Guus Kroonen
Associate professor
- Name
- Dr. G.J. Kroonen
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 1768
- g.j.kroonen@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-3708-0476
Guus Kroonen is a teacher and researcher in the fields of Scandinavian, Germanic and Indo-European comparative linguistics. Etymology, reconstruction and phylogenetics as well as the study of prehistoric language contact and language dispersals are among his professional focuses. He has led multiple externally funded research projects, including an ERC Starting Grant project and a NWO PhDs in the Humanities project. He has been the supervisor of several dissertations on different Indo-European branches, including Italic, Balto-Slavic, Armenian and Indo-Iranian. As a frequent collaborator on interdisciplinary publications with prehistoric archaeologists and palaeogeneticists, he is working on developing new interfaces across the study of human prehistory.
More information about Guus Kroonen
In the media
-
Genetics proves it: Indo-European did not come to Europe on horseback -
New research shows how Indo-European languages spread across Asia
-
Genome sequencing reveals trends in human history
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How Stone Age farming women tamed nomadic warriors to give rise to the Corded Ware culture
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Scandinavia's earliest farmers exchanged terminology with Indo-Europeans
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The prince, the glamour model and the Vikings’ lost language
See also
PhD students
Links
Fields of interest
- Comparative Indo-European linguistics
- Germanic historical linguistics
- Scandinavian languages and cultures
- Etymology
- Linguistic phylogenetics
- Linguistic palaeontology
- Archaeolinguistics
Research
My field is the study of Europe's linguistic past through the history of the Indo-European languages. Since the dawn of history Europe has been covered by mainly Indo-European languages such as Greek, Latin, Baltic, Slavic and Germanic. These linguistic groups all split off from a hypothetical parent language spoken roughly five thousand years ago. My research focuses on the reconstruction of this language, the question where it was originally spoken, how and why its speakers spread across the continent, and in what way it evolved into the modern language of Europe.
I finished my dissertation in 2009 and am otherwise known for being the author of the Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Brill, 2013), which appeared in the Leiden Etymological Dictionary Series edited by Prof. Alexander Lubotsky. Between 2017 and 2022 I will be leading the ERC Starting Grant project "The Linguistic Roots of Europe's Agricultural Transition", which aims at mapping the evidence for perhistoric language contact between Indo-European dialects and local European languages that later went extinct. In the same period I will be studying the linguistic impact of the Bell Beaker culture (2900 – 1800 BCE) at the project "Towards a New European Prehistory" led by archaeologist Kristian Kristiansen at Gothenburg University.
Grants and awards
- 2023–2026 "Maritime Encounters: A Counterpoint to the Dominant Terrestrial Narrative of European Prehistory", Riksbankens Jubileumfond (co-applicant with PI Johan Ling, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg)
- 2019–2023 "The prehistoric origin and spread of the Indo-Iranian languages: A linguistic test of hypotheses rooted in genetics and archaeology", PhDs in the Humanities, Dutch Organization for Scientific Research
- 2017 "Pieter Jacob Cosijn’s Correspondence and Scholarly Collaboration at the End of the Nineteenth Century", Research Traineeship Programme, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University (co-applicant with Thijs Porck, Leiden University Institute for Area Studies)
- 2017–2022 "The Linguistic Roots of Europe’s Agricultural Transition", Starting Grant, European Research Council
- 2017–2022 "Towards a New European Prehistory", Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (co-applicant with Kristian Kristiansen, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg)
- 2013 "Sapere Aude Research Talent Award", The Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science
- 2013–2016 "Talking Neolithic", Postdoc grant, The Danish Council for Independent Research
- 2011–2013 "The Birth of Germanic", Rubicon postdoc Grant, Dutch Organization for Scientific Research
Curriculum vitae
| 2024-present | Associate professor, Leiden University Center for Linguistics |
| 2016-2023 | Assistant professor, Leiden University Center for Linguistics |
| 2018 - present | Professor with Special Responsibilities, Department for Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Copenhagen University |
| 2017-2018 | Associate professor, Department for Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Copenhagen University |
| 2011-2017 | Postdoc, Department for Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Copenhagen University |
| 2009-2010 | Assistant professor, Leiden University Center for Linguistics |
| 2003-2008 | PhD candidate, Leiden University Center for Linguistics |
| 1998-2002 | MA in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Leiden University |
| 1997-2002 | MA in Scandinavian Languages and Literatures, University of Amsterdam |
Key publications
- K. Kristiansen, G. Kroonen & E. Willerslev. The Indo-European Puzzle Revisited: Integrating Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics. 2023. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- G. Kroonen, A. Jakob, A. I. Palmér, P. van Sluis & A. Wigman. 2022. Indo-European Cereal Terminology Suggests a Northwest Pontic Homeland for the Core Indo-European Languages. PLoS ONE 17(10):e0275744.
- Kroonen, G. 2013. Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Brill: New York.
Associate professor
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Univ Centre for Linguistics
- LUCL VIET
- Sluis P.S. van, Jørgensen A. & Kroonen G.J. (2023), European prehistory between Celtic and Germanic: the Celto-Germanic isoglosses revisited. In: Kristiansen K., Kroonen G.J. & Willerslev E. (Eds.), The Indo-European puzzle revisited: integrating archaeology, genetics, and linguistics . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 193-244.
- Thorsø R., Wigman A.M., Jakob A.M., Palmér A., Sluis P.S. van & Kroonen G.J. (2023), Word mining: metal names and the Indo-European dispersal. In: Kristiansen K., Kroonen G.J. & Willerslev E. (Eds.), The Indo-European puzzle revisited: integrating archaeology, genetics, and linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 105-126.
- Kristiansen K., Kroonen G.J. & Willerslev E. (Eds.) (2023), The Indo-European puzzle revisited: integrating archaeology, genetics, and linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Kroonen G.J., Jakob A.M., Palmér A.I., Sluis P.S. van & Wigman A.M. (2022), Indo-European cereal terminology suggests a Northwest Pontic homeland for the core Indo-European languages, PLoS ONE 17(10): e0275744.
- Kroonen G., Jakob A., Palmer A.I., Sluis P van & Wigman A. (2022), Indo-European cereal terminology suggests a Northwest Pontic homeland for the core Indo-European languages, PLoS ONE 17(10): .
- Librado P., Khan N., Fages A., Kusliy M.A., Suchan T., Tonasso-Calviere L., Schiavinato S., Alioglu D., Fromentier A., Perdereau A., Aury J.M., Gaunitz C., Chauvey L., Seguin-Orlando A., Sarkissian C.D., Southon J., Shapiro B., Tishkin A.A., Kovalev A.A., Alquraishi S., Alfarhan A.H., Al-Rasheid K.A.S., Seregely T., Klassen L., Iversen R., Bignon-Lau O., Bodu P., Olive M., Castel J.C., Boudadi-Maligne M., Alvarez N., Germonpre M., Hoyo M.M.D., Wilczynski J., Pospula S., Lasota-Kus A., Tunia K., Nowak M., Rannamae E., Saarma U., Boeskorov G., Lougas L., Kysely R., Peske L., Balasescu A., Dumitrascu V., Dobrescu R., Gerber D., Kiss V., Szecsenyi-Nagy A., Mende B.G., Gallina Z., Somogyi K., Kulcsar G., Gal E., Bendrey R., Allentoft M.E., Sirbu G., Dergachev V., Shephard H., Tomadini N., Grouard S., Kasparov A., Basilyan A.E., Anisimov M.A., Nikolskiy P.A., Pavlova E.Y., Pitulko V., Brem G., Wallner B., Schwall C., Keller M., Kitagawa K., Bessudnov A.N., Bessudnov A., Taylor W., Magail J., Gantulga J.O., Bayarsaikhan J., Erdenebaatar D., Tabaldiev K., Mijiddorj E., Boldgiv B., Tsagaan T., Pruvost M., Olsen S., Makarewicz C.A., Lamas S.V., Canadell S.A., Espinet A.N., Iborra M.P., Garrido J.L., Gonzalez E.R., Celestino S., Olaria C., Arsuaga J.L., Kotova N., Pryor A., Crabtree P., Zhumatayev R., Toleubaev A., Morgunova N.L., Kuznetsova T., Lordkipanize D., Marzullo M., Prato O., Gianni G.B., Tecchiati U., Clavel B., Lepetz S., Davoudi H., Mashkour M., Berezina N.Y., Stockhammer P.W., Krause J., Haak W., Morales-Muniz A., Benecke N., Hofreiter M., Ludwig A., Graphodatsky A.S., Peters J., Kiryushin K.Y., Iderkhangai T.O., Bokovenko N.A., Vasiliev S.K., Seregin N.N., Chugunov K.V., Plasteeva N.A., Baryshnikov G.F., Petrova E., Sablin M., Ananyevskaya E., Logvin A., Shevnina I., Logvin V., Kalieva S., Loman V., Kukushkin I., Merz I., Merz V., Sakenov S., Varfolomeyev V., Usmanova E., Zaibert V., Arbuckle B., Belinskiy A.B., Kalmykov A., Reinhold S., Hansen S., Yudin A.I., Vybornov A.A., Epimakhov A., Berezina N.S., Roslyakova N., Kosintsev P.A., Kuznetsov P.F., Anthony D., Kroonen G.J., Kristiansen K., Wincker P., Outram A. & Orlando L. (2021), The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes, Nature 598: 634-640.
- Posth C., Zaro V., Spyrou M.A., Vai S., Gnecchi-Ruscone G.A., Modi A., Peltzer A., Motsch A., Nagele K., Vagene A.J., Nelson E.A., Radzeviciute R., Freund C., Bondioli L.M., Cappuccini L., Frenzel H., Pacciani E., Boschin F., Capecchi G., Martini I., Moroni A., Ricci S., Sperduti A., Turchetti M.A., Riga A., Zavattaro M., Zifferero A., Heyne H.O., Fernandez-Dominguez E., Kroonen G.J., McCormick M., Haak W., Lari M., Barbujani G., Bondioli L., Bos K.I., Caramelli D. & Krause J. (2021), The origin and legacy of the Etruscans through a 2000-year archeogenomic time transect, Science Advances 7(39): 1-15.
- Kroonen G.J., Wigman A.M. & Thorsø R.T. (2021), Proto-Indo-European *sneigʷʰ- ‘to fall down; to snow’*, Historische Sprachforschung 134(1): 214-224.
- Palmér A.I., Jakob A.M., Nielsen R.T., Sluis P.S. van, Swanenvleugel C. & Kroonen G.J. (2021), Proto-Indo-European ‘fox’ and the reconstruction of an athematic ḱ-stem, Indo-European Linguistics 9(1): 234-263.
- Kroonen G.J., Wigman A.W. & Thorsø R. (2021), Proto-Indo-European *sneigʷʰ- ‘to fall down; to snow’, Historical Linguistics 134(1): 214--224.
- Kristiansen K., Allentoft M.E., Frei K.M., Iversen R., Johannsen N.N., Kroonen G.J., Pospieszny L., Price T.D., Rasmussen S., Sjogren K.G., Sikora M. & Willerslev E. (2020), Re-theorising mobility and the formation of culture and language among the Corded Ware Culture in Europe (vol 91, pg 334, 2017). CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS. [other].
- Kroonen G.J. (2020), Dutch houting, Danish helt ‘Coregonus ssp.’, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 80(3): 270-272.
- Kroonen G.J. (2020), Babel entre Europa y Asia. El indoeuropeo y la cuestión de la paleontología lingüística, Arqueología & Historia 33: 30-33.
- Sjögren Karl-Göran, Halcrow E.S., Olalde I., Carver S., Allentoft E.M., Knowles T., Kroonen G.J., Pike G.W.A., Schröter P., Brown A.K., Brown R.K., Harrison J.R., Bertemes F., Reich D., Kristiansen K. & Heyd V. (2020), Kinship and social organization in Copper Age Europe. A cross-disciplinary analysis of archaeology, DNA, isotopes, and anthropology from two Bell Beaker cemeteries, PLoS ONE 15(11): e0241278.
- Frotscher M., Kroonen G.J. & Barðdal J. (2020), Indo-European inroads into the syntactic-etymological interface: a reconstruction of the PIE verbal root *menkʷ- ‘to be short; to lack’ and its argument structure, Historical Linguistics 133(1): 62-96.
- Frotscher M., Kroonen G.J. & Barðdal J. (2020), Indo-European inroads into the syntactic-etymological interface: a reconstruction of the PIE verbal root *menkʷ- ‘to be short; to lack’ and its argument structure, Historische Sprachforschung 133: 62-96.
- Kroonen G.J. (2019), The Proto-Indo-European mediae, Proto-Uralic nasals from a glottalic perspective. In: Kloekhorst A. & Pronk T. (Eds.), The precursors of Proto-Indo-European: Brill. 111-114.
- Peyrot M. & Kroonen G.J. (2019), Supplementary information 9 – The formation of the Siberian linguistic landscape. In: , The population history of northeastern Siberia since the Pleistocene – Supplementary information 132–148.
- Sikora M., Pitulko V.V., Sousa V.C., Allentoft M.E., Vinner L., Rasmussen S., Magaryan A., Barros Damgaard P. de, Fuente de la C., Renaud G., Yang M.A., Fu Q., Dupanloup I., Giampoudakis K., Nogués-Bravo D., Rahbek C., Kroonen G.J., Peyrot M., McColl H., Vasilyev S.V., Veselovskaya E., Gerasimova M., Pavlova E.Y., Grebenyuk P.S., Fedorchenko A.Y., Lebedintsev A.I., Slobodin S.B., Malyarchuk B.A., Martiniano R., Meldgaard M., Arppe L., Palo J.U., Sundell T., Mannermaa K., Putkonen M., Alexandersen V., Primeau C., Baimukhanov N., Malhi R.S., Sjögren K.-G., Kristiansen K., Wessman A., Sajantila A., Mirazon Lahr M., Durbin R., Nielsen R., Meltzer D.J., Excoffier L. & Willerslev E. (2019), The population history of northeastern Siberia since the Pleistocene, Nature 570: 182–188.
- Peyrot M. & Kroonen G.J. (2019), Linguistic supplement: the formation of the Siberian linguistic landscape, Nature 570: .
- Kroonen G.J., Barjamovic G. & Peyrot M. (2018), Linguistic supplement to Damgaard et al. 2018: Early Indo-European languages, Anatolian, Tocharian and Indo-Iranian, Zenodo : .
- Damgaard P. de B., Martiniano R., Kamm J., Moreno-Mayar J.V., Kroonen G.J., Peyrot M., Barjamovic G., Rasmussen S., Zacho C., Baimukhanov N., Zaibert V., Merz V., Biddanda A., Merz I., Loman V., Evdokimov V., Usmanova E., Hemphill B., Seguin-Orlando A., Yediay F.E., Ullah I., Sjögren K.-G., Iversen K.H., Choin J., Fuente C. de la, Ilardo M., Schroeder H., Moiseyev V., Gromov A., Polyakov A., Omura S., Senyurt S.Y., Ahmad H., McKenzie C., Margaryan A., Hameed A., Samad A., Gul N., Khokhar M.H., Goriunova O.I., Bazaliiskii V.I., Novembre J., Weber A.W., Orlando L., Allentoft M.E., Nielsen R., Kristiansen K., Sikora M., Outram A.K., Durbin R. & Willerslev E. (2018), The first horse herders and the impact of early Bronze Age steppe expansions into Asia, Science 360(6396): 7711.
- Beek L. van, Kloekhorst A., Kroonen G., Peyrot M., Pronk T. & Vaan M. de (Eds.) (2018), Farnah. Indo-Iranian and Indo-European Studies in Honor of Sasha Lubotsky. Ann Arbor: Beech Stave.
- Kroonen G.J. (2018), Lachmann’s law, Thurneysen’s law, and a new explanation of the PIE no-participles. In: Beek L. van, Kloekhorst A., Kroonen G.J., Peyrot M. & Pronk T. (Eds.), Farnah: Indo-Iranian and Indo-European studies in honor of Sasha Lubotsky. Ann Arbor, New York: Beech Stave Press. 143-151.
- Iversen R. & Kroonen G.J. (2017), Talking Neolithic: Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on How Indo-European Was Implemented in Southern Scandinavia, American Journal of Archaeology 121(4): 511-525.
- Kroonen G.J. (2017), The development of the Proto-Indo-European instrumental suffix in Germanic, Indogermanische Forschungen 122(1): 105-110.
- Kristian K., Allentoft M.E., Frei K.M., Iversen R., Johannsen N.N., Kroonen G., Pospieszny T., Price T.D., Rasmussen S., Sjögren K.-G., Sikora M. & Willerslev E. (2017), Re-theorising mobility and the formation of culture and language among the Corded Ware Culture in Europe, Antiquity 91(356): 334-347.
- Hansen B.S.S., Hyllested A., Jørgensen A.R., Kroonen G, Larsson J.H., Whitehead B.N., Olander T. & Søborg T.M. (2017), Usque ad radices: Indo-European studies in honour of Birgit Anette Olsen. København: Museum Tusculanum.
- Barddal Johanna, Arnett Carlee, Carey Stephen Mark, Eythorsson Thorhallur, Jenset Gard B., Kroonen G.J. & Oberlin Adam (2016), Dative subjects in Germanic A computational analysis of lexical semantic verb classes across time and space, STUF – Language Typology and Universals 69(1): 49-84.
- Kroonen G.J. (2016), On the Origin of Greek Latin mālum, Albanian mollë and Hittite šam(a)lu- 'apple', Journal of Indo-European Studies 44(1-2): 85-91.
- Kroonen G.J. (2016), Hittite kapart-/kapirt- 'small rodent' and Proto-Semitic (star)(sic)kbr-t- 'mouse, jerboa', Indogermanische Forschungen 121(1): 53-62.
- Kroonen G.J (2016), Hittite kapart‐/kapirt‐ ‘small rodent’ and Proto‐Semitic *ˁkbr‐t‐ ‘mouse, jerboa’, Indogermanische Forschungen 121(1): 53–62.
- Kroonen G.J. (2012), The formal and etymological derivation of Icel. tólg 'tallow': A note on Old West Norse historical phonology. In: Hansen E.W., Holsting A. & Nielsen H.F. (Eds.), Ældre germansk sproghistorie : Et uformelt minisymposium. Mindre skrifter udgivet af Center for Middelalderstudier: Syddansk Universitet. 25--31.
- Kroonen G.J. (2012), On the etymology of Greek (sic) and (sic) 'garlic': an Akkadian loanword in Pre-Greek, Journal of Indo-European Studies 40(3-4): 289-299.
- Kroonen G.J. (2012), Reflections on the o/zero-ablaut of the Germanic iterative verbs. In: Melchert H. (Ed.), The Indo-European Verb: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag. 191--200.
- Guus Kroonen (2012), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic. [other].
- Kroonen G.J. (2012), Non-Indo-European root nouns in Germanic: evidence in support of the Agricultural Substrate Hypothesis. In: Grünthal R. & Kallio P. (Eds.), A linguistic map of prehistoric Northern Europe: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura. 239--260.
- Guus Kroonen (2010), False exceptions to Winter’s law. Derksen R.H. & Pronk T.C. (Eds.), Accent matters. .
- Kroonen G.J. (2010), On Gothic iup and the Germanic Directionals, NOWELE : North-Western European Language Evolution 58-59: 367-379.
- Kroonen Guus (2010), Faroese ta and its relevance to the Germanic Auslautgesetze, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 66: 19-26.
- Kroonen G.J. (2010), Proto-Germanic *krepja- and Proto-Slavic *krepъ 'strong', Journal of Indo-European Studies 38(3-4): 402-408.
- Kroonen Guus (2010), On Gothic iup and the Germanic directionals, NOWELE : North-Western European Language Evolution 58/59: 367-380.
- Lubotsky A.M. & Kroonen Guus (2009), Proto-Indo-European *tsel- ‘to sneak’ and Germanic *stelan- ‘to steal, approach stealthily’, Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia 14: 237-241.
- Guus Kroonen & Van Maris B. (12 December 2009), Van bhaw naar boon. NRC Handelsblad: 7.
- Guus Kroonen (7 April 2009), Consonant and vowel gradation in the Proto-Germanic n-stems (Dissertatie, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University). Supervisor(s): Lubotsky A.M.
- Guus Kroonen (2008), The origin of Gothic izwis, NOWELE : North-Western European Language Evolution 53: 3-11.
- Kroonen Guus (2006) Boekbespreking. Review of: Bammesberger A. & Vennemann T. (2003), Languages in prehistoric Europe no. 1. Heidelberg: Winter. Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 61: 298-303.
- Kroonen Guus (2006), Gemination and Allomorphy in the Proto-Germanic 'mn'-Stems: 'bottom' and 'rime', Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 61(1): 17-25.
- Kroonen G.J. (2002), Proto-Germanic *bag(w)ma- ‘tree, beam’, in: Olander T., Nid oedd fas i gywyddaid : Festskrift til Anders Richardt Jørgensen på 25-årsdagen den 5. juli 2002. [other].