Research Platform
‘Historical Language Studies’

Languages are inherently historical and subject to change. Their structures reflect their historical development. This insight is crucial to a proper scientific understanding of language, and informs empirical research, as well as theoretical and philosophical discussions of language. At the same time, it lends a central position to historical studies within the discipline of linguistics.

The history of a language is part of the cultural history of its speakers. Often it is impossible or pointless to investigate the history of a people without a proper knowledge and understanding of crucial textual witnesses from the past and the languages they were written in. This makes historical language studies indispensable for philological research in European and extra-European cultures.

Historical language studies are inherently multi-disciplinary. Theories of language change depend on input from a variety of academic disciplines and fact that contact has been a major feature in the histories of practically all human languages  necessitates co-operation among individual philologies. This is why scholars from the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies have decided to pool their forces in a Research Platform dedicated to historical language studies.

The platform is intended to make our research visible, to facilitate the exchange of information flow among faculty members involved in historical language studies, and to supply stimuli and support for joint initiatives. This website also provides relevant contact information, as well as information on current issues and events.