Research

It is the combination of the exact sciences and the humanities that makes Comparative Indo-European Linguistics so special. On the one hand, historical linguistics is an almost exact science where we have to reckon with sound laws and grammatical structures. On the other hand, an Indo-Europeanist is engaged in the study of old texts. He investigates the greatest monuments of the human spirit, such as the poems of Homer, the Beowulf, the Old Icelandic sagas and the Old Irish epos, he tries to analyse the difficult Hittite and Tocharian texts and to understand the Phrygian and Lycian inscriptions. Currently, I am involved in two large projects: the Indo-European Etymological Dictionary and the edition of the Atharvaveda-Paippalāda, an old Vedic text.

See: http://www.indo-european.nl/

Curriculum Vitae

Education

• 1973-1976: Lomonosov University, Moscow (Linguistics)
• 1976-1980: Leiden University
• 1978: kandidaats (BA) Indo-Iranian
• 1980: doctoraal (MA) Comparative Indo-European Linguistics
• 1987: PhD Leiden (“Nominal accentuation in Sanskrit and Indo-European”, under supervision of Professor R.S.P. Beekes)

• 1980-1999: Assistant Professor (universitair docent), Leiden University
• 1999- : full professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Leiden University
• 2006-: Director of Summer School in Languages and Linguistics, Leiden University
• 1992-: Leader of the project "Indo-European Etymological Dictionary"

• 1997:   Research grant for the “Indo-European Etymological Dictionary” project (NWO)
• 2005, 2008: Research/publication grants for the “Indo-European Etymological Dictionary” project (Brill)
• 2003-: member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)

• 1991-: editor-in-chief of the series “Leiden Studies in Indo-European” (Rodopi; 14 volumes)
• 2005-: editor-in-chief of the “Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary series” (Brill; 5 volumes)

• 1993: guest lectures Universität Wien (Austria)
• 1994: visiting professor Cornell University and Yale University (USA)
• 1996, 1999: guest lectures Harvard University (USA)
• 2002: guest lecture Collège de France (Paris, France)
• 2002: Directeur d’études invité “École Pratique des Hautes Études” (Paris, France)
• 2007: guest lecture Universität Köln
• 2007: linguistic course “Sanskrit Historical Phonology”, Università di Palermo, Italy
• Invited speaker at the conferences in Rome (1995), Philadelphia (1996), Helsinki (1999), Cambridge (1999), Kyoto (1999), Cambridge (1999), Moscow (2000), Halle/Saale (2000), Copenhagen (2000), Jerusalem (2001), Leipzig (2001), Santa Fe (2003), Münster (2004), Halle (2004), Santa Fe (2004), Istanbul (2005), Vienna (2005), Beyşehir (2006), Ashgabad (2006), Münster (2006), Leipzig (2006)
• PhD dissertations supervised: J.T.L. Cheung (2000), L. Kulikov (2001), M.A.C. de Vaan (2002), D. Baum (2005), S. Starostin (honorary degree, 2005)

• 1999-: Chair, Department of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics
• 2001-: Organization of the annual Linguistic Olympics (2005: 3rd International Linguistic Olympics)
• 2004- : Director of F.B.J. Kuiperinstituut
• 2005-: Member of the board and the senate of Leiden University Center for Linguistics
• 2007-: Member of the “Begeleidingscommissie” Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands (INL)

Publications

Monographs: 

• The system of nominal accentuation in Sanskrit and Proto‑Indo‑European, Leiden: Brill (1988).
• A Rgvedic Word Concordance. 2 Vols. (American Oriental Series, Vols. 82 and 83.) New Haven (American Oriental Society), 1997 [xii + 1667p.].
• Het vuur na aan de Indo-Europese schenen leggen: over de reconstructie van betekenis. Rede uitgesproken bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van hoogleraar Vergelijkende Indo-Europese Taalwetenschap aan de Universiteit Leiden, 2 maart 2001 (Inaugural lecture).
• Atharvaveda-Paippalāda, kānda five. Text, translation, commentary. (Harvard Oriental Series, Opera Minora, Vol. 4). Cambridge (Mass.), 2002. [241pp.]

• Gr. pē gnumi : Skt. pajrá- and loss of laryngeals before mediae in Indo‑Iranian, Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 40 (1981), 133‑138.
• On the reduced grade ‑a‑ in Sanskrit. Lingua 55 (1981), 75‑95.
• On the alliteration in ‘The guesting of Athirne’, Ériu 33 (1982), 170‑171.
• On the external sandhis of the Maitrāyanī Samhitā, Indo‑Iranian Journal (1983) 25, 167‑179.
• The PIE word for ‘dry’, Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung 98 (1985), 1‑10.
• The Old Phrygian Areyastis‑inscription. Kadmos 27,1 (1988), 9‑26.
• Tocharian A şurm, B şarm ‘cause’ and A şul, B şale ‘mountain’. Tocharian and Indo-European Studies 2 (1988), 89‑95.
• Against a Proto‑Indo‑European phoneme *a. The New Sound of Indo‑European. Essays in Phonological Reconstruction, Th. Vennemann (ed.). (= Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 41), Berlin ‑ New York 1989, 53‑66.
• The Vedic -aya-formations. Indo‑Iranian Journal 32 (1989), 89‑113.
• New Phrygian ετι and τι. Kadmos 28/1 (1989), 79‑88.
• The syntax of the New Phrygian inscription No. 88. Kadmos 28/2 (1989), 146‑155.
• La loi de Brugmann et *H3e‑. La reconstruction des laryngales (Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l'Université de Liège, fascicule CCLIII). No editor. Liège-Paris 1990, 129‑136.
• Vedijskaja imennaja akcentuacija i problema praindoevropejskix tonov. Voprosy Jazykoznanija 1991/1, 20‑48.
• Van taalreconstructie naar taaltheorie. Indogermanistisch werk van F. de Saussure en zijn Cours de linguistique générale. Forum der Letteren 33 (1992), 5‑10.
• The Indo‑Iranian laryngeal accent shift and its relative chronology. Rekonstruktion und relative Chronologie. Akten der VIII. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Leiden, 31. August ‑ 4. September 1987, R. Beekes, A. Lubotsky, J. Weitenberg (eds.). Innsbruck 1992, 261‑269.
• The “Sarvatobhadra” temple of the Visnudharmottarapurāna and the Visnu temple at Deogarh. Ritual, State and History in South Asia. Essays in Honour of J.C. Heesterman, A.W. van den Hoek, D.H.A. Kolff, M.S. Oort (eds.). Leiden, etc. 1992, 199‑221.
• Nasalization of the final a in the Rgveda. Indo‑Iranian Journal 36 (1993), 197‑210.
• Word boundaries in the Old Phrygian Germanos inscription. Epigraphica anatolica 21 (1993), 93‑98.
• New Phrygian υψoδαv. Kadmos 32/2 (1993), 127‑134.
• RV. ávidhat. Früh‑, Mittel‑, Spätindogermanisch. Akten der IX. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft vom 5. bis 9. Oktober 1992 in Zürich, George E. Dunkel, Gisela Meyer, Salvatore Scarlata, Christian Seidl (eds.). Wiesbaden 1994, 201‑206.
• The original paradigm of the Tocharian word for ‘king’, Tocharisch. Akten der Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft. Berlin, September 1990 (Tocharian and Indo-European Studies, Supplementary Series 4), B. Schlerath (ed.). Reykjavík 1994, 66‑72.
• Avestan θβōreštar- and the Indo-European root *turk-. Die Sprache 36/1 (1994), 94‑102.
• Accentuation in the technique of the Vedic poets. Studies in Poetics. Commemorative Volume Krystyna Pomorska, E. Semeka‑Pankratov (ed.). Columbus, Ohio 1995, 515‑534.
• Sanskrit h < *dh, bh. Sthāpakashrāddham, Professor G.A. Zograf Commemorative Volume, N.V. Gurov and Ja.V. Vasil'kov (eds.), St. Petersburg 1995, 124-144.
• Vedic samaha ‘verily’. Indo-Iranian Journal 38 (1995), 257-260.
• Reflexes of intervocalic laryngeals in Sanskrit. Kuryłowicz Memorial Volume. Part One, W. Smoczyński (ed.). Cracow 1995, 213-33.
• The iconography of the Visnu temple at Deogarh and the Visnudharmottarapu­rān­a. Ars Orientalis 26 (1996), 65-80.
• The Indo-Iranian reflexes of PIE *CRHUV. Sound Law and Analogy. Papers in honor of Robert S.P. Beekes on the occasion of his 60th birthday, A. Lubotsky (ed.). Amsterdam - Atlanta 1997, 139-154.
• New Phrygian inscription No. 48: palaeographic and linguistic comments. Frigi e Frigio. Atti del 1 °   Simposio Internazionale. Roma, 16-17 ottobre 1995. R. Gusmani, M. Salvini, P. Vannicelli (eds.). Roma 1997, 115-130.
• Remarks on the Vedic intensive. Journal of the American Oriental Society 117 (1997), 558-564.
• Review of: Thomas M. Scheerer, Ferdinand de Saussure: Rezeption und Kritik. Darmstadt, 1980. Bibliotheca Orientalis 39 (3/4) (1982), 483‑485.
• New Phrygian metrics and the δεως ζεμελως formula. Mír curad. Studies in honor of Calvert Watkins, Jay Jasanoff, H. Craig Melchert and Lisi Oliver (eds.), Innsbruck 1998, 413-421.
• Tocharian loan words in Old Chinese: Chariots, chariot gear, and town building. The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern Central Asia, Victor H. Mair (ed.), Washington D.C. 1998, 379-390.
• Observations on the longest birchbark letter (Novgorod 531). Russian Linguistics 22 (1998), 143-164. [co-author: Willem Vermeer]
• Avestan xvarenah-: the etymology and concept. Sprache und Kultur. Akten der X. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft Innsbruck, 22.-28. September 1996, W. Meid (ed.), Innsbruck 1998, 479-488.
• Avestan āsitō.gātu-. Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 58 (1998), 91-94.
• Avestan zruuan-. ΠOΛΥTROΠON. To 70th birthday of Vladimir Toporov, T.M. Nikolaeva, et al. (eds.), Moscow (Indrik) 1998, 73-85.
• Vedic roots of the type *TERDh-. Studia indogermanica Lodziensia (FS. I. Danka) 2 (1998), 75-81.
• Avestan compounds and the RUKI-rule. Compositiones indogermanicae in memoriam Jochem Schindler, H. Eichner und H.C. Luschützky (eds.). Praha 1999, 299-322.
• Postscript on Vedic jaŋgahe. Journal of the American Oriental Society 119 (1999) 480-481. [co-author: Arlo Griffiths]
• The Vedic root vr- ‘to cover’ and its present. Indoarisch, Iranisch und die Indogermanistik. Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft vom 2. bis 5. Oktober in Erlangen. B. Forssman, R. Plath (eds.), Wiesbaden 2000, 315-325.
• Indo-Aryan ‘six’. 125 Jahre Indogermanistik in Graz. Arbeiten aus der Abteilung “Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft” Graz, M. Ofitsch, Chr. Zinko (eds.), Graz 2000, 255-261.
• Reflexes of Proto-Indo-European *sk in Indo-Iranian. Incontri linguistici 24 (2001), 25-57.
• The Indo-Iranian substratum. Early Contacts between Uralic and Indo-European: Linguistic and Archaeological Considerations. Papers presented at an international symposium held at the Tvärminne Research Station of the University of Helsinki 8-10 January 1999. (Mémoires de la Société Finno-ougrienne 242.) Chr. Carpelan, A. Parpola, P. Koskikallio (eds.). Helsinki 2001, 301-317.
• The Indo-Iranian word for ‘shank, shin’. Journal of the American Oriental Society 122 (2002), 318-324.
• Scythian elements in Old Iranian. Indo-Iranian Languages and Peoples (Centennial Bailey), N. Sims-Williams (ed.) (= Proceedings of the British Academy 116), London 2002, 189-202.
• Turkic and Chinese loan words in Tocharian. Language in time and space. A Festschrift for Werner Winter on the occasion of his 80th birthday, Brigitte L.M. Bauer, Georges-Jean Pinault (eds.), Berlin - New York 2003, 257-269 [co-author: S. Starostin].
• Paippalāda-Samhitā 4.15. To heal an open fracture: with a plant. Die Sprache 42, 1/2 2000/01 [2003], 196-210 [co-author: A. Griffiths]
• Avestan siiazd-, Sanskrit sedh-, Latin cēdere ‘to flinch’. Per aspera ad asteriscos. Studia Indogerma-nica in honorem Jens Elmegård Rasmussen sexagenarii Idibus Martiis anno MMIV, Adam Hyllested, Anders Richardt Jørgensen, Jenny Helena Larsson and Thomas Olander (eds.), Innsbruck 2004, 323-332.
• Vedic prdākusānu. Indo-Iranian Journal 47 (2004), 1-6.
• The Phrygian Zeus and the problem of the “Lautverschiebung”. Historische Sprachforschung 117 (2004), 229-237.
• Alanic marginal notes in a Byzantine manuscript: a preliminary report. Nartamongae: the Journal of Alano-Ossetic Studies 2 (2003 [2004]), 41-46 [co-author: S. Engberg].
• Indo-European ‘heel’. Studi linguistici in onore di Roberto Gusmani, R. Bombi, G. Cifoletti, F. Fusco, L. Innocente, & V. Orioles (eds.),  Alessandria 2006, 1005-1010.
• Sanskrit na-participles and the glottalic theory. Verba Docenti, Studies in historical and Indo-European linguistics presented to Jay H. Jasanoff by students, colleagues, and friends, Alan J. Nussbaum (ed.). Ann Arbor – New York 2007, 231-235.
• PS 8.15. Offense against a Brahmin. The Atharvaveda and its Paippalādasākhā. Historical and Philological Papers on a Vedic Tradition, Arlo Griffiths, Annette Schmiedchen (eds.). Aachen 2007, 23-33.

• Rekonstruktion und relative Chronologie. Akten der VIII. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Leiden, 31. August ‑ 4. September 1987, edd. R. Beekes, A. Lubotsky, J. Weitenberg. Innsbruck (IBS) 1992.
• Jörundur Hilmarsson†, Materials for a Tocharian Historical and Etymological Dictionary, edited by Alexander Lubotsky and Guðrún Þórhallsdóttir with the assistance of Sigurður H. Pálsson. Reykjavík (Málvísindastofnun Háskola Íslands) 1996.
• F.B.J. Kuiper, Selected writings on Indian linguistics and philology, Edited by A. Lubotsky, M.S. Oort and M. Witzel. Amsterdam - Atlanta (Rodopi) 1997.
• Sound Law and Analogy. Papers in honor of Robert S.P. Beekes on the occasion of his 60th birthday, ed. by Alexander Lubotsky. Amsterdam - Atlanta (Rodopi) 1997.

• B. Demiraj, Albanian inherited lexicon. www.ieed.nl. 2000.
• D.F. Boutkan, Old Frisian etymological database (the evidence of R1). www.ieed.nl. 2000.
• H. Craig Melchert, Cuneiform Luvian lexicon. www.ieed.nl. 2000.
• D.Q. Adams, A dictionary of Tocharian B. www.ieed.nl. 2000.
• Lubotsky, A Rgvedic word concordance. www.ieed.nl. 2000.
• H. Craig Melchert, Lycian lexicon. www.ieed.nl. 2001.
• M. Bloomfield, Vedic Concordance. www.ieed.nl. 2001.
• J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. www.ieed.nl. 2002.
• Hj. Frisk, Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. . 2002.