Robert Hetzron, born Herzog (31 December 1937, Budapest – 12 August 1997, Santa Barbara, California), was a Hungarian-born linguist known for his work on the comparative study of Afro-Asiatic languages, as well as for his study of Cushitic and Ethiopian Semitic languages.
[1] Born in Hungary, as a child, Hetzron received both a general and religious Jewish education.
In 1977–78, he held a Guggenheim Fellowship and pursued research at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
His attempt to integrate the description of stress and intonation into syntax is unique (see his Hungarian publications).
On the occasion of his death in 1997, Robert Backus composed the following tribute to him: The 35th annual meeting of the North American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics (NACAL 35, San Antonio, 2007), which was initiated by Robert Hetzron at Santa Barbara in 1972, is dedicated to his memory.