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Alexander (Sasha) Lubotsky

1956 –
Indo-European linguistics, Sanskrit, Vedic, Avestan

Curriculum vitae

1956born in Moscow on 16.4
1973-1976study linguistics, Lomonosov University, Moscow
1976-1980study Indo-Iranian languages, Leiden University
1978BA Indo-Iranian
1980MA Comparative Indo-European Linguistics
1987PhD under supervision of professor R.S.P. Beekes, Leiden University
1980-1999assistant professor (universitair docent), Leiden University
1992-presentleader of the project “Indo-European Etymological Dictionary”, Leiden University
1999-presentfull professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Leiden University
2006-presentdirector of the Leiden Summer School in Languages and Linguistics, Leiden University

Special activities and positions

  • Editor-in-chief of the series “Leiden Studies in Indo-European” (Rodopi; 19 volumes), 1991-
  • Member of the editorial board of Brill’s studies in Indo-European Languages & Linguistics, 2008-
  • Editor-in-chief of the “Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary series” (Brill; 10 vols), 2005-
  • Editor of Indo-European Etymological Dictionaries Online (Brill), 2010-
  • Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), 2003-
  • Chairman of the section “Taal- en Literatuurwetenschappen”, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), 2008-
  • Member of the board “Stichting J. Gonda-Fonds” (KNAW), 2008-
  • Reader of many guest lectures (Wien, Harvard University, Paris, Köln, Palermo, etc.)
  • Invited speaker at numerous conferences around the world (Rome, Cambridge, Moscow, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, etc.)
  • PhD dissertations supervised: J.T.L. Cheung (2000), L. Kulikov (2001), M.A.C. de Vaan (2002), D. Baum (2005), S. Starostin (honorary degree, 2005), G. Kroonen (2009), W. Knobl (2009), M. Peyrot (2010), Kalsang Norbu Gurung (2011), Benedicte Nielsen Whitehead (2012), Saskia Pronk-Tiethoff (2012)

Sources

Selected publications:

The list contains Lubotsky’s publications on general Indo-European linguistics and Indo-Iranian languages. Studies on other individual Indo-European languages, such as Phrygian and Tocharian, are not included.
1981  “Gr. pēgnumi : Skt. pajrá- and loss of laryngeals before mediae in Indo‑Iranian.” MSS 40: 133‑138.
“On the reduced grade ‑a‑ in Sanskrit.” Lingua 55: 75‑95.
1983  “On the external sandhis of the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā.” IIJ 25: 167‑179.
1985  “The PIE word for ‘dry’.” Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung 98: 1‑10.
Review of: M. Mayrhofer, Nach hundert Jahren: Ferdinand de Saussures Frühwerk und seine Rezeption durch die heutige Indogermanistik, Heidelberg 1981. BO 42,3/4: 455‑457.
1987  Nominal accentuation in Sanskrit and Proto‑Indo‑European, Leiden. – PhD thesis Leiden; also published as The system of nominal accentuation in Sanskrit and Proto Indo European, Leiden 1988.
Review of: M. Mayrhofer, Sanskrit und die Sprachen Alteuropas: zwei Jahrhunderte des Widerspiels von Entdeckungen und Irrtümern. Göttingen, 1983. IIJ 30: 293‑296.
1988  The system of nominal accentuation in Sanskrit and Proto‑Indo‑European, Leiden (Memoirs of the Kern Institute 4). – Also published as PhD thesis 1987.
1989  “Against a Proto‑Indo‑European phoneme *a.” In: Th. Vennemann (ed.), The New Sound of Indo‑European: essays in phonological reconstruction, Berlin-New York (Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 41), pp. 53‑66.
“The Vedic –aya-formations.” IIJ 32: 89‑113.
1990  “La loi de Brugmann et *H3e‑.” In: La reconstruction des laryngales (Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l’Université de Liège, fascicule 253), no editor, Liège-Paris, pp. 129‑136.
1991  “Vedijskaja imennaja akcentuacija i problema praindoevropejskix tonov.” Voprosy Jazykoznanija 1991,1: 20‑48.
1992  “Van taalreconstructie naar taaltheorie: Indogermanistisch werk van F. de Saussure en zijn Cours de linguistique générale.” Forum der Letteren 33: 5‑10.
“The Indo‑Iranian laryngeal accent shift and its relative chronology.” In: R. Beekes, A. Lubotsky, J. Weitenberg (eds), Rekonstruktion und relative Chronologie: Akten der VIII. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Leiden, 31. August ‑ 4. September 1987, Innsbruck (IBS), pp. 261‑269.
“The “Sarvatobhadra” temple of the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa and the Viṣṇu temple at Deogarh.” In: A.W. van den Hoek, D.H.A. Kolff, M.S. Oort (eds), Ritual, state and history in South Asia: essays in honour of J.C. Heesterman, Leiden, etc., pp. 199‑221.
1993   “Nasalization of the final a in the R̥gveda.” IIJ 36: 197‑210.
1994 “RV. ávidhat.” In: George E. Dunkel et al. (eds), Früh‑, Mittel‑, Spätindogermanisch: Akten der IX. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft vom 5. bis 9. Oktober 1992 in Zürich, Wiesbaden, pp. 201‑206.
Avestan θβōrәštar- and the Indo-European root *turḱ-. Die Sprache 36/1: 94‑102.
1995  “Accentuation in the technique of the Vedic poets.” In: E. Semeka Pankratov (ed.), Studies in poetics: commemorative volume Krystyna Pomorska (1928-86), Columbus, pp. 515‑534.
“Sanskrit h < *dh, bh.” In: N.V. Gurov and Ja.V. Vasil’kov (eds), Sthāpakaś rāddham: professor G.A. Zograf commemorative volume, St. Petersburg (Centr “Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie”), pp. 124-144.
“Vedic samaha ‘verily’.” IIJ 38: 257-260.
“Reflexes of intervocalic laryngeals in Sanskrit.” In: W. Smoczyński (ed.), Kuryłowicz memorial volume. Part One, Cracow (Universitas), pp. 213-33.
1996  The iconography of the Viṣṇu temple at Deogarh and the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa. Ars Orientalis 26: 65-80.
1997  A Ṛgvedic word concordance. 2 Vols. (American Oriental Series 82 and 83.) New Haven.
Editor of: Sound law and analogy: papers in honor of Robert S.P. Beekes on the occasion of his 60th birthday, Amsterdam.
& M.S. Oort and M. Witzel (eds), F.B.J. Kuiper, Selected writings on Indian linguistics and philology, Amsterdam.
– The Indo-Iranian reflexes of PIE *CRHUV. In: Alexander Lubotsky (ed.), Sound law and analogy: papers in honor of Robert S.P. Beekes on the occasion of his 60th birthday, Amsterdam-Atlanta, pp. 139-154.
Remarks on the Vedic intensive, JAOS 117: 558-564.
Review of: Marianne Volkart, Zu Brugmanns Gesetz im Altindischen, Universität Bern, Institut für Sprachwissenschaft, Arbeitspapier 33, Bern 1994. Kratylos 42: 55-59.
1998  Avestan xvarәnah-: the etymology and concept. In: W. Meid (ed.), Sprache und Kultur: Akten der X. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft Innsbruck, 22.-28. September 1996, Innsbruck (IBS), pp. 479-488.
Avestan āsitō.gātu-. Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 58: 91-94.
Avestan zruuan-. In: T.M. Nikolaeva, et al. (eds), ΠOΛΥTROΠON: to 70th birthday of Vladimir Toporov, Moscow, pp. 73-85.
Vedic roots of the type *TERDh-. Studia indogermanica Lodziensia (FS. I. Danka) 2: 75-81.
1999  Avestan compounds and the RUKI-rule. In: H. Eichner und H.C. Luschützky (Hrsg.), Compositiones indogermanicae in memoriam Jochem Schindler, Praha, pp. 299-322.
Postscript on Vedic jaṅgahe. JAOS 119: 480-481. [together with Arlo Griffiths]
2000  The Vedic root vr̥- ‘to cover’ and its present. In: B. Forssman, R. Plath (eds), Indoarisch, Iranisch und die Indogermanistik: Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft vom 2. bis 5. Oktober in Erlangen, Wiesbaden, pp. 315-325.
Indo-Aryan ‘six’. In: M. Ofitsch, Chr. Zinko (eds), 125 Jahre Indogermanistik in Graz: Arbeiten aus der Abteilung “Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft” Graz, Graz, pp. 255-261.
2001  Het vuur na aan de Indo-Europese schenen leggen: over de reconstructie van betekenis. Rede uitgesproken bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van hoogleraar Vergelijkende Indo-Europese Taalwetenschap aan de Universiteit Leiden, 2 maart 2001.
Reflexes of Proto-Indo-European *sk in Indo-Iranian. Incontri linguistici 24: 25-57.
The Indo-Iranian substratum. In: Chr. Carpelan, A. Parpola, P. Koskikallio (eds), Early contacts between Uralic and Indo-European: linguistic and archaeological considerations: papers presented at an international symposium held at the Tvärminne Research Station of the University of Helsinki 8-10 January 1999 , Helsinki (Mémoires de la Société Finno-ougrienne 242), pp. 301-317.
Paippalāda-Saṃhitā 4.15: to heal an open fracture: with a plant. Die Sprache 42,1/2 (2000-2001) [2003]: 196-210 [together with A. Griffiths].
2002  Atharvaveda-Paippalāda, kāṇḍa five: text, translation, commentary, Cambridge (Mass.) (Harvard Oriental Series, Opera Minora 4).
“The Indo-Iranian word for ‘shank, shin’.” JAOS 122: 318-324.
“Scythian elements in Old Iranian.” In: N. Sims-Williams (ed.), Indo-Iranian languages and peoples (Centennial Bailey), Oxford (Proceedings of the British Academy 116), pp. 189-202.
2004  “Avestan siiazd-, Sanskrit sedh-, Latin cēdere ‘to flinch’.” In: Adam Hyllested et al. (eds), Per aspera ad asteriscos: studia Indogermanica in honorem Jens Elmegård Rasmussen sexagenarii Idibus Martiis anno MMIV, Innsbruck, pp. 323-332.
Vedic pr̥dākusānu. IIJ 47: 1-6.
Review of: Agnes Korn, Metrik und metrische Techniken im Rgveda: Streckformen in Trimeter-Versen, Graz 1998. Kratylos 49: 177-181.
2006  Indo-European ‘heel’. In: R. Bombi et al. (eds), Studi linguistici in onore di Roberto Gusmani, Alessandria, pp. 1005-1010.
2007  Sanskrit na-participles and the glottalic theory. In: Alan J. Nussbaum (ed.), Verba Docenti: studies in historical and Indo-European linguistics presented to Jay H. Jasanoff by students, colleagues, and friends , Ann Arbor-New York, pp. 231-235.
PS 8.15: offense against a Brahmin. In: Arlo Griffiths, Annette Schmiedchen (eds), The Atharvaveda and its Paippalādasākhā: historical and philological papers on a Vedic tradition, Aachen, pp. 23-33.
2008  Vedic ‘ox’ and ‘sacrificial cake’. In: A. Lubotsky, J. Schaeken, J. Wiedenhof (eds), Evidence and counter-evidence: essays in honour of Frederik Kortlandt, volume I: Balto-Slavic and Indo-European linguistics, Amsterdam-New York, pp. 351-360.
The Indo-Iranian root *stig-. In: L. Kulikov, M. Rusanov (eds), Indologica: T. Ya. Elizarenkova memorial volume, Book 1, Moscow (Orientalia et Classica. Papers of the Institute of Oriental and Classical Studies 20), pp. 305-313.
2009  Two words for ‘sister-in-law’? Notes on Vedic yātar- and giri-. In: É. Pirart, X. Tremblay (eds), Zarathushtra entre l’Inde et l’Iran: Études indo-iranniennes et indo-européennes offertes à Jean Kellens à l’occasion de son 65e anniversaire, Wiesbaden, pp. 115-121. [together with Arlo Griffiths]
Altpersisch. In: H. Gzella (ed.), Sprachen aus der Welt des Alten Testaments, Darmstadt, pp. 160-174. [together with Michiel de Vaan]
Proto-Indo-European *tsel- ‘to sneak’ and Germanic *stelan- ‘to steal, approach stealthily’, Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia 14: 237-241. [together with Guus Kroonen]
2010  Van Sanskriet tot Spijkerschrift: breinbrekers uit alle talen. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. [together with Michiel de Vaan]
New words and word forms in the Atharva-Veda Paippalāda (Kāṇḍa 5). In: D. Shulman (ed.), Language, ritual and poetics in ancient India and Iran: studies in honor of Shaul Migron, Jerusalem, pp. 39-65.
2011  “The origin of Sanskrit roots of the type sīv- ‘to sew’, dīv- ‘to play dice’, with an appendix on Vedic i -perfects.” In: Stephanie W. Jamison, H. Craig Melchert, Brent Vine (eds), Proceedings of the 22nd annual Indo-European conference, Bremen, pp. 105-126.
“Old Persian.” In: H. Gzella (ed.), Languages from the world of the Bible, Boston-Berlin, pp. 194-208. [together with Michiel de Vaan; an English translation of “Altpersisch” 2009]
2012 The Old Persian month name viyax(a)na-, Avestan viiāx(a)na- ‘eloquent, bragging’ and Ossetic festivals. In: V. Sadovski and D. Stifter (eds), Iranistische und indogermanistische Beiträge in memoriam Jochem Schindler (1944-1994), Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften., pp. 95-106. pdf
“Dissimilatory loss of i in Sanskrit.” In: Sukač Roman, Šefčík Ondřej (red.), The sound of Indo-European 2, papers on Indo-European phonetics, phonemics and morphophonemics, München: LINCOM. 177-181. pdf
2013  “The Vedic paradigm for ‘water’.” In: Jeremy Rau, Adam I. Cooper, and Michael Weiss (eds), Multi Nominis Grammaticus: studies in classical and Indo-European linguistics in honor of Alan J. Nussbaum on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday, Ann Arbor / New York: Beech Stave Press, pp.159-164.
2014  & A. Kloekhorst, “Hittite nai-, nē-, Sanskrit nī-, and the PIE verbal root *(s)neh1-.” In: H.C. Melchert, E. Rieken and Th. Steer (eds), Munus amicitiae. Norbert Oettinger a collegis et amicis dicatum, Ann Arbor, New York: Beech Stave Press, pp.126-137.
& A. Griffiths, “Paippalādasaṃhitā 4.14: removing an arrow-tip from the body.” Eurasian Studies: Journal for Balkan, Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolian, Middle E astern, Iranian and Central Asian studies 12: 23-40.
2018 “Indo-Iranian: the phonology of Proto-Indo-Iranian.” In: J. Klein, B. Joseph and M. Fritz (eds), Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, pp. 1875-1888 (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft = Handbooks of linguistics and communication science no. 41.3)
2019 “The Indo-European suffix *-ens- and its Indo-Uralic origin.” In: A. Kloekhorst and T. Pronk (eds), The precursors of Proto-Indo-European: The Indo-Anatolian and Indo-Uralic hypotheses, Leiden / Boston: Brill, pp. 151-162 (Leiden Studies in Indo-European no. 21)
2021“What language was spoken by the people of the Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex?” In: Paul W. Kroll and Jonathan A. Silk (eds), “At the shores of the sky” : Asian studies for Albert Hoffstädt. Leiden: Brill (Sinica Leidensia 151), pp. 5-11..
“Sanskrit roots hi- ‘to impel, hurl’, hiṣ- ‘to injure, harm’, hīḍ- ‘to make/be angry’ and the Indo-European root enlargements -s- and -d-.” Historische Sprachforschung 131,1: 227-235.
“Indo-Iranian *mastr̥ghan-/ *mastr̥ǰhan- ‘brain, skull’ and its etymology.” Iran & the Caucasus 25,1: 66-73.
2022“Young Avestan pašne and its etymology.” Acta Linguistica Petropolitana: Transactions of the Institute for Linguistic Studies 18,1: 216-225.