HUNFALVY, Pál (born Paul Hundsdorfer). Nagyszalók (now Velký Slavkov in Slovakia) 12.3.1810 — Budapest 30.11.1891. Hungarian Linguist. Librarian in Budapest. Born in a poor farmer family with German background, son of Ján Hundsdorfer and Mária Wesler. Learned Hungarian only as student, but became increasingly Hungarian-minded and changed his name. His younger brother was the geographer Ján H. (1820–1888). After school at Késmárk and Miskolcz studied law at Budapest, but never practised as lawyer. In 1842-49 Professor of Law at Késmárk Collegium, in 1849 elected to the parliament and moved to Budapest. From 1851 librarian of Hungarian Academy of Science. Married Ágnes Carolina Röck (1824–1907).
Hunfalvy was mainly scholar of Finno-Ugrian, but also wrote on the Gipsy language. He established the position of Hungarian as Finno-Ugric language and made important work on Vogul and Ostyak (Mansi and Hanti). In his later years he wrote little about linguistics, much about Hungarian and Romanian history.
Publications: Edited: Maguar nyelvészet. 1-6. 1856-61; Nyelvtudomány közleményrek. 1862-78.
– Several books of Finno-Ugric and Altaic linguistics and on Hungarian and Romanian history, literary essays, translations from Greek and Arabic.
– “Etwas über die ungarländischen Zigeuner”, Actes du 8ème Congrès int. des Orientalistes tenu en 1889 à Stockholm et à Christiania, t. 3, section 2: Aryenne, 1893, 91-113 (on history and language).
– A few Hungarian articles and reviews listed in Puskás 1991, 5:59-63.
Sources: Th. Duka, JRAS 1892, 149-157; Wurzbach 9, 1863, 431-433; Ö.B.L. 3, 1965, 12; geni.com; German Wikipedia with picture.
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