Frederick Schwink
Ph.D. University of Texas
Office: 3106 FLB Telephone: 333-4852

Research Interests:
Germanic and Indo-European historical linguistics, language typology, history of linguistics, Germanic cultural history and prehistory

Biograpahy | Publications | Courses

Biography

My path to Illinois was more than a little circuitous, although many of my ancestors lived in this state before heading for points further west. I was born in Wyoming but grew up and attended school and university in the fair state of Iowa. I took three years of high school German with two extraordinary teachers, Robert Berkeley and Carl Pullen. Mr. Pullen’s class was so exceptional that I found our readings of Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts or Bahnwärter Thiel of great use even during my graduate school days. At the age of 17 I made the leap of applying and being accepted for an exchange with the Indianola Iowa Rotary Club to spend a year in Germany, in the industrial Ruhrgebiet. It was there, in the city of Essen that I found the way to my engagement with older Germanic languages and literatures. In the fall of 1979 a music student at the Folkwangschule organized the first (and only) Werdener Wagner Weihe. This event, which was held in a house in Goch, brought together a group of Gymnasiasten and students to listen to the entire Ring des Nibelungen (the Solti recording) in one night. All women had to wear dresses, all men a jacket and tie. During the listening we followed the text and music with scores and libretti, all of this by candlelight. The experience was, to say the least, intense, and I was hooked. Shortly thereafter I came across the Middle High German Nibelungenlied in a Hamburg bookshop and found myself entranced by the language. At the same time I checked out several books on the history of German at the local libraries, read them, understood much too little, but didn’t care. It was too interesting.

When I returned to Iowa in 1980 and began study at Iowa State in Ames, I immediately declared a German major and spent the next three years exploring German literature and culture while also getting my first training in formal linguistics (most of this in the English department as there was no linguistics program at the time). Especially James Dow’s readings of Grimm’s fairy tales has remained with me as has my introduction to Norwegian by Walter Morris. I also got my first training in teaching English as a foreign language.

After graduation in 1983 (top and bottom of my class in German...) a PAD exchange took me to Göppingen in south Germany for a year as a language assistant at the Mörike Gymnasium. During this time I spent a great deal of time frequenting local book shops, including Alfred Kümmerle’s, best know for his publication of German mediaevalist texts.

In 1984 I began graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin. As is usual, I took the full range of classes in German literature and culture but began to focus more and more on older Germanic and Indo-European linguistics. I was fortunate to find teachers of Hittite, Mycenaean Greek, and Middle Welsh. My main teachers were Edgar C. Polomé and Winfred P. Lehmann. Both scholars, although often radically different in their views on the history and nature of the Indo-Europeans and Germanic peoples, treated each other and their students with great respect and it was an honor to have learned from them. They will always be with me. In 1986-1987 I spent a year in Tübingen and studied Indo-European, Sanskrit, Avestan, Old Irish, Classical Armenian, and Swabian. Then back to Texas where I finished my dissertation on methodology of reconstructing proto-languages in 1992. I also graduated from high school in 1992 (my last year of high school I was in Germany and I hadn’t gotten around to dealing with the paperwork). In the meantime I had published my first articles on vowel epenthesis in Classical Armenian, Mycenaean medio-passive endings, and the problem of homosexuality in the Gothic translation of the New Testament. The job market in the early 1990’s was abysmal and I ended up spending the year after graduation living in Hof, Germany, taking long bike rides, revising my dissertation for publication, reading books, and writing letters to the editor of the local newspaper. In 1994 I found employment as a Lektor for English at the Katholische Universität in Eichstätt and spent the next three academic years teaching American English culture and language. I was very fortunate to have Alfred Bammesberger, a reknowned German Indo-Europeanist, in my department and benefitted much from my interactions with him. In 1996 I was offered a position at the University of Illinois and so returned to my roots. Since coming here I have taught a wide range of classes in historical linguistics but also have worked on developing a new class on current topics in the German media. I also spent a summer in Iceland at the instigation of Marianne Kalinke and while there met my wife, Siv. We now have three children and I am discovering the joys of coach pitch baseball and dance class. While here I have continued publishing on such topics as the velar nasal in runic writing, the efficiency of Linear B, and variation in gender in Germanic. This last topic was also the focus of a monograph on grammatical gender in Germanic that has just appeared.

My current focus in research is a study of stage models of reconstruction and the idea that Germanic represents a particularly archaic form of Indo-European.

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Publications

Doctoral Thesis

1992. Linguistic Typology and the Reconstruction of Proto-Languages: A Study in Methodology. Supervisor: Edgar C. Polomé. Dept. of Germanic Languages. University of Texas at Austin.

Books Authored or Co-Authored

1994. Linguistic Typology, Universality and the Realism of Reconstruction. Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series No. 12. Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man. pp. ix, 133.

2004. The Third Gender: Studies in the origin and history of Germanic Grammatical Gender. Heidelberg: Winter. pp. 118

Books Edited or Co-Edited

forth. "On the Learnability of Linear B." A-na-qo-ta. Festschrift for John Killen. Cambridge: University Press. Pp. 14 in typescript.

forth. "On Reconstructing Phonological Rules." Festschrift Winfred P. Lehmann. Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man. Pp. 16 in typescript.

Chapters in books

2002. "Sm--ing Great: American Speech and Britcom Science Fiction." In Josef Raab and Marietta Messmer (eds.). American Vistas and Beyond: A Festschrift for Roland Hagenb¸chle. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 197-206.

2003. "Eduard Prokosch." in: Christopher Kˆnig (ed.). Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800-1950. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1434-1435.

Articles in Journals

1989. "A Reexamination of the Mycenaean Medio-Passive Finite Ending." Journal of Indo-European Studies 17/1&2:127-154.

1991a. "The Writing of Ancient Greek Consonant Clusters." Kadmos. XXX/2:113-127.

1991b. "A Typology of Manuscript Evidence for the Runes." Mankind Quarterly 31/3: 195-206.

1993. "A Gothic Expression for 'Homosexual'?" Indogermanische Forschungen. 98:231-240.

2000. "The Velar Nasal in the Adaptation of the Runic Alphabet." American Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Literatures. 12/2:235-249.

Creative Works

Translation of: Gerhard Köpf. 1993. "Critics are Miserable Curs." (Original title: "Kritiker sind Lumpenhunde."). In Peter Pabisch & Ingo R. Stoehr (eds.). Dimensions. Festschrift for A. Leslie Willson. Krefeld: Verlag van Ackeren, 138-145.

Bulletins, Reports, or Conference Proceedings

1994. "On the Lexicalization of Classical Armenian Vowel Epenthesis." In Howard Aronson (ed.). Linguistic Studies in the Non-Slavic Languages of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic Republics. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society, 287-298.

1996. "The Latin Perfect and Reconstruction Methodology." In Alfred Bammesberger & Friedrich Heberlein (eds.). Akten des VIII. internationalen Kolloquiums zur lateinischen Linguistik. Heidelberg: Winter, 61-76.

1999 "The Efficacy of Linear B as a Writing System." In Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy, Stefan Hiller, Oswald Panagl (eds.). Floreant Studia Mycenaea: Akten des 10. Internationalen Mykenologischen Colloquiums in Salzburg vom 1.-5. Mai 1995. Wien: ÷sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 549-554.

forth. "Pre-Greek, Sociolinguistics of Contact, and the Glottalic Theory." In Proceedings of the 11th Mycenological Colloquium. Pp. 17 in typescript.

forth. "The Reconstruction of Variability in Proto-Germanic Gender." In Thomas Cravens (ed.). Volume on Variation in Reconstruction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, Pp. 13 in typescript.

Book Reviews

1990-1a. Yves Duhoux, Thomas G.Palaima & John Bennet (eds.).1989. Problems in Decipherment. BCILL. Louvain-la-neuve: Peeters. Minos 26/27:429-433.

1990-1b. Thomas Markey & John Greppin (eds.). 1989. Worlds in Collision. Ann Arbor: Karoma. Minos 26/27:419-424.

1991. Jean Kellens (ed.). 1990. La reconstruction des laryngales. (Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l'Université de Liège. Fascicule CCLIII). Paris: Les Belles Lettres. Journal of Indo-European Studies 19/3&4:381-382.

1992. Alfred Bammesberger (ed.).1988. Die Laryngaltheorie und die Rekonstruktion des indogermanischen Laut- und Formensystems. Heidelberg: Winter. Journal of Indo-European Studies 20/1&2:186-192.

1993a. Robert B. Howell. 1991. Old English Breaking and its Germanic Analogues. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Michigan Germanic Studies XIX/2:164-167.

1993b. Seiichi Suzuki. 1989. The Morphosyntax of Detransitive Suffixes -º- and -n- in Gothic: A Synchronic and Diachronic Study. New York/Bern: Peter Lang. Historische Sprachforschungen 106/2:318-319.

1994-5. Jean-Pierre Olivier. (ed.). 1992. MykenaÔka. Actes du IXe Colloque international sur les textes mycéniens et égéens. Paris: Boccard. Minos. N.S. 29-30: 349-357.

1995a. Anders Ahlqvist (ed.). 1992. Diversions of Galway: Papers on the History of Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Studies in Language 19/1: 295-299.

1995b. Clackson, James. 1994. The Linguistic Relationship Between Armenian and Greek. TPS Publication 30. Oxford: Blackwell. Annual of Armenian Linguistics 16:67-73.

1996a. Alfred Bammesberger (ed.). 1991. The Old English Runes and their Continental Background. Heidelberg: Winter. Journal of Indo-European Studies 24/1&2:249-252

1996b. Michael Meier-Brügge. 1992. Griechische Sprachwissenschaft. Berlin: de Gruyter. Journal of Indo-European Studies 24/1&2:120-123.

1997a. Frans van Coetsem. 1994. The Vocalism of the Germanic Parent Language. Heidelberg: Winter. American Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Literatures. 9/1: 156-161.

1997b. Anthony Fox. 1995. Linguistic Reconstruction. Oxford: University Press. Diachronica. XIV/1:124-130.

1998a. Pilch, Herbert. 1994. Manual of English Phonetics. München: Fink. Word. 15.

1998b. Dirk Boutkan. 1995. The Germanic Auslautsgesetze. Rodopi. Diachronica. XV/2:349-351.

1999a. Stephen Howe. 1996. The Personal Pronouns in the Germanic Languages. Berlin: de Gruyter. Journal of English and Germanic Philology. July 1999, 396-398.

1999b. Orrin W. Robinson. 1997. Clause Subordination and Verb Placement in the Old High German Isidor Translation. Heidelberg: Winter. Germanic Notes and Reviews. 30/1:72-73.

forth. Peter Seidensticker. 1997. die seltzamen namen all: Studien zur ‹berlieferung der Pflanzennamen. (ZDL Beihefte 101). Stuttgart: Steiner. Journal of English and Germanic Philology.

forth. Rudolf Sch¸tzeichel. 1995. Althochdeutsches Wˆrterbuch. 5th revised and expanded edition. T¸bingen: Niemeyer. Journal of English and Germanic Philology.

forth. Elmer Antonsen. 2002. Runes and Germanic Linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Journal of English and Germanic Philology.

forth. Irmengard Rauch. 2003. The Gothic Language: Grammar, Genetic Provenance and Typology, Readings. (Berkeley Models of Grammars Volume 5). New York: Peter Lang. Journal of English and Germanic Philology.

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Recently Taught Courses

• GER 401 Current Topics in the German Media
• GER 465 Intro to Linguistic Structures of German
• SCAN 251 Viking Mythology
• GER 501 German for Reading Knowledge II
• GER 530 Old High German
• GER 365 Linguistic Structures of German
• SCAN 405 Old Norse I
• GER 396 Independent study: Introduction to Mycenaean Greek

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