Indo-Iranian-Uralic contacts
We are happy to announce that in the upcoming semester Dr. Sampsa Holopainen (University of Vienna) will teach an intensive two-week course on
Indo-Iranian–Uralic contacts through the lens of borrowed lexicon
This intensive course will discuss the early contacts between the Uralic and Indo-Iranian languages, present the different chronological layers of loans and describe what can be known about the prehistoric language contact situations between the two families. Both early loans into Proto-Uralic or Common Uralic and later Iranian loanwords in different Uralic languages (such as the Permic languages, Ob-Ugric languages, Hungarian) are discussed, and specific attention is paid to the phonological criteria that have been used in the stratigraphy of the loans. Also, the role of Indo-Iranian loanwords in the historical phonology of the two families is assessed. The aim is to give the students a comprehensive overview of the topic and also present methodological issues involved in the research on prehistoric lexical loans (sound substitution patterns, problems with the distribution of the loans, problems with semantics).
The course will take place on 3 July – 13 July, Monday to Thursday each week. The programme of the course is as follows:
Monday, 3 July, 14–16: The earliest Indo-Iranian loans in Uralic: problems with sound substitutions
Tuesday, 4 July, 14–16: Proto-Indo-Iranian loanwords; Methodology of loanword research
Wednesday, 5 July, 14–16: Proto-Iranian loanwords; Parallel loans and problems of stratigraphy
Thursday, 6 July, 16–18: Dating and locating the contacts; sociolinguistic context of the contacts
Monday, 10 July, 14–16: Iranian loanwords in the Ob-Ugric languages
Tuesday, 11 July, 14–16: Iranian loanwords in the Permic languages
Wednesday, 12 July, 14–16: Early Iranian loanwords in Hungarian
Thursday, 13 July, 16–18: Alanic loanwords in Hungarian
The course will be taught in English (although any assignments can be submitted in German). Further information on the grading and the lecture rooms will be provided later. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Prof. Ksenia Shagal at ksenia.shagal@lmu.de.
Dr. Sampsa Holopainen is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Finno-Ugrian Studies of the University of Vienna. His main research interests include etymology and historical phonology of Uralic languages and contacts between the Uralic and Indo-European language families.
