Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics has vacancy for a:
PhD position: Language contact and genetic relationships in pre-Roman North West Anatolia (1.0 fte; four years; start September 2016)
Project Description
The Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosporus form the most important natural boundary between Europe and the Near East, and the regions encompassing these waterways have therefore always been the area where East and West collide, being home to all kinds of mixture of peoples and languages.
Yet, very little is known about the ethnolinguistic situation in this border area in pre-Roman times, due to an almost complete lack of written sources from this period. Exciting new discoveries in Daskyleion (a city that from 550-330 BC functioned as the seat of the Persian satrap that ruled North West Anatolia) may change this. During recent excavations, executed by the University of Muğla, a multitude of pot shards have been unearthed with Greek, Phrygian, and Lydian graffiti on them, giving a first insight into the linguistic landscape of this area in pre-Roman times.
Key responsibilities
The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) invites candidates for a PhD position to write a dissertation on the topic of ‘language contact and genetic relationship in pre-Roman North West Anatolia’ (under supervision of prof.dr. A.M. Lubotsky and dr. A. Kloekhorst), with the following duties:
1. To cooperate in producing a full description and analysis of the graffiti that thus far have been excavated at Daskyleion.
2. To reconstruct the nature and origins of the linguistic landscape of North West Anatolia in the first millennium BCE, using the following approaches / sources:
a. Historical sources: 2nd millennium sources, classical authors, epigraphic material;
b. Archaeological sources;
c. Historical linguistics: the genetic relationships between the languages from this region; especially the genetic affiliation of Phrygian is likely to provide important clues and will therefore form a major part of the research;
d. Contact linguistics: how did the languages of this region influence each other?
Apart from writing a PhD thesis, the candidate will also carry out the following tasks:
– Submitting research results for publication in peer-reviewed academic journals;
– Presenting papers at (international) conferences;
– Some teaching in the second and third year of the appointment;
– Organizing and participating in reading and discussions groups, seminars, workshops within LUCL.
Selection Criteria
– You have a completed MA or equivalent degree in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Classics, or any other relevant field;
– You have demonstrable affinity with historical linguistics and good working knowledge of Greek and preferably of any of the other languages mentioned in the advertisement;
– You have a curious, enterprising and creative mind and excellent analytical skills, evidence of which should emerge from the MA thesis;
– Good writing skills;
– Proficiency in English.
For the full text of the advertisement, see: http://werkenbij.leidenuniv.nl/vacatures/phd-posities/16-177-vacatures-jobs-universiteit-leiden-university-phd-position-language-contact-and-genetic-relationships-in-pre-roman-north-west-anatolia-.html