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Chair of Comparative Philology

Chair of Comparative Philology

The Subject

About half of the world's population speaks an Indo-European language. Now spread all over the globe, this language family has developed from a single pre-historic language spoken before the invention of writing.

Historical Indo-European Linguistics (also called Comparative Philology) studies the Indo-European daughter languages and reconstructs their common ancestor, called Proto-Indo-European (PIE), in various aspects (phonological system, morphology, syntax, lexicon). At the same time, many linguistic features of the individual daughter languages can be explained on the basis of PIE and its subsequent developments into the Germanic languages, Italic (including Romance), Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Celtic languages, Greek, Anatolian (Hittite, etc.), Albanian, and Tocharian. All this is possible because linguistic change is not arbitrary, but based on general principles best visible in phonology and morphology.

The philological treatment of Indo-European languages also leads to insights into the cultural background of the respective language community (history, social structure, religion, philosophy, poetry, etc.). 

Indo-European Linguistics is an interdisciplinary subject, dealing with an area ranging from Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, Ancient Anatolia and Mesopotamiato India and West China and with language records going back as far as the 2nd millenium BC. As a branch of linguistics, it applies linguistic theory/theories to ancient, medieval and early modern language data and provides a wealth of information for theories of language change and language typology. In Würzburg, Indo-European Linguistics participates in the Master's program "General and Applied Linguistics" and collaborates closely with other philological disciplines.

Address

Institut für Altertumswissenschaften
Lehrstuhl für Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Oswald-Külpe-Weg 84
97074 Würzburg
Phone: +49 (0)931 31 82826
Mail: vgsp@uni-wuerzburg.de

 

Opening hours

Office

Mon – Fr     8:15 to 12:15                        
 

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Monday 8:15 to 13:30
Tuesday 8:15 to 12:15
Wednesday 8:15 to 12:15
Thursday 8:15 to 13:30
Friday 8:15 to 12:15
New acquisions 

Main team

Scientific personnel

Prof. Dr. Daniel Kölligan
Thiago Mendes Venturott (Assistent)
Ulrich Geupel (wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter)

Secretary

Peer Daniel Meißner

 

News

24.11.25 – Dr. Petr Kocharov on morphosyntactic variation im Classical Armenian at the University of Milan

At the Sodalizio Glottologico Milanese at Università degli Studi di Milano on 24  November, Dr. Petr Kocharov will present a paper with the title "Morphosyntactic variation in the coding of arguments of three-place verbs Classical Armenian".

17.11.25 – Ulrich Geupel on Evaluative Morphology at HU Berlin

Within the Sprachistorischen Kolloquium at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Ulrich Geupel will talk about "Kleines, Schönes und Schlechtes. Evaluative Morphologie im Griechischen und Indogermanischen."

29.10.25 – Dictionary of Old English (DOE) ist jetzt uniweit zugänglich

The Chair of Comparative Philology at the University of Würzburg has made the Dictionary of Old English available university-wide through an institutional subscription. This is an indispensable tool for researching Old English.

Dictionary of Old English (DOE)

22–25.10.25 – 14. International Congress of Baltists at the Vilnius University

From 22 to 25 October 2025, the 14th International Congress of Balticists will take place at Vilnius University. As part of this event, a workshop organised by Daniel Petit, Sander van Hes and Saverio Dalpedri will be held on the topic of ‘At the interface of historical morphology and syntax: the Baltic verb in a diachronic perspective’. 

Event page

25.10.25 – Dr. Mark Darling on "Celtic in the curse tablets from Uley"

At a conference marking the 25th anniversary of the Ancient Celtic department at Aberystwyth University, Dr. Mark Darling will give a talk with Prof. Nick Zair (Cambridge) about "Celtic in the curse tablets from Uley".

Poster
Programme

25.10.25 – Thiago M. Venturott on "Unselected Object Constructions in the Ṛgveda"

Within the 36th West Coast Indo-European Conference (WeCIEC) at the University of Los Angeles, Thiago Mendes Venturott  will give a talk on "Unselected Object Constructions in the Ṛgveda."

Event page

04.10.25 – Prof. Dr. Daniel Kölligan on "Malalas’ Latin"

At the conference "Trends in Classics – Greek & Latin Linguistics 2: Aspects of Greco-Latin Language Contact" at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Prof. Dr. Daniel Kölligan will give a presentation on "Malalas’ Latin" on 04 October.

Event page

 

Further news…

 

 

Lectures and Events

Jan 20

Alte Tafeln, neu gedacht — Kognitionslinguistische Perspektiven auf die mykenischen Linear B Tafeln aus Pylos
Dr. Miriam Mann

Recent publications

Kölligan, Daniel. 2025. „Wordplay and exclusion in ancient Greek epic and the magical papyri“. In: Wordplay and Exclusion, herausgegeben von Esme Winter-Froemel, 309–331. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 

Glotta 101/2, 2025, ed. by Jan-Felix Gaertner, Daniel Kölligan & Andreas Willi.

Karim, Shuan Osman, Mohammadirad, Masoud. 2025. The typology of verbal person/number syncretism in Western Iranic languages. Language Dynamics and Change.

Halfmann, Jakob. 2025. On the etymology of New Persian malang ‘intoxicated; unorthodox dervish.’ Journal of Iranian Linguistics 2(1). 30–35. https://doi.org/10.46991/jil/2025.01.02.

Kölligan, Daniel, Norbert Oettinger und Stefan Schaffner (Hgg.). 2024[2025]. Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 76/1 & 76/2.

Kuntner, Rok. 2025. Translation of the Genitive Absolute in the Armenian Alexander Romance: Exploring the Shift from Sensus de Sensu to Verbum de Verbo Approach. Matenadaran: Medieval and Early Modern Armenian Studies (MEMAS) 1,2: 63–77. 

Kölligan, Daniel. 2025. A Note on Armenian-Caucasian Albanian Contacts: The Words for “Bishop” and “Maid”. Matenadaran: Medieval and Early Modern Armenian Studies (MEMAS) 1,2: 53–62.

Kölligan, Daniel. 2025. „Walter Belardi’s studies on Indo-European - a few remarks“. In Lingua e storia - Walter belardi a cento anni dalla nascita - Atti del convegno internazionale Roma, 14-15 dicembre 2023, herausgegeben von Paolo di Giovine und Marco Mancini, 133–58. Roma: Il Calamo.

Kölligan, Daniel. 2025. Review of "Don Ringe, The linguistic roots of ancient Greek. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024." Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2025.04.18

Glotta 101/1, hgg. von Jan-Felix Gaertner, Daniel Kölligan & Andreas Willi.

Further publications...

The department

The Department of Ancient Studies and its chairs:

Chair of Egyptology
Chair of Near Eastern Studies
Chair of Classical Archeology
Chair of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology

Further links

Würzburg Centre of Ancient Studies (Würzburger Altertumswissenschaftliches Zentrum)
Society for Indo-European Studies

Term information

Summer term 2025
Archive

 

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97070 Würzburg

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