András Róna-Tas

András Róna-Tas (December 30, 1931- ) is a Hungarian historian and linguist. He was born in 1931 in Budapest. Róna-Tas studied under such preeminent professors as Gyula Ortutay, István Tálasi, Gyula Németh and Lajos Ligeti and received a degree in folklore and eastern linguistics (Tibetan, Mongol, and Turkish.)

In 1957 and 1958 he conducted anthropological fieldwork in Mongolia, studying the culture, language, and folklore of the nomadic tribes in that country. During the mid 1960's Róna-Tas focused his fieldwork on the Chuvash people of the middle Volga River basin. In 1971 he earned a doctorate with his thesis "The Theory of Linguistic Affinity and the Linguistic Relations between the Chuvash and Mongol Languages", published as "Linguistic Affinity" in 1978.

From 1968 to 2002 Róna-Tas was professor of Altaic Studies and Early Hungarian History at József Attila University in Szeged, where he is now a professor emeritus. He has published over three hundred books, papers, monographs and reviews. His magnum opus, "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, Róna-Tas has published numerous works on other Eurasian societies such as the Tibetans, Kipchaks, Khazars, Oghuz Turks and Alans. He was awarded the prestigious Humboldt Prize in 1996.

elected bibliography

*"Turkic-Alanian-Hungarian contacts." (2005) (Journal Article in "Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae")
*"Khitan word for 'marmot'." (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 Turkic Loan Words 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")
* [http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no144/p37.html#cv "The Migration and Landtaking of the Magyars."] "The Hungarian Quarterly", Volume XXXVII No. 144 Winter 1996