 The Magyars ' ancestors gave up their settled way of life because of the northward expansion of the steppes during the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC . Ethnographic studies of modern nomadic populations suggest cyclic migrations – a year @-@ by @-@ year movement between their winter and summer camps – featured in their way of life , but they also cultivated arable lands around their winter camps . Most historians agree the Magyars had a mixed nomadic or semi @-@ nomadic economy , characterized by both the raising of cattle and the cultivation of arable lands . Turkic loanwords in the Hungarian language show the Magyars adopted many practices of animal husbandry and agriculture from the Turkic peoples between the 5th and 9th centuries . For instance , the Hungarian words for pig ( <unk> ) , castrated hog ( <unk> ) , ox ( <unk> ) , barley ( <unk> ) , garden ( <unk> ) , plough ( eke ) , weed ( <unk> ) , refuse of grain ( <unk> ) , fallow land ( <unk> ) , and sickle ( <unk> ) are of Turkic origin . Most loanwords were borrowed from Bulgar or other Chuvash @-@ type Turkic language , but the place and the time of the borrowings are uncertain . The Magyars ' connections with the people of the Saltovo @-@ Mayaki culture may have contributed to the development of their agriculture , according to Spinei . 
