László László Grzesi, a Prima Primíssima award-winning linguist and well-known figure in mother tongue care, died in Budapest on Sunday at the age of 92, the Mother Language Nurses Association reported to MTI on Monday.
László Greczi was born in Budapest in 1932. In 1950, he was accepted into the Department of Hungarian History at the Faculty of Humanities at Eötvös Loránd University.
As a result of Professor Dezső Pais's seminars, he committed himself to linguistics.
Since 1954, he has been a scientific fellow at the Institute of Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), and headed the Department of the Hungarian Language for 16 years. Since 1960 he has been a candidate of linguistics.
It was published in 1964 and since then tens of thousands of copies of its professional language guide have been published.
Among more than twenty academic works, sometimes written with co-authors, stand out are Kaleidoscope of Our Mother Language (1973), Games of Our Mother Language (1974), Our Hungarian Language Today (1976), and The Handbook of Our Officials Language, which helps authorities use the correct language (1976), the book Linguistics and Media in two volumes (1980-1985), and Document Editing and Drafting Advisor (1987), which provides practical assistance to citizens.
Also among his major works is Alljunk meg ej sora! (with István Vajó, 1991), Képes diákszótár (Associate Editor, 1992), Mother Tongue Journal (1999), Our Language (2000), On Our Mother Tongue Versus Our Mother Tongue (2000), New Mother Tongue Journal (2002), Special Letters in 20th Century nyelgi viláda (2003), Our Mathematical Language at the Beginning of the 21st Century (with Géza Balazs, 2003), as well as the Nyelvműlő Manual (with Gábor Kemeny, 2005).
In the period 1987-1998, he was Director of the Hungarian Language Department at the ELTE Faculty of Teacher Education. Since 1987, he has been co-chair of the Language Committee of Hungarian Television, and in 1993-1996, he was chairman. Since 1989, he has been Secretary-General and then Vice-President of the Mother Language Nurses Association, and from 1994 he has been Executive Director and then Honorary President. In 1992, he was elected co-chair of the Hungarian Language Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and, in 2006, honorary president. Between 2001 and 2007, he served as a representative of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
He was an editor and columnist for Magyar Nyelvőr, Edes Anyanyelvünk, Élet és Tudomány and Szabad Föld, as well as a contributor to numerous language radio and television programmes, newspaper language columns and an author of books. In 1997, on the occasion of the 500th broadcast of the TV program “Alljunk meg gyjn sora”, he received the Level Award.
László Greczi's work as a language teacher has been recognized with numerous other awards: Excellent People's Worker Award (1981), János Apatzaí Céré Award (1992), Gábor Sárvas Prize (1992), Hungarian Heritage Award (2007), Prima Primísima Prize (2012) and the László Prize. Tőkéczki (2020) and the Hungarian Language Prize (2020).
In addition to his serious linguistic work, László Grzesi also published popular and humorous books such as Nyelvi illemtan (1987), Nyelvi illem – grandsüleink kiskora (2001), Szójátékos nayelvünk (Szójátékos nayelvünk) and Myanyelvi reitvénytár (2002).
source: MTI
Editorial image: MTI/Csilla Cseke
