and János Kis.
Life
Early years
Ferenc Kazinczy was born in Érsemjén, Bihar, Hungary (today Șimian, Romania). His father, József Kazinczy de Kazincz (1732–1784) came from an old noble family and worked as a magistrate at Abaúj County. His mother was Zsuzsanna Bossányi de Nagybossány (1740–1812). Ferenc had four brothers and four sisters. Until the age of eight he was brought up by his maternal grandfather, Ferenc Bossányi, the notary of Bihar County and parliamentary ambassador, where he did not hear any foreign word during his first seven years.
He wrote his first letters in December 1764 to his parents who lived in Alsóregmec at that time. In 1766 his aunt got sick, therefore they moved to Debrecen for three months for the healing treatment.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q381865. VIAF identifies the subject as 9867747. The Library of Congress control number is n80148800. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1759, 1831, 1844 and 1732.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ferenc Kazinczy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.