Ágoston Pável
Encyclopedia
Ágoston Pável, also known in Slovenian
Slovenian language
Slovene or Slovenian is a South Slavic language spoken by approximately 2.5 million speakers worldwide, the majority of whom live in Slovenia. It is the first language of about 1.85 million people and is one of the 23 official and working languages of the European Union...

 as Avgust Pavel (b. 28 August 1886 in Cankova
Cankova
Cankova is a town and a municipality in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia.The area was originally a part of Murska Sobota municipality. In 1995, Cankova - Tišina municipality was formed, which existed until 1999 when Tišina seceded as a separate municipality, giving rise to today's demarcation.The...

, Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

, today in Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

; d. 2 January 1946 in Szombathely
Szombathely
Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

) was a Hungarian Slovene
Hungarian Slovenes
Hungarian Slovenes are an autochthonous ethnic and linguistic Slovene minority living in Hungary. The largest groups are the Rába Slovenes in the Rába Valley in western Hungary between the town of Szentgotthárd and the borders with Slovenia and Austria. They speak the Prekmurje dialect of Slovene...

 writer, poet, ethnologist, linguist and historian.

Education

Ágoston Pável was born in Cankova
Cankova
Cankova is a town and a municipality in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia.The area was originally a part of Murska Sobota municipality. In 1995, Cankova - Tišina municipality was formed, which existed until 1999 when Tišina seceded as a separate municipality, giving rise to today's demarcation.The...

 (then part of Vas county
Vas
Vas is the name of an administrative county in present Hungary, and also in the former Kingdom of Hungary. The county is a part of the Centrope Project.-Geography:...

) as the third child of Iván Pável, a tailor, and Erzsébet Obal. He attended elementary school in his native village. Despite his Slovene mother tongue, Ágoston Pável graduated with excellence from a Hungarian-speaking
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

 high school in Szentgotthárd
Szentgotthárd
Szentgotthárd is the westernmost town of Hungary. It is situated on the Rába River near the Austrian border, and is home to much of Hungary's small Slovene ethnic minority....

, being the top student among 28 from 1897 through 1901. Already in the early days, an amicable relationship developed between Pável and his class teacher Győző Schmidt. Schmidt, who was the high school's librarian and the editor of the local newspaper, taught him both Hungarian and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

.

Pável continued his studies at Premont College in Szombathely
Szombathely
Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

 (1901–05). While attending college, he participated in the "Society for Voluntary Further Education". In the internal gazette called "Bimbófüzér" some of his first epigrams, ballads and historical elegies appeared.

From 1905 to 1909, Pável studied Hungarian and Latin at the Philosophical Faculty of Péter Pázmány University in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

. Beside his specialist area he attended classes in Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...

 and Russian language
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

s and in comparative research of Slaviing with him as a research associate. Pável gained a scholarship, was exempted from tuition fees and taught as an assistant professor, where one of his students was Albert Szent-Györgyi
Albert Szent-Györgyi
Albert Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt was a Hungarian physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He is credited with discovering vitamin C and the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle...

, later a Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

 winner in Physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

.

On May 15, 1909 he published a critical essay on two disquisitions by Oszkár Asbóth
Oszkár Asbóth
Asboth Oszkár was a Hungarian aviation engineer often credited with the invention of the helicopter...

 on Slavic-Hungarian speech forms — one which scrutinized Slavic stem words and the mutations of the sounds "j" and "gy" among Hungarian Slovenes, and another on the academic speech of western Hungary, which had been Pável's research focus.

The first verses of Pável Ágoston were published (in Hungarian) in the newspaper Muraszombat és Vidéke ("Murska Sobota and its district") and (in Wendish) in "Novine", "Martijin List" and "Kolendar". On November 13, 1909 Pável read some Slovene verse translations and some of his own poetry at the Hungarian folklore symposium.

Also in 1909 the Hungarian Academy of Science published Pável's essay on the phonology of the Slovene language in the language district of Vashidegkút
Cankova
Cankova is a town and a municipality in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia.The area was originally a part of Murska Sobota municipality. In 1995, Cankova - Tišina municipality was formed, which existed until 1999 when Tišina seceded as a separate municipality, giving rise to today's demarcation.The...

; the essay formed a part of his dissertation. This work won an award at the University and was highly recognized. Professor Asbóth
Oszkár Asbóth
Asboth Oszkár was a Hungarian aviation engineer often credited with the invention of the helicopter...

 commented: "I am a little angry, however, not at Pletersnik [a Slovene linguist and literary historian], but at such Hungarian linguists who use their vocabulary with simplicity. I explicitly recommend them Pável's rich essays, because they can learn a lot from them."

Military service and teaching career

In 1909-10 Ágoston Pável served in the 7th Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

 and then in the 82nd Székelyudvarhely
Odorheiu Secuiesc
Odorheiu Secuiesc is the second-largest city in Harghita County, Transylvania, Romania. In its short form, it is also known as Odorhei in Romanian and Udvarhely in Hungarian...

 (Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

) infantry. Due to an administrative mistake, the infantry number 83 was mistakenly written as number 82 and he was detailed to military service in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

. The "People's News" of 1986 wrote in commemoration of Pável that he spent his little spare time in the army in collecting popular verse, songs, customs and clothing.

From 1910 to 1911 Pável served a practicum teaching at the academic main high school in the Budapest second district.
From 1911 to 1913 he was a substitute teacher at the national main high school of Torda
Torda
Torda can refer to:Transylvania* Turda , a city and municipality in Cluj County, Romania* Turda River* Edict of Torda* Decree of Torda* Torda-Aranyos County* Maros-Torda County* Cheile Turzii Serbia:...

, where Károly Visky and Gábor Kemény were fellow teachers and friends. On April 14, 1914 he married Irene Benko in Szentgotthárd
Szentgotthárd
Szentgotthárd is the westernmost town of Hungary. It is situated on the Rába River near the Austrian border, and is home to much of Hungary's small Slovene ethnic minority....

.

On June 10, 1914 he became a fully certified teacher but was promptly drafted into military service. On September 6 he was badly injured in the battle of Lemberg (Lviv)
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...

, which resulted in five years of illness. In 1986 the "People's News" noted: "Pável Ágoston despised the war a lot. What bigger joy could have befallen him than being injured right in the first battle, since he could get away from this senseless war. During the years of sickness he kept writing and translating."

In 1916 Pável received a Hungarian Academy of Science award for his work "The Modern Wendish Literary Language". "With his work the author shows the ambitions that can be noticed in the field of literary language, with great poetic-linguistic expertise and with the basic knowledge of the national Slovene language, which approximates the Slovene language that can be found in Austria and differs from it in its popularity" (Academic information sheet, May 1917).

In May 1919 he was elected as a member of the Department of Public Education of Dombóvár and was also appointed to the editorial committee of the local weekly paper. From May 1920 till August 1933 he worked as a teacher at the national girls' high school of Szombathely
Szombathely
Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

. On November 16, 1920 he was appointed to the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana
University of Ljubljana
The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...

.

Literary and academic work

In 1924, he was in charge of the library of the cultural organisation of Vas County
Vas
Vas is the name of an administrative county in present Hungary, and also in the former Kingdom of Hungary. The county is a part of the Centrope Project.-Geography:...

 and of the city of Szombathely
Szombathely
Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

. In 1925 he compiled and published service directory of cultural organisations for the library of Vas County
Vas
Vas is the name of an administrative county in present Hungary, and also in the former Kingdom of Hungary. The county is a part of the Centrope Project.-Geography:...

 and the city of Szombathely
Szombathely
Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

. By January 1, 1926 he had completed the indexing and restructuring of the museum library. "The year 1926 marks a watershed in the history of the cultural organisation library, because due to the cooperation of Pável Ágoston a new vitality ran through the veins of the library, and thus the former strict rules and restrictions were lifted."

In February 1928 began a friendship with Ferenc Móra
Ferenc Móra
Ferenc Móra was a Hungarian novelist, journalist, and museologist.Ferenc Móra is universally recognized and acclaimed as a major writer and author in Hungarian literature.-Life:...

 and Vilko Novak. In September 1928 he took charge of the museum of Vas County
Vas
Vas is the name of an administrative county in present Hungary, and also in the former Kingdom of Hungary. The county is a part of the Centrope Project.-Geography:...

 and of the folklore magazine, and in November 1928 of that year Pável founded the Association of Amity of the Vas County Museum. For the school year 1928-29 Pável opened his home to the 15-year-old Sándor Weöres
Sándor Weöres
Sándor Weöres was a Hungarian poet and author.Born in Szombathely, Weöres was brought up in the nearby village of Csönge. His first poems appeared when he was nineteen, being published in the influential journal Nyugat through the acceptance of its editor, the poet Mihály Babits...

, who was later to become a well-known Hungarian poet.

On April 27, 1932 Pável became a member of the caucus of the Folklore Society, and on June 12, 1939 a member of the correspondence department. In December 1932 was published his first compendium of verse called "Praying in The Bosom of The Blind Valley".

From March 1933 until his death in 1946 he was the editor of the scientific journal Vasi Szemle ("Vas Review"). Pável formulated and declared the journal's objective as "a dedication to and an appreciation of the cultural problems in the history of Vas County and west Hungary."

On August 1, 1933 he was shifted to Faludi High School. In 1934 became an honorary secretary member of the Hungarian National Culture Association. In the same year he gained membership of the Erdély Szépmíves Céh publishing company. From March 26, 1936 he was a member of the Tömörkény Society in Szeged.

In the spring of 1936 he and Dr. Sándor Gonyei went on a journey through the Örség National Park, which resulted in his work "Pictures from Örség". In 1936 his second compendium of verse, entitled "Forest On Fire", was published.

In 1937 Pável's translation of the most significant literary works of Ivan Cankar
Ivan Cankar
Ivan Cankar was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature...

 — Hlapec Jernej in njegova resnica ("The Bailiff Yerney and His Right"), Potepuh Marko ("Scapegrace Marko") and the novel Kralj Matjaž ("King Matthew") — were published in "Nyugat
Nyugat
Nyugat , was the most influential Hungarian literary journal in the first half of the 20th century. Writers and poets from that era are referred to as "1st/2nd/3rd generation of the NYUGAT"....

".

In 1940 due to the fusion of Vas
Vas
Vas is the name of an administrative county in present Hungary, and also in the former Kingdom of Hungary. The county is a part of the Centrope Project.-Geography:...

 and Zala counties
Zala
Zala is the name of an administrative county in Hungary. Itlies in south-western Hungary. It is named after the Zala River. It shares borders with Croatia and Slovenia and the Hungarian counties Vas, Veszprém and Somogy. The capital of Zala county is Zalaegerszeg. Its area is 3784 km²...

 the Vas review expanded its mandate to become a review for western Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. )n June 15, 1940 he became a member of the Gárdony Society. On August 26, 1940 he again visited Örség, where together with István Győrffy and Károly Visky he accumulated material for a monograph.
On December 13, 1940 he was elected member of the Pen Klub.

In 1941 the translation of the literary works of Ivan Cankar
Ivan Cankar
Ivan Cankar was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature...

 appeared as part of the series on south Slavic authors. The Hungarian culture review wrote on March 15, 1941: "The translation by Ágoston Pável is artistic and perfect." In February 1941 at the Philosophical Faculty of Szeged University Pável was private tutor for the subjects of South Slavic language and literature, and on September 27 of that year he joined the Janus Pannonius Society.

In 1944 he developed the curriculum for the study of the Hungarian language and composed a Hungarian literary history for use in the schools in the Mura region
Prekmurje
Prekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...

 in Slovene-speaking Hungary. in May 1945 he was elected president of the local pedagogic "Free Province Organisation" and began work as an official interpreter for Russian in Vas County
Vas
Vas is the name of an administrative county in present Hungary, and also in the former Kingdom of Hungary. The county is a part of the Centrope Project.-Geography:...

. In June 1945, on his own initiative, he developed and taught the first Russian course to be held in Szombathely
Szombathely
Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

. On November 18, 1945 he was a member of the János Batsányi Literary Society of Pécs.

Ágoston Pável died on January 2, 1946 in Szombathely
Szombathely
Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...

.

See also

  • Hungarian Slovenes
    Hungarian Slovenes
    Hungarian Slovenes are an autochthonous ethnic and linguistic Slovene minority living in Hungary. The largest groups are the Rába Slovenes in the Rába Valley in western Hungary between the town of Szentgotthárd and the borders with Slovenia and Austria. They speak the Prekmurje dialect of Slovene...

  • Prekmurje
    Prekmurje
    Prekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...

  • List of Slovene writers and poets in Hungary
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