Stefan Georg


Ralf-Stefan Georg is a German linguist. He is currently Professor at the University of Bonn in Bonn, Germany, for Altaic Linguistics and Culture Studies.

Education

Georg earned an M.A. in Mongolian Linguistics, Indo-European and Semitic Linguistics at Bonn University, and later completed his Ph.D., with a descriptive grammar of the Thakali language, at the same institution.

Research

Since 1992, Georg has been engaged in linguistic fieldwork and the writing of descriptive grammars of unwritten/endangered/understudied languages. Apart from a grammar of a Thakali dialect, he has co-authored a grammar of Itelmen and written a grammar of Ket, as well as shorter grammatical descriptions of Ordos Mongolian and Huzhu Mongghul.
He has published widely on problems of language classification, especially on the controversy surrounding the Altaic hypothesis. He belongs to the critics of this hypothesis and argues for a non-genetic, areal interpretation of the commonalities between these languages. Other fields of interest he is active in include Palaeosiberian languages, Tibeto-Burman languages, Indo-European and Kartvelian linguistics and linguistic typology.

Publications

  • Georg, Stefan, Peter A. Michalove, Alexis Manaster Ramer, and Paul J. Sidwell : Journal of Linguistics 35:65–98. Mongolian translation: Ерөнхий хэл шинжлэлчид алтай судлалын тухай. Алтай Судлал/Studia Altaica I/2001: 174-215.
  • Georg, Stefan : Haupt und Glieder der altaischen Hypothese: die Körperteilbezeichnungen im Türkischen, Mongolischen und Tungusischen. Ural-altaische Jahrbücher, neue Folge B 16: 143–182.
  • Georg, Stefan : Türkisch/Mongolisch tengri “Himmel/Gott” und seine Herkunft. Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia 6: 83–100.
  • Georg, Stefan : Altaic Languages. In: David Levinson and Karen Christensen : Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons: 86–87.
  • Georg, Stefan . In: J. Janhunen : The Mongolic Languages. London: Routledge: 193–209.
  • Georg, Stefan : , in: J. Janhunen : The Mongolic Languages. London: Routledge: 286–306.
  • Georg, Stefan : . In: M. Janse and S. Tol : Language Death and Language Maintenance. Theoretical, Practical and Descriptive Approaches. Amsterdam: Benjamins: 89–106.
  • Georg, Stefan : Yeniseic languages and the Siberian linguistic area In: A. Lubotsky, J. Schaeken and J. Wiedenhof : Evidence and Counter-Evidence. Festschrift Frederik Kortlandt, Vol.I. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.