Magyar Nyelvőr

Szathmári, István: The state of Literary Hungarian in János Laczka's translation of 'Zair' and his biography of György Bessenyei
The author investigates two manuscripts by János Laczka (1754-1827), an intellectual (municipal attorney, later county superintendent) who lived in the age of enlightenment in Nagykunság (part of the Great Hungarian Plain). The central issue of the investigation is what stage of the linguistic unification of Hungarian, the emergence of Standard Literary Hungarian is reflected in those manuscripts. Laczka wrote the first Hungarian translation of Voltaire's tragedy 'Zair' in 1778, and György Bessenyei's biography in 1815. (Bessenyei had met Laczka in 1777 in Vienna, and employed him as a secretary for two years.) In summary, the author claims the following with respect to the two manuscripts: Laczka's work proves that, in the age of enlightenment, the countryside kept abreast with the linguistic development of the capital, at least in the case of outstanding personalities like Laczka; especially the 1815 biography reflects a rather well-developed stage of linguistic unification.