Chams Bernard
Guest PhD candidate
- Name
- Mr. C.B.A.S. Bernard MA
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2125
- c.b.a.s.bernard@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Chams Bernard is a PhD candidate at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.
Research
My PhD research focusses on contacts between the Tocharian and Iranian languages. It is part of the NWO project “Tracking the Tocharians” under the supervision of Michaël Peyrot. The Tocharian languages are attested through Buddhist manuscripts found in the Tarim Basin in Northwest China, dating from ca. 500-1000 CE. The Iranian languages form a family by themselves, including not only Persian, but also Kurdish, Pashto and both modern and ancient Eastern Iranian languages as far east as China. Tocharian and Iranian both belong to the Indo-European language family, but are within this family not especially closely related. Yet, at a later stage, the Tocharian languages have been heavily influenced by several Eastern Iranian languages, notably in the lexicon. Through close analysis of the Iranian loanwords in Tocharian, it is my goal to establish which Iranian varieties have influenced Tocharian at which stage. This will probably provide insights into the prehistory of the Tocharian as well as the Eastern Iranian languages.
Fields of interest
My interests are historical linguistics, with a focus on (Indo-)Iranian linguistics; Central Asia from a historical and a linguistic perspective; loan and contact phenomena, especially in Central Asia and in the Iranian world; Turfan studies (Iranian, Tocharian, and other languages).
Other interests
Besides Indo-European, I am fascinated by the history of the Afro-Asiatic language family, in particular by Semitic and Berber. I further have a great philological interest in Scots language and literature, and in many aspects of oral literature, especially songs, in both Scots and Iranian. In general linguistics, I am interested in phonology and semantics.
Curriculum vitae
2017-pres. : PhD student at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL; supervisors: Prof. Alexander Lubotsky and Dr. Michaël Peyrot)
2014-2016: Master in Indo-European linguistics, typology and comparative grammar, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris (with high honours)
2012-2014: Bachelor in Linguistics, Université Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle
Guest PhD candidate
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Univ Centre for Linguistics
- LUCL promovendus
- Bernard C.B.A.S. & Chen R. (2022), A fall into the pit: remarks on Tocharian B koṣko, koṣkīye, Indo-Iranian Journal 65(1): 1-31.
- Peyrot M., Dragoni F. & Bernard C.B.A.S. (2022), The spread of iron in Central Asia: on the etymology of the word for “iron” in Iranian and Tocharian, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
- Bernard C.B.A.S. (2020), Some plant and animal names in Gavruni. In: Garnier R. (Ed.) Loanwords and Substrata. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft no. 164 Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft. 27-61.
- Bernard C.B.A.S. (2020), A newly discovered Persian variety: the case of "Zoroastrian Persian", Orientalia Suecana 69: 57-67.
- Bernard C.B.A.S. (2019), Review of: Saloumeh Gholami (ed.) (2018) Endangered Iranian Languages, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 82(2): 371-373.
- Bernard C.B.A.S. (2019), On the etymology of Persian yak 'one', Wékwos 4: 41-55.
- Bernard C.B.A.S. (2018), Review of: Nourzaei, Maryam; Jahani, Carina; Anonby, Erik; Ahangar, Abbas Ali (2015) Koroshi: A Corpus-Based Grammatical Description, Studia Iranica Upsaliensia, Abstracta Iranica 37-38-39.
- Bernard C.B.A.S. (2018), Review of "Bakhtiari Studies: Phonology, Text, Lexicon", Anonby E., Asadi A Review of: Anonby, Erik; Asadi, Ashraf (2015) Bakhtiari Studies: Phonology, Text, Lexicon, Studia Iranica Upsaliensia, Abstracta Iranica 37-38-39.
- Bernard C.B.A.S. (2017), Review of: Gholami S., Farahmand A. (2016) Zoroastrian Dari (Behdini) in Kerman, Estudios Iranios y Turanios, Wékwos 3: 305-308.
No relevant ancillary activities