The Split: Reconstructing Early Indo-European Language and Culture

Conference on 13–15 September 2017 at the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen.

Invited speakers

José Luis García Ramón (CHS Washington/Harvard University)
Alwin Kloekhorst (Leiden University)
Michaël Peyrot (Leiden University – CANCELLED)
Michael Weiss (Cornell University)
David Anthony (Hartwick College – CANCELLED)
Kristian Kristiansen (University of Gothenburg)
Asko Parpola (University of Helsinki)

Call for abstracts

We invite papers dealing with the reconstruction of the Indo-European proto-language with a special focus on the early stages of the splitting process into individual language branches. Interdisciplinary topics combining linguistics, archeology, comparative mythology and culture are more than welcome.

Abstracts must be received by 15 May 2017. Further reading in the call.

Program and book of abstracts

Download the program (pdf)

Download the abstracts (pdf)

Second circular

The second circular, which includes details on registration and other important information, is now available.

Direct link to registration.

Handouts and presentations


    • José Luis García Ramón: Reconstructing Indo-European phraseology: Continuity and renewal · handout
    • Rasmus Gudmundsen Bjørn: From nouns to numerals · handout · presentation (pdf)
    • Riccardo Ginevra: Myths of non-functioning fertility deities in Hittite and Core Indo-European · handout A · handout B
    • Eugen Hill & Daniel Kölligan: Evidence for preverbs as ditropic clitics in dialectal Indo-European · handout
    • Stefan Höfler: Hittite ḫišša- c. ‘thill, shaft (of a cart)’ and the feminine gender in Proto-Indo-European · handout
    • Alwin Kloekhorst: The Hittite verbal system and the Indo-Hittite hypothesis · handout
    • H. Craig Melchert: Hittite ḫandā(i)- ‘to align, arrange, etc.’ and PIE Metaphors for ‘(morally) right’ · handout
    • Matthew Scarborough: Splitting hairs over the lexicon: Issues in utilising lexical data for Indo-European cladistic research · handout
    • Michael Weiss: Weiss: The inner revolution: old but not that old · handout

Organizing committee

Matilde Serangeli (qcs496@hum.ku.dk)
Head of the project The Linguistic Origin of Europe: Word-formation and Lexicon in Anatolian and Core Indo-European

Thomas Olander (olander@hum.ku.dk)
Head of the project The Homeland: In the Footprints of the Early Indo-Europeans