Events

Tracing Albanian in Time, Space, and Texts

International conference | June 8th–June 10th, 2026

The University of Basel, its Department of Ancient Civilizations, and the Lectureship in Comparative-Historical Linguistics, together with the Institute for Slavic and Eastern European Studies of the University of Zurich, invite you to Tracing Albanian in Time, Space, and Texts, an international conference on Albanian historical linguistics and philology, which will take place in Basel, Switzerland, from June 8^th to 10^th, 2026. We bring together scholars and students studying the history of the Albanian language and its texts. Topics include:

❖ Old Albanian texts, their analysis, and their background

❖ Old Albanian linguistics

❖ The reconstruction of Proto-Albanian and its pre-stages

❖ Ancient, medieval, and modern language contact between Albanian and other languages

❖ (The history of) dialect variation within Albanian

❖ Albanian etymologies

For more details, please visit the conference website: https://sites.google.com/view/alia-conference-2026.

Workshop: Albanian language history in its Balkan linguistic context (30.01.2024)

On Tuesday 30.01.2024, the project “The Albanian Language in Antiquity", funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, will organize the workshop “Albanian language history in its Balkan linguistic contact” at the University of Basel. The participants will discuss Balkan linguistics with a focus on historical linguistic phenomena relevant to the history of the Albanian language. The talks will concern language contact between Albanian and Slavic, Greek and Romanian in the scope of the project. All interested in the Albanian language and Balkan linguistics are invited and welcome to attend.

The talks and discussions will be in English. No prior registration is required.

Location: Rosshofgasse 2 (Schnitz, Seminarraum S01), 4051 Basel.

Program:

10:00	Introduction by PD Dr. Michiel de Vaan
Block 1: Albanian and Greek
10:15	Prof. Dr. Doris Kyriazis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)	Greek and Albanian, two languages in contact (A review of relevant etymological research, new data, problems, perspectives) Presentation
11:15	Gerard Spaans MA (Universität Basel)	The etymological history of the Greek loanword liqen-i `lake´; sound developments, analogy and ghost forms Presentation
12:00	Lunch break
Block 2: Albanian and Balkan Romance
13:30	Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Filipponio (Humboldt Universität Berlin)	Late Latin and Balkan-Romance phonology and its reflexes in Latin loanwords in (Proto-)Albanian Presentation
14:30	Alexander Robert Herren MA (Universität Basel)	On the importance of Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian for Albanology
15:15	Coffee break
Block 3: Albanian and Slavic
15:45	Prof. Dr. Ekaterina Tarpomanova (Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski)	The hows and whens – as well as whys – of evidentiality in Bulgarian and Albanian Presentation
16:45	Closing remarks by the organizers

For inquiries on the workshop, please get in touch with one of the organizers:

Gerard Spaans MA: gerard.spaans@clutterunibas.ch
Alexander Robert Herren MA: alexanderrobert.herren@clutterunibas.ch

project presentation "The Albanian Language in Antiquity

On Monday 13 March 2023, Michiel de Vaan, Sergio Neri, Geert Jakob Spaans and Alexander Robert Herren presented the SNSF research project "The Albanian Language in Antiquity". Furthermore Olivier Winistörfer (UZH) has presented his Phd project The Balkan Sprachbund - A different approach".