Sámuel Gyarmathi

He is best known for his systematic demonstration of the comparative history of the Finno-Ugric languages in the book Affinitas linguae hungaricae cum linguis fennicae originis grammatice demonstrata (1799), which rested on the earlier work of János Sajnovics.

[1] Gyarmathi studied to be a teacher in Nagyenyed (Aiud) before training to be a doctor in Vienna, after which he practised medicine in Transylvania.

His position gave him plenty of leisure for his research into languages and allowed him to accompany Bethlen's son on a trip to the University of Göttingen in Germany, then a leading centre for comparative linguistics.

Here he made the acquaintance of the historian August Ludwig von Schlözer, who was a specialist in Northern and Eastern Europe.

After leaving Göttingen, Gyarmathi became a teacher/administrator at the Calvinist College in Zilah (Zalău), before returning to work as the family physician to the Bethlens in 1810.