Benyo Stefanov Tsonev

Benyo Tsonev (Bulgarian: Беньо Цонев; [ˈbɛnʲɔ ˈt͡sɔnɛf]) was a Bulgarian philologist.

He was born on 12 January 1863 in Lovech, at that time in the Ottoman Empire. After the Liberation of Bulgaria, he received a state scholarship from the Ministry of Education and graduated with excellence from the Classical High School in Zagreb in 1884. Upon his return, he worked as a teacher at the Petropavlovsk Theological Seminary and at the Lom High School. From 1886 to 1888 he studied Slavic studies at the University of Vienna at Vatroslav Jagić. From there he went to Leipzig, where he completed his education as a student of Prof. August Leskien. He listened to lectures by renowned scholars such as Karl Brugmann, Gustav Körting, Wilhelm Wundt. In Leipzig, he wrote his doctoral thesis.

He received the degree of Doctor of Slavic Studies, Romance Languages, and Philosophy, from the University of Leipzig (1890). Upon his return to Sofia, he began lecturing at the University of Sofia (from 1890) and at the same time taught at the Sofia Men's High School. From 1893 he was elected associate professor, and since 1895 was a professor in the Department of Bulgarian History . He was elected Dean of the Faculty of History and Philology for the academic years 1897–98, 1905–1906, 1909–1910, 1912–1913, 1916–1917.

He was Rector of Sofia University during the academic year 1910–1911. He was elected a Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1892, and a Member of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1900.

He is the author of the first scientific work on the history of the Bulgarian language, whose second and third volumes were posthumously edited by Stefan Mladenov.[1]