Course | Seminar

Ancient Languages of the Balkans: Thracian, Illyrian, Macedonian etc. in Indo-European and areal context

Date

Monday 20 May 2019 - Tuesday 21 May 2019

Location

Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden

Room

2.04

 

The aim of the block seminar is to give a general overview of the ethnolinguistic situation in the Balkan region in the 1st millennium BC, linking it both to the question of Indo-European migrations and to the linguistic (and cultural) interaction in the south-eastern parts of Europe. Besides discussing available literary and linguistic evidence on certain ethnolinguistic groups (with sporadical brief excursuses into archaeology), I will pay special attention to the more general questions of reconstructing ancient linguistic geography and sociolinguistic issues. The course is addressed to a broad audience and does not presuppose any previous knowledge of the region in question.

Programme

May 20 (Monday)

11.30-13.00:   Indo-European homeland; migrations and spread: chronology and ways; core and periphery; the Balkans and how they fit into the picture.

14.00-15.30:   Southern Balkans: Greek and its dialects; the ‘Coming of the Greeks’; Bryges, Phrygians and Greeks; the position of Macedonian.

15.45-17.15:   Balkans and Anatolia: chronology of ‘Balkanization’ of Anatolia; Armenian and Greek; the question of Armenian migration: when and whence.

 

May 21 (Tuesday)

11.30-13.00:    Central and Eastern Balkans: Thracians, Dacians, Getae, Moesians: ancient testimonies and linguistic evidence; Celtic presence in the Balkans.

 14.00-15.30:  Western Balkans: Illyrians, Dardanians, Paeonians: ancient testimonies and linguistic evidence; migratory waves and linguistic stratification within the Balkans.

15.45-17.15:   Iapygians, Messapic and the Balkan migration(s) to Italy; Albanian: its position within Indo-European and the problem of connection with Illyrian and Messapic.