András Róna-Tas

András Róna-Tas at a Hungarian conference

András Róna-Tas(born 30 December 1931) is a Hungarian historian and linguist. He was born in 1931 inBudapest.Róna-Tas studied under such preeminent professors asGyula OrtutayandLajos Ligeti,and received a degree in folklore and eastern linguistics (Tibetan,Mongol,andTurkic.)

From 1956, he worked at theFaculty of Humanitiesof theEötvös Loránd University.In 1957-58, Róna-Tas conducted anthropological fieldwork inMongolia,studying the culture, language, and folklore of thenomadictribes in that country. During the mid-1960s Róna-Tas focused his fieldwork on theChuvash peopleof the middleVolga Riverbasin.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 theChuvashandMongolLanguages ", published asLinguistic Affinityin 1978.

From 1968-2002, Róna-Tas was professor ofAltaicStudies and Early Hungarian History atJózsef Attila UniversityinSzeged,where he is now a distinguished professor emeritus.He has published over 450 papers, monographs and reviews. Hismagnum opus,A honfoglaló magyar nép,was published in 1996 and an extended translated version,Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages,appeared in 1999.

In addition to his work on the earlyMagyars,Róna-Tas has published numerous works on otherEurasiansocieties such as theTibetans,Kipchaks,Khazars,Oghuz TurksandAlans.He was awarded the prestigiousHumboldt Prizein 1996.

Selected bibliography

• "Turkic-Alanian-Hungarian contacts." (2005) (Journal article inActa Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae)
• "Khitan word for 'marmot'." (2004) (Journal article inActa Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae)
• "New publications on Uyghur texts translated from Chinese." (2003) (Journal article inActa Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae)
• "Old Turkic Loan Words in Hungarian: Overview and Samples." (2002) (Journal article inActa Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae)
• "Where was [Khuvrat's Bulgharia?" (2000) (Journal Article inActa Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae)
• "Chuvash and historical morphology." (1999) (Journal Article inActa Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae)
• The Migration and Landtaking of the Magyars (Journal article inThe Hungarian Quarterly)
• Róna-Tas, András (1999).Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: an introduction to early Hungarian history.Translated by Bodoczky, Nicholas. Budapest New York: Central European Univ. Press.ISBN978-963-9116-48-1.