The Linguistic Origins of Europe: Word-formation and Lexicon in Anatolian and Core Indo-European

Postdoctoral project by Matilde Serangeli.  

The understanding of the linguistic origins of Europe begins with Proto-Indo-European (PIE). PIE is the reconstructed language from which all Indo-European (IE) languages descend, including modern languages like English, Spanish, Russian and Hindi, spoken by more than half of the world’s population.

In particular, a proper understanding of Proto-Indo-European begins with the extinct Anatolian languages, e.g. Hittite and Lycian, known from ancient clay tablets and inscriptions and spoken in the Asian part of Turkey and part of northern Syria during 16th-2nd century BCE. The Anatolian branch plays a key role since it was the first to split off from the IE language family and has several specific features, which are not shared by other IE languages. This project will shed light on the position and development of Anatolian in relation to the rest of the IE family by a systematic study of Anatolian word formation and vocabulary.

Past activities                                                      
September 2017: Conference organization (with Thomas Olander)