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About

I was awarded my Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge (UK) in March 2017 for a dissertation on the linguistic prehistory and historical dialectology of the Aeolic dialects of Ancient Greek. Since October 2015 I have been also collaborating as a research associate with the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (Jena, Germany) on a new database of Indo-European cognate relations. I am currently a postdoc on the project Connecting the Dots: Reconfiguring the Indo-European Family Tree at the University of Copenhagen.

My research interests can be subdivided into a handful of related topics:

  • Greek language and linguistics (from Mycenaean to the modern spoken language)

  • Ancient Greek dialect studies (from both literary and sub-literary sources)

  • Ancient Greek epigraphy and papyrology

  • Indo-European comparative linguistics and philology (including comparative myth and poetics)

  • Homer and other Early Greek poetry

  • Etymology and the Indo-European lexicon

  • Language classification, cladistics, and subgrouping methodologies in historical linguistics

Education

Ph.D. Classics, University of Cambridge (2017)

M.A. Classical Languages, University of Alberta (2011)

B.A. (1st Class Honours) Classical Languages, University of Alberta (2009)

Work Shared in CORE

Articles
Conference proceedings
Course material or learning objects
Bibliographies
Presentations

Other Publications

Monograph:

2023. The Aeolic Dialects of Ancient Greek: A Study in Historical Dialectology and Linguistic Classification. Leiden: Brill. (https://brill.com/display/title/57781)

Articles:

2023. (with Slavomír Čéplö & Alin Suciu) “Arabic and Coptic Witnesses to the Transmission of the Testament of Solomon in Christian Egypt: Judgements of Solomon and the Legend of Solomon and Thabor” In: F. Albrecht & J. Dochhorn (eds.) Testamentum Salomonis: Editionen, Texttraditionen und Studien zum Testament Salomos. 149–169. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck Verlag.

2021. “Bactrian χϸονο ‘(calendar) year, (regnal) year'” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 31 (3) : 599-607.

2020. “Cognacy and Computational Cladistics: Issues in determining lexical cognacy for Indo-European cladistic research” In: M. Serangeli & T. Olander (eds) Dispersals and diversification: Linguistic and archaeological perspectives on the early stages of Indo-European. 179-208. Leiden: Brill.

2017. “Studies in the Linguistic Prehistory of the Boeotian Dialect” Teiresias 47.1 : 14-24.

2015. “A New Edition of IG IX,2 69″ Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 193 : 166-171.

2014. “On the Phonology and Orthography of the Thessalian Mid-Long Vowels” 11th International Conference on Greek Linguistics (Rhodes, 26-29 September 2013): Selected Papers / Πρακτικά, ed. by G. Kotzoglou, K. Nikolou, E. Karantzola, K. Frantzi, I. Galantomos, M. Georgalidou, V. Kourti-Kazoulis, C. Papadopoulou & E. Vlachou, 1535-48. Rhodes: Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean.

Under Review:

Heggarty, Paul, Cormac Anderson, Matthew Scarborough, [ … 25 other authors … ], Simon J. Greenhill, Denise Kühnert, & Russell D. Gray. “Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the Indo-European languages” (manuscript submitted and under review for Science).

Cormac Anderson, Matthew Scarborough, [ … 90 other authors … ] , Russell D. Gray, Paul Heggarty. “The Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database” (manuscript submitted and under review for Nature: Scientific Data)

Database & Digital Datasets:

Forthcoming. Anderson, Cormac, Paul Heggarty & Matthew Scarborough (eds.) Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (http://iecor.clld.org; project website)

Forthcoming. (with Matilde Serangeli) “Hittite” To appear in Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Forthcoming. (with Matilde Serangeli) “Luwian” To appear in Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Forthcoming. “Greek: Mycenaean” To appear in Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Forthcoming. “Greek: Ancient (Attic)” To appear in Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Forthcoming. “Greek: New Testament” To appear in Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Forthcoming. “Greek: Modern Standard” To appear in Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Forthcoming. “Latin” To appear in Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Forthcoming. “Oscan” To appear in Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Forthcoming. “Umbrian” To appear in Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Book Reviews:

2018. Review of Panayotou, Anna & Giovanbattista Galdi (eds.) 2017. Ἑλληνικὲς διάλεκτοι στὸν ἀρχαῖο κόσμο: Actes du VIe colloque international sur les dialectes grecs anciens. Nicosié, université de Chypre, 26-29 septembre 2011. (Leuven: Peeters). In Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.10.28 (Open Access: link)

2013. Review of Giannakis, Giorgios (ed.) 2012. Αρχαία Μακεδονία: Γλώσσα, ιστορία, πολιτισμός. (Thessaloniki: Centre for the Greek Language). In Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.08.21 (Open Access: link)

2013. Review of Ferrara, Silvia. 2012. Cypro-Minoan Inscriptions: Volume 1 – Analysis. (Oxford: Oxford University Press). In Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.02.04 (Open Access: link)

2012. Review of Liesner, Malte. 2012. Arbeitsbuch zur lateinischen historischen Phonologie (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag). Past Imperfect 18 : 94-98 (Open Access: link)

Theses, Dissertations, etc.:

2016. The Aeolic Dialects of Ancient Greek: A Study in Historical Dialectology and Linguistic Classification. Ph.D. Dissertation, Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge. [Awarded 2nd prize for best dissertation in the field of Indo-European Studies for 2016-2017 by the Indogermanische Gesellschaft.]

2011. The Development of the Indo-European Syllabic Resonants Among the Ancient Greek Dialects. M.A. Thesis, Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta.

2009. Selected Loan-Words in Mycenaean Greek: A Linguistic Analysis and Commentary. B.A. (Honours) Thesis, Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta.

Popular Writings / Blog:

Consulting Philologist

Blog Posts

    Projects

    My current projects include:

    • Collaborating on the creation of a new dataset for a maximum parsimony analysis for the phylogenetic structure of the Indo-European family tree as part of the Connecting the Dots project based in the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen

    • Trying to write up some articles pertaining to the linguistic problems we are encountering while trying to create this aforementioned dataset.

    • Setting up a research project to re-evaluate the chronology and nature of the prehistoric loanword strata in Ancient Greek


    I am also currently writing an ongoing series of blog posts as a general introduction to the main etymological resources that are available for Proto-Indo-European and the Indo-European languages aimed at generally interested, non-specialist readership, Indo-European Etymological Dictionaries for the Perplexed. I was originally aiming to try to write one of these per month until I had gone through all the branches of the Indo-European language family, but they’ve ended up taking more time than I anticipated. They’ll get done when they get done.

    Upcoming Talks and Conferences


    • The Relative Chronology of Early Greek Palatalisations and Sibilants: Towards a Framework for Identifying Prehistoric Loanwords in the Greek Dialects (Relative Chronologies Workshop, University of Copenhagen, June 29–30, 2023)

    Memberships

    Member, Indogermanische Gesellschaft, Germany

    Member, The Philological Society, UK

    Member, Classical Association of Canada, Canada

    Matthew Scarborough

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