Third Swiss Workshop on Historical Linguistics

The Swiss Workshop on Historical Linguistics, now in its third edition, aims at exploring questions of historical linguistics, including corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, and language contact, from prehistory to early modernity. Our focus lies on the scientific study of languages with limited attestation, the methodology that unites them, and overcoming common problems, independent of time and geography.

The workshop is open to scholars based both inside and outside Switzerland, and strives to be a venue to learn about current research, to exchange ideas, and hopefully to develop future collaborations and synergies.

The workshop will combine sessions for the presentation of selected papers with open discussions. We organizers are particularly interested in:

• Language contact, areal phenomena, and sociolinguistics in pre-/proto-historic, ancient, mediaeval and early modern contexts;

• Interdisciplinary approaches involving other evidence (archaeology, genetics, etc.);

• New methods for approaching and analysing the data (e.g. computational methods);

• Theoretical and methodological questions;

• Case studies and general discussions of the potential role of linguistics in the study of the socio-historical realities of historical societies.

Other papers falling into the broader definition of historical linguistics are, of course, equally welcome.