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Swiss Workshop on Sociolinguistics,
Context
Context
The Swiss Workshop on Sociolinguistics, Language Contacts and Historical Linguistics in the Ancient World, now in its second edition, aims at exploring questions of sociolinguistics, language contacts and historical linguistics in antiquity and prehistory.
The workshop is open to scholars based both inside and outside Switzerland, and wants to be a venue to learn about current research, to exchange ideas, and hopefully to develop future collaborations and synergies.
Topics
Topics
The workshop will combine sessions for the presentation of selected papers with open table discussions. We organizers are particularly interested in:
Language contact, areal phenomena, and sociolinguistics in the ancient and pre-/proto-historic contexts;
Interdisciplinary approaches involving other evidence (archaeology, genetics, etc.);
New methods to approach and analyse the data (e.g. computational methods);
Theoretical and methodological questions;
Case studies and general discussions about the potential role of linguistics in the study of the socio-historical realities of ancient societies.
Invited Speakers
Invited Speakers
Dr. Martine Robeets (MPI Jena) – Transeurasian languages, language typology, contact and areal linguistics
Dr. Ilya Yakubovich (Philipps-Universität Marburg) – language contact in early history, Indo-European languages and Hurro-Urartian
When & Where?
When & Where?
The workshop will take place on 13–14 February 2025 at the University of Basel.
Venue:
Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 - Rosshofgasse 2, 4051 Basel (map)
Organisers
Organisers
Dr. Marwan Kilani (University of Basel) – contact linguistics in Ancient Egypt and the Levant
Prof. Robin Meyer (University of Lausanne) – historical linguistics, contact linguistics and diachronic syntax in the ancient and medieval Mediterranean and the Caucasus
Dr. Neige Rochant (University of Lausanne) – language description, historical linguistics and typology, esp. of Atlantic and Nakh-Daghestanian languages
Zoom
The workshop can be attended online using the following link:
Zoom
The workshop can be attended online using the following link:
Attending the Workshop
Attending the Workshop
Attendance to the workshop is free.
However, we would be grateful if you could communicate to us your participation through this form by Sunday 9th of February
Participation Form
Program
(last update: 5th February 2025)
Program
(last update: 5th February 2025)
The full program in PDF format is available here; the abstracts can be found here.
DAY 1 - 13 of February (Thursday)
9.30-10.30 : Keynote
Dr. Martine Robeets (MPI Jena)
The hot potato of the Transeurasian controversy: borrowing vs. inheritance
10.30-11.00 : Coffee break
SESSION 1: NORTHERN EURASIA AND AMERICA (11.00-12.30)
11.00-11.30
Sampsa Holopainen (Helsingin yliopisto)
Early Indo-European Loanwords in Uralic: Etymology and Sociolinguistics
11.30-12.00
Bingcong Deng (MPI Jena)
Prehistoric textile borrowings in Northern China
12.00-12.30
Anna Berge (University of Alaska)
The Genesis of Unangam Tunuu (Aleut): Ancient Language Contact with Dene
12.30-14.00 : Lunch break
SESSION 2: HISTORICAL MORPHOLOGY AND LEXICOGRAPHY (14.00-15.30)
14.00-14.30
Florian Wandl (Universität Zürich) Alexander Robert Herren (University of Basel)
Eerie fish: Shells in two Tocharian B medicinal prescriptions
14.30-15.00
Ellora Hänni (Universität Bern)
Stem alternations in Spiti
15.00-15.30 : Coffee break
SESSION 3: CONTACTS IN EUROPE (16.00-17.30)
15.30-16.00
Jadranka Gvozdanović (Universität Heidelberg)
Methodological considerations about combining linguistic and archeological evidence
16.00-16.30
Bridget Drinka (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Ancient Indo-European Contact and Migration: Linguistic, Archaeological, and Genomic Evidence
16.30-17.00
Michiel de Vaan (Universität Basel)
Alpine toponymy and the Gaulish-Latin language contact situation
DAY 2 - 14 of February (Friday)
9.00-10.00 : Keynote
Dr. Ilya Yakubovich (Philipps-Universität Marburg)
(with Vera Tsukanova)
Why did the Anatolian hieroglyphic script die out?
10.00-10.30 : Coffee break
SESSION 1: ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT (10.30-12.30)
10.30-11.00
Robin Meyer (Univerité de Lausanne)
Linguistic identity politics in West Middle Iranian
11.00-11.30
Seraina Nett (Københavns Universitet)
Language Contact and Domains of Language Use in the Western Mesopotamian Periphery in the Late Second Millennium BCE
11.30-12.00
Lauren Dogaer (Universität Basel)
Language Contacts between Demotic and Greek: A Case Study on Priestly Title Equations from Ptolemaic Thebes
12.00-12.30
Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford)
Alexandre Loktionov (University of Cambridge)
Import and transformation: Dislocation and re(al)location of lexemes in Egypt from the New Kingdom to the Coptic period
How to participate
How to participate
The participation to the workshop is free of charge.
If you are thinking about submitting a paper, we encourage you to introduce your work and your areas of interest. As for the presentations, contributions may focus on specific research topics or projects (completed or ongoing). Cursory introductions to current research interests and new ideas are also appreciated.
We also welcome guests who want to attend without presenting a paper. In this case, we would kindly ask you to let us know no later than 15 January 2025, so that we can send you more details about the programme and the location before the event.
Submissions
Submissions
We accept papers from established and early career researchers, as well as from PhD students, based in Switzerland and abroad.
Papers will be 20 min long, followed by Q&A.
If you want to submit a paper, please send us a brief abstract (max. 300 words) as soon as possible, and no later than 15th of October 2024.
Abstracts should be sent to: marwan.kilani@unibas.ch
Small supporting grants might be available for students – please add a note to your submission if you would be interested in this option.
The workshop will be conducted in English, and this applies to abstracts and papers as well.
Downloads
Downloads
A PDF version of the Call for Papers can be downloaded here.
The full program in PDF format is available here.
The abstracts can be found here.
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