Stefan Höfler

I was delighted to accept an invitation from my colleague and dear friend Riccardo Ginevra (Assistant Professor [tenure-track] of Historical and General Linguistics at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) to give a lecture in Milan as part of his series Historical Linguistics and Philology. My talk, La nascita di Genere. On the Origin and Development of the Feminine Gender in the Indo-European Languages, gave me the opportunity to present work on a topic that has been particularly close to my heart for a long time. It was a pleasure to speak to a large and engaged audience, and I am very grateful for the kind invitation and warm reception. Here are the slides, and here is the slightly more detailed handout (including ample references).

I just finished a week of intensive teaching at the University of Marburg on the Tocharian verb. It was a pleasure to work with an engaged group of students from the Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD programs and to spend five days as a noun-guy immersed in the intricacies of the verbal system. The handout I prepared ended up at nearly 100 pages — so who knows, perhaps another book may grow out of it. 😉

My first monograph, Das tocharische Nomen. Ein indogermanistisches Arbeitsbuch, has just been published with Universitätsverlag Winter (here). The book offers a comprehensive introduction to the Tocharian nominal system, covering phonological developments, case and gender, and noun and adjective classes, and includes exercises for both teaching and independent study. I am very happy – and proud – to see this project completed and in print.

My paper “Smells like Metonymy: Homeric κνίση ‘steam, savor (of a burnt sacrifice)’ and ‘caul fat’, with an excursus on κνισός” has been published in the edited volume Advances in Ancient Greek Linguistics (eds. Jesús de la Villa, Araceli Striano & Rodrigo Verano). The article discusses the etymology and derivational prehistory of κνίση, arguing that its two seemingly disparate meanings reflect different readings of an underlying possessive adjective, and includes a philological excursus on κνισός and κνισόομαι. You can download it here.

I’m very happy to share that my first co-edited book, Power, Gender, and Mobility. Aspects of Indo-European Society (edited together with Birgit Olsen and Riccardo Ginevra), is now available open access! You can find the volume here. 

It’s wonderful to see this project – bringing together perspectives from linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, and the history of religion – now freely accessible to all.

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, “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.

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 

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!

Oh wow, a teenager dream of mine has become reality: I've been attending a two-week intensive course in Welsh in Aberystwyth. I am currently finishing level Canolradd (B1) and I can hardly believe how much I've learned in such a short time. Welsh has always fascinated me, with its rich history and unique syntax, and being here in Aberystwyth, surrounded by amazing natural beauty and a lively culture, has only deepened my love for the language.

I am spending this week in Prague, where I teach a couple of sessions for BA students from the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies of Charles University. My lectures center around the position of the Anatolian languages within the Indo-European language family. Aside from that, my welcoming host Dita Frantíková took me on a trip to beautiful Kutná Hora, a village 70 km east of Prague, with scenic views and an impressive cathedral.

Just finished another intensive weekend course in Modern Welsh. I just love this language! Thinking of going to Wales in the summer.

Today is the first day of this year's Arbeitstagung of the Indo-European Society, organized by the amazing colleagues of Cologne University. I have the honor of opening the conference as the first speaker of the first session. I will present research on the Old Latin amāssō type, a fascinating and still not fully understood category. Here is the handout.

While I'm attending the Workshop Relative Chronology in Historical Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen, two papers of mine have been published in the latest issue of Die Sprache: a review of Thomas Lindner's Urindogermanische Grammatik, and an article entitled "Ein urindogermanischer Seitensprung. Griechisch μοιχός ‘Ehebrecher’ und urgermanisch *maigaz ‘schamlos’".