Historical Science and Linguistics on the Ethnogenesis of Ancient Hungarians (in the Context of New Hungarian Studies)
Prior to the establishment of contemporary linguistic science nad archaeology, historians only used written sources and were not interested in linguistic interactions, whereas archaeological material had not yet been discovered. The situation changed in the mid-19th century when the studies on comparative and historical linguistics and archaeology broke new ground in Hungary. Since the early 20th century, the theory suggested by Hungarian turkologists concerning the interactions between the Ancient Turkic and Ancient Hungarian languages has had a decisive influence on historical concepts. The influence has remained until the present day. Historians and archaeologists do their best to consider the results of linguistic studies. The most important questions in terms of linguistic contacts are "where?" and "when?" The two major theories which formed in the 20th century were as follows: 1. The Middle Volga region, 7th-9th centuries, 2. Cis-Caucasia and Cis-Kuban, 5th-8th centuries. Later, these theories were further supplemented by the western outskirts of Khazar Khaganate. At the same time, the newest concept features alternative options, e.g. from Cis-Cuban to Carpathian Basin. However, the concept does not include the Middle Volga region as a possible location of linguistic interctions. The results of new archaeological studies suggest that the Hungarians populated the Middle Volga region until the second half of the 9th century, and presumably settled in the territory between the contemporary Samara and Orenburg. Then, they eventually migrated to the region between the Donets and the Southern Bug in the 9th century (or as early as the 8th). This conclusion has been confirmed by the chronology and typology of findings, as well as written sources. The report focuses on the following mahor issues of linguistic interactions: 1. The area of Turkic languages (dialects) in Eastern Europe in the 6th-9th centuries, 2. The dynamics of these linguistic contacts between the Ancient Turkic and Ancient Hungarian languages.