Matthew Scarborough

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. Currently I am a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Copenhagen investigating the research project PHILOGLOSSA (ERC MSCA-PF doi.org/10.3030/101108732) on prehistoric substratal loanwords in Ancient Greek.

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

On the Phonology and Orthography of the Thessalian Mid-Long Vowels

Course material or learning objects

Bibliographies

Presentations

Can the Greek dialects be grouped? A Response to Parker and Ringe

Other Publications

NB: Publications without authors listed are single-authored 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. Heggarty, Paul, Cormac Anderson, Matthew Scarborough, Benedict King, Remco Bouckaert, Lechosław Jocz, Martin Joachim Kümmel, Thomas Jügel, Britta Irslinger, Roland Pooth, Henrik Liljegren, Richard Strand, Geoffrey Haig, Martin Macák, Ronald I. Kim, Erik Anonby, Tijmen Pronk, Oleg Belyaev, Tonya Dewey-Findell, Matthew Boutilier, Cassandra Freiberg, Robert Tegethoff, Matilde Serangeli, Nikos Liosis, Krzysztof Stroński, Kim Schulte, Ganesh Kumar Gupta, Wolfgang Haak, Johannes Krause, Quentin D. Atkinson, Simon J. Greenhill, Denise Kühnert, & Russell D. Gray. “Language trees with sampled ancestors support an early origin for the Indo-European language family” Science 381 (6656) 414 + eagb0818. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg0818

2023. Čéplö, Slavomír, Scarborough, Matthew, and Suciu, Alin “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.) Editionen und Studien zum Testamentum Salomonis. 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:

“Relative Chronology and the Outcomes of the Proto-Greek Labiovelars in the Context of Ancient Greek Dialect Geography” (manuscript submitted and under review for Classical Continuum)

Database:

Heggarty, Paul, Cormac Anderson and Matthew Scarborough (eds.). 2023. Indo-European Cognate Relationships Database (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. http://iecor.clld.org

Digital Datasets

Heggarty, Paul, Cormac Anderson & Matthew Scarborough (eds.). 2022. Indo-European Cognate Relationships database project (IE-CoR). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8089434

Serangeli, Matilde & Matthew Scarborough. 2022. Hittite. In: Heggarty, Paul & Cormac Anderson & Matthew Scarborough (eds.) IE-CoR [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8089434 (Available online at http://iecor.clld.org/contributions/80)

Serangeli, Matilde & Matthew Scarborough. 2022. Luvian. In: Heggarty, Paul & Cormac Anderson & Matthew Scarborough (eds.) IE-CoR [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8089434 (Available online at http://iecor.clld.org/contributions/133)

Scarborough, Matthew. 2022. “Greek: Mycenaean” In: Heggarty, Paul & Cormac Anderson &
Matthew Scarborough (eds.) IE-CoR [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8089434 (Available online at http://iecor.clld.org/contributions/173)

Scarborough, Matthew. 2022. “Greek: Ancient (Attic)” In: Heggarty, Paul & Cormac Anderson & Matthew Scarborough (eds.) IE-CoR [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8089434 (Available online at http://iecor.clld.org/contributions/110)

Scarborough, Matthew. 2022. “Greek: New Testament” In: Heggarty, Paul & Cormac Anderson & Matthew Scarborough (eds.) IE-CoR [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8089434 (Available online at http://iecor.clld.org/contributions/177)

Scarborough, Matthew. 2022. “Greek: Modern Standard” In: Heggarty, Paul & Cormac Anderson & Matthew Scarborough (eds.) IE-CoR [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8089434 (Available online at http://iecor.clld.org/contributions/32)

Scarborough, Matthew. 2022. “Latin” In: Heggarty, Paul & Cormac Anderson & Matthew Scarborough (eds.) IE-CoR [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8089434 (Available online at http://iecor.clld.org/contributions/112)

Scarborough, Matthew. 2022. “Oscan” In: Heggarty, Paul & Cormac Anderson & Matthew Scarborough (eds.) IE-CoR [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8089434 (Available online at http://iecor.clld.org/contributions/130)

Scarborough, Matthew. 2022. “Umbrian” In: Heggarty, Paul & Cormac Anderson & Matthew Scarborough (eds.) IE-CoR [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8089434 (Available online at http://iecor.clld.org/contributions/132)

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

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

Creating an open dataset to assist the investigation of substratum phenomena 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

Relative Chronology and Loanword Stratigraphy: Towards a Framework for Classifying Prehistoric Loanwords in the Ancient 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

Postdoc

Københavns Universitet

Academic Interests

Commons Groups

HC

Recent Commons Activity