Stefan Höfler

I just gave an invited talk at Comenius University Bratislava, hosted by the Slovak Union of Classical Philologists at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The talk, "From Bratislava to Ancient Greece: What Slovak can tell us about the prehistory of Greek feminine adjectives in -ος", was a great opportunity to share some unexpected cross-linguistic connections. Many thanks to Barbora Machajdíková and the Union for the kind invitation and warm welcome!

My article, "Rix’s Law in Latin and the Etymology of īnfula ‘band, bandage’," has just been published in Exploring Latin: Structures, Functions, Meaning. My chapter is the first in the volume, which I’m especially pleased about—it’s great to see this work open the collection. You can find the book here: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111332956/html#contents 

My article, “A Night Reconnaissance: On Νύξ and Her Aeolic (?) Epithets in Homer”, has just been published in Language Change in Epic Greek and Other Poetic Traditions (Leiden: Brill). It explores the epithets of Nyx (‘Night’) in early Greek epic, some of which may preserve Aeolic features within an otherwise Ionic poetic tradition. You can read the article here and find an accessible summary here.

I just wrapped up teaching a week-long block seminar on Tocharian Nominal Morphology at the University of Marburg. It was great to dive into the complexities of this language with engaged students, covering everything from declensions to compounds. The week flew by, and it was really rewarding to see everyone’s interest in this fascinating branch of Indo-European!

Today is an important day for two reasons. 

First, today marks the start of the Fachtagung of the Indo-European Society, held in Basel, where I will be presenting on the fascinating topic of "Enantiosemy." For those interested, my presentation slides are available here. 

Second, today also celebrates the publication of my first book as an editor! Together with Birgit Olsen and Riccardo Ginevra, I co-edited Power, Gender, and Mobility. Aspects of Indo-European Society. This volume brings together perspectives from linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, and the history of religion to explore how power, gender, and mobility shaped Indo-European-speaking societies, both in their historical attestations and in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European society. 

It’s an exciting moment for both professional and personal milestones!