András Róna-Tas (born 30 December 1931) is a Hungarian

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...

. He was born in 1931 in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. Róna-Tas studied under such preeminent professors as

Gyula Ortutay Gyula Ortutay (24 March 1910 – 22 March 1978) was a Hungarian ethnographer and politician, who served as Minister of Religion and Education between 1947 and 1950. Biography Early life Born in Szabadka (now: ''Subotica'', Serbia) to a Cathol ...

and Lajos Ligeti, and received a degree in folklore and eastern linguistics ( Tibetan,

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

, and

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

.) From 1956, he worked at the Faculty of Humanities of the

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University ( hu, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, ELTE) is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in Hung ...

. In 1957-58, Róna-Tas conducted anthropological fieldwork in

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...

, studying the culture, language, and folklore of the

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

ic tribes in that country. During the mid-1960s Róna-Tas focused his fieldwork on the

Chuvash people The Chuvash people ( , ; cv, чӑваш ; russian: чуваши ) are a Turkic ethnic group, a branch of Oghurs, native to an area stretching from the Volga-Ural region to Siberia. Most of them live in Chuvashia and the surrounding areas, a ...

of the middle

Volga River The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...

basin. In 1964, Róna-Tas defended his candidates (CSc) degree, and finally in 1971 he earned a doctorate from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (DSc) with his thesis "The Theory of Linguistic Affinity and the Linguistic Relations between the Chuvash and

Languages", published as ''Linguistic Affinity'' in 1978. From 1968-2002, Róna-Tas was professor of

Altaic Altaic (; also called Transeurasian) is a controversial proposed language family that would include the Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language families and possibly also the Japonic and Koreanic languages. Speakers of these languages are c ...

Studies and Early Hungarian History at József Attila University in

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also other alternative names) is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat of Csongrád-Csanád county. The University of Szeged is one of the m ...

, where he is now a distinguished professor emeritus. He has published over 450 papers, monographs and reviews. His

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

, ''The Landtaking Hungarians'', was published in 1996 and an extended translated version appeared in English in 1999. In addition to his work on the early

Magyars Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Ural ...

, Róna-Tas has published numerous works on other

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelag ...

n societies such as the

Tibetans The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans ...

Kipchaks The Kipchaks or Qipchaks, also known as Kipchak Turks or Polovtsians, were a Turkic nomadic people and confederation that existed in the Middle Ages, inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the 8th century as part of the Sec ...

Khazars The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...

Oghuz Turks The Oghuz or Ghuzz Turks (Middle Turkic: ٱغُز, ''Oγuz'', ota, اوغوز, Oġuz) were a western Turkic people that spoke the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. In the 8th century, they formed a tribal confederation conven ...

and

Alans The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the ...

. He was awarded the prestigious

Humboldt Prize The Humboldt Prize, the Humboldt-Forschungspreis in German, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of G ...

in 1996.

Selected bibliography

*"Turkic-Alanian-Hungarian contacts." (2005) (Journal Article in ''Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'') *" Khitan word for '

marmot Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus ''Marmota'', with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, w ...

'." (2004) (Journal Article in ''Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'') *"New publications on Uyghur texts translated from Chinese." (2003) (Journal Article in ''Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'') *"Old

Loan Words A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...

in Hungarian: Overview and Samples." (2002) (Journal Article in ''Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'') *"Where was Khuvrat's Bulgharia?" (2000) (Journal Article in ''Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'') *"Chuvash and historical morphology." (1999) (Journal Article in ''Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'')
"The Migration and Landtaking of the Magyars."
''The Hungarian Quarterly'', Volume XXXVII No. 144 Winter 1996

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rona-Tas, Andras 1931 births Living people Writers from Budapest 20th-century Hungarian historians Linguists from Hungary Khazar studies Paleolinguists Linguists of Turkic languages Linguists of Altaic languages 21st-century Hungarian historians University of Szeged faculty