Lucien van Beek is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. His research centers upon Ancient Greek and Indo-European linguistics (morphology, lexicography, etymology), with a focus on the oldest sources of Greek (Homer, Mycenaean). He conducted the VENI project Unraveling Homer's Language (2016-2019) on the artificial nature of the language of Greek epic, and assisted in Beekes’ Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Brill, 2010). He is also project manager of the Greek-Dutch dictionary (ed. I. Sluiter).

More information about Lucien van Beek

Fields of interest

Comparative Indo-European linguistics
Ancient Greek Philology and Linguistics (especially Homer)
Ancient Greek Lexicography

Research

Until 2019 I conducted research for my NWO-funded VENI project ‘Unraveling Homer’s Language’. In this project, I studied the mechanisms of language change in the early Greek epic tradition. Other areas of interest include Greek historical grammar, Greek and Indo-European etymology, metaphors and poetic phraseology, and the description of the lexicon. 

Teaching Activities

I regularly teach the following courses, mainly in the Linguistics program, but also in Classics:
 
Ancient Greek for Linguists 1 and 2 
Historical Grammar of Greek 
Indo-European Morphology: Noun 
Morphology / Morfologie 
Grieks Taalkunde
The Mycenaean World: Language 
Historical Grammar of Latin 

Curriculum vitae

Key publications

• L. van Beek, The development of the Proto-Indo-European syllabic liquids in Greek. PhD dissertation. Leiden, 2013.
• R.S.P. Beekes, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series). Leiden: Brill, 2010.
• L. van Beek, Homeric κρείων ‘lord’ and the Indo-European word for ‘head’. Indogermanische Forschungen 119 (2014), 96-121.
• L. van Beek, Struck with blood: The meaning and etymology of παλάσσω and its middle perfect πεπάλακτο. Mnemosyne 66 (2013), 541-565.
• L. van Beek, The “Saussure Effect” in Greek: a reinterpretation of the evidence. Journal of Indo-European Studies 39 (2011), 129-175.
• L. van Beek, Vowel assimilation in Greek: the evidence reconsidered. In: T. Krisch and Th. Lindner (eds.), Indogermanistik und Linguistik in Dialog. Akten der XIII. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft vom 21. bis 27. September 2008 in Salzburg, pp. 49-58. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2011. 

Publications