Postdoc Position in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (Albanian and Latin)

Updated: almost 2 years ago
Deadline: The position may have been removed or expired!

The Department of Ancient Civilizations of the University of Basel invites applications for a Postdoctoral researcher position in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics within the 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.


Your position

The advertised Postdoc project will be devoted, firstly, to a novel and in-depth reconstruction of the phonological and morphological system of Proto-Albanian, and, secondly, to developing a relative chronology of the Latin loanwords in Albanian. The project will be based on a detailed study of the Old Albanian texts, on linguistic comparison of the various Modern Albanian dialects, and on the interpretation of the evidence of Latin, while taking into consideration the data provided by other Indo-European languages. The research is expected to result in a scientific monograph or a series of substantial articles. In addition, the successful candidate will contribute the Latin-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). The Postdoc is also expected to take part in joint project meetings, co-author collaborative papers, co-organize scientific events in the context of the project, and present her/his research at scientific meetings. 


Your profile

Applicants should hold a PhD in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics or a closely related field. A profound competence in the historical linguistics of Latin and the early stages of the Romance languages 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 innovative linguistic research at the intersection of Albanian philology, dialectology, comparative reconstruction and historical sociolinguistics, have an excellent command of English, a good knowledge of other research languages, and be able to work autonomously within an internationally and institutionally diverse environment.



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