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 8th to 10th, 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.
Presentation: "Tracing the Origins of the Albanian Language"
On April 27, 2026, Dr. Michiel de Vaan, Alexander Robert Herren, and Gerard Spaans delivered presentations on the subject “Tracing the Origins of the Albanian Language” at an event hosted by the Albanian Student Association of the University of Basel (ASA). The presenters shared the outcomes of their research project, “The Albanian Language in Antiquity”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Albanian Student Association Basel
Albanian Student Association Basel
Albanian Student Association Basel
Albanian Student Association Basel
Albanian Student Association Basel
Albanian Student Association Basel
Albanian Student Association Basel
Albanian Student Association Basel
Albanian Student Association Basel
Albanian Student Association Basel
Workshop: "New Advances in Albanian Philology and Historical Linguistics" (September 29, 2025)
![[Translate to English:] Poster Workshop Albanian Language](https://daw.philhist.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/4/f/csm_csm_Poster_Workshop_albanian_language_September_2025_47f1d6ccc6_104087aa9c.jpg?1778076091)
On September 29, 2025, the project “The Albanian Language in Antiquity", funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation organized the International Workshop “New Advances in Albanian Philology and Historical Linguistics" with talks by Plator Gashi, Monica Genesin, Alexander Robert Herren, Marek Majer, Anila Omari, Stefan Schumacher, Gerard Spaans and Michiel de Vaan.
| Program: | ||
| 10.00 | Welcome | |
| 10.30 | Plator Gashi & Marek Majer | The Southern Tosk Lord's Prayer from Adelung & Vater’s Mithridates |
| 11.00 | Coffee Break | |
| 11.30 | Alexander Robert Herren | Advances in Romanian-Albanian contact phenomena: Insights into Phonology and Morphology |
| 12.00 | Michiel de Vaan | On the verb endings in Proto-Albanian |
| 12.30 | Alexander Robert Herren MA (Universiteti i Bazelit) | Rëndësia e gjuhëvet arumunishtes dhe megleno-rumishtes për albanologjinë |
| 12.30 | Lunch Break | |
| 14.00 | Monica Genesin | Orientation in space: A study based on the cognitive linguistic approach on some locative prepositions in Old Albanian |
| 14.30 | Stefan Schumacher | Neue Erkenntnisse zu den Textgrundlagen der Perikopen bei Buzuku |
| 15.00 | Coffee Break | |
| 15.30 | Anila Omari | Un tentativo di stratificazione e classificazione degli italianismi dell’albanese antico (’500-’600). |
| 16.00 | Gerard Spaans | The origin of the Albanian feminine plural ending |
| 18.30 | Dinner | |
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, organized the workshop “Albanian language history in its Balkan linguistic contact” at the University of Basel. Participants discussed Balkan linguistics with a focus on historical linguistic phenomena relevant to the history of the Albanian language. The talks concerned language contact between Albanian and Slavic, Greek, and Romanian in the scope of the project.
| 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 | |
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".
Project presentation "The Albanian Language in Antiquity"
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