PhD Student Position (100%, 4 years) in Comparative Linguistics (Albanian and Greek)

The Department of Ancient Civilizations of the University of Basel invites applications for a PhD student position (100%) in Comparative Linguistics (Albanian and Greek) within the new SNSF-funded research project 'The Albanian Language in Antiquity' led by Dr. Michiel de Vaan.

Deadline for application: 5 May 2022.
Beginning of the position: 1 August 2022 (ideally).
The interviews are expected to take place on Wednesday, 18 May 2022, or Friday, 20 May 2022, online via Zoom.

The project
The Albanian language forms a separate branch of the Indo-European language family. Besides Greek and Romance languages, Albanian is the only surviving descendant of the languages spoken in the Balkans in Antiquity. Since the earliest coherent text in Albanian dates from 1555, our main access to the history of the language is linguistic reconstruction and the study of early loanwords from and into Albanian. The SNSF project 'The Albanian Language in Antiquity' housed at the Department of Ancient Civilizations at the University of Basel (PI: Michiel de Vaan) seeks to determine what the precursor of the Albanian language looked like in Antiquity, and where this precursor may have been spoken. The project will rely on the evidence from the Old Albanian texts and Modern Albanian dialects, as well as on loanword studies regarding the contacts between Albanian and three of its main contact languages, Ancient Greek, Latin, and Early Romanian. The scientific methods used will be linguistic reconstruction (both internal reconstruction and external comparison with other Indo-European languages) and contact linguistics. Altogether the project team will have a scientific staff of four members, consisting of the PI, one postdoctoral researcher, and two doctoral students. Please note that the two PhD projects are advertised separately, featuring 'Albanian and Romanian' versus 'Albanian and Greek'. It is possible for a single candidate to apply for both positions in one application. In that case, the letters of reference should clearly state your competence for both positions.

This PhD dissertation project will be devoted to the lexical and grammatical correspondences between Albanian and Ancient Greek. Greek and Albanian have been in contact from before the Roman Era, as attested by Greek loanwords into Albanian dating from Ancient, Middle and Modern Greek. Several other non-lexical features in Albanian are also similar to Greek, and may be due to shared inheritance or to mutual influence.
The PhD student will classify the different types of evidence for Greek-Albanian contact (as collected in the existing literature, but also based on their own research) according to formal, semantic and geographic criteria, and will evaluate the evidence in the framework of theories on language contact and the different social settings that explain or predict different linguistic outcomes. The analysis will take into account the insights gained from the other subprojects of The Albanian Language in Antiquity. In addition, the PhD student will contribute the Greek-Albanian correspondences to the Corpus of Early Albanian Loanwords which is part of our project, and which is complementary to the Munich-based Digital Dictionary of Old Albanian (DPEWA). Also, during all four years of the project, the PhD student will take part in joint project meetings, co-author collaborative papers, and co-organize scientific events in the context of the project.

Applicants should hold a Master's degree in Comparative Linguistics (of the Indo-European languages), Classical Studies (with a focus on language reconstruction) or a related field (the Master's thesis is expected to be completed by the start of the position). Excellent knowledge of Ancient Greek and of the historical linguistics of Greek is required for this position, as well as the willingness to acquire at least a good passive knowledge of Albanian. Candidates should be highly motivated to conduct linguistic research at the intersection of philology, dialectology, comparative reconstruction and historical sociolinguistics. They should have an excellent command of written English, a good knowledge of other research languages, and be able to work autonomously within an internationally and institutionally diverse environment.

A stimulating research environment at the Department of Ancient Civilizations, housing one of the world's leading research libraries in Classical Studies and many international collaborations. The four-year position is initially limited to one year and can be extended for a further three years. The salary (approx. 50'000 Swiss francs = ca. € 47'500 or $ 54,500 per year) and the conditions of employment will be those of the University of Basel.

Application / Contact

We look forward to receiving your complete application via the online application portal of the university (see button below). Applicants should submit a motivation letter, a current CV (including a list of publications if applicable), a text sample of a research paper (MA-thesis or other), and a copy of their academic degrees via the online application portal of the University (see button below) until 5 May 2022. Two confidential letters of reference should be sent directly by the referees to Dr. Michiel de Vaan ([email protected] ). Applications that are not submitted via the University's online application portal will not be considered. Questions about the position can be addressed to the PI ([email protected] ).