Robert Mailhammer, M.A., Ph.D (Munich)
Visiting Fellow, Department of Linguistics
Email: Robert.Mailhammer@anu.edu.au
Biographical Statement
Having been trained as a historical linguist in the field of Indo-European languages, especially English and German, at the University of Munich, I've worked in German and English Departments in Germany. However, since 2007 I have been focusing on Australian languages in Northern Arnhem Land, documenting what is left of Amurdak, a member of the Iwaidjan language family. This research concentrates firstly on transcribing, glossing and translating existing recordings, and secondly on analysing this data also from a comparative perspective. Future plans include a grammar, the publication of an existing draft dictionary as well as historical investigations. At ANU I'm continuing my Feodor-Lynen postdoctoral research grant at ANU, which I started in 2007 at the University of Melbourne.
Research Interests
Australian languages and descriptive linguistics, language change and language variation, especially the history of the Germanic languages, morphology, phonology, typology, language acquisition
Homepage: www.lrz-muenchen.de/~mailhammer
Key Publications
- Amudak ankaj. Six stories in Amurdak told by Bill Neidjie and Nelson Mulurinj, with a foreword by Charlie Mangulda. Darwin, Iwaidja Inyman, 2009 [co-authored with Robert Handelsmann].
- The Germanic strong verbs: foundations and development of a new system. Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 183. Berlin/New York, Mouton de Gruyter, 2007.
- 'The prehistory of European languages', in: J. van der Auwera & B. Kortmann, Fields of Linguistics: Europe, Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2009
- 'Islands of Resilience: The history of the German strong verbs from a systemic point of view', Morphology 17/1, 77-118, 2007.
- On syllable cut in the Orrmulum, in: C. M. Cain, G. Russom (eds.), Studies in the History of English III - Managing Chaos: Strategies for Identifying Change in English, Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 37-61, 2007
- "On the origin of the Germanic strong verb system", Sprachwissenschaft 31/1, 1-52, 2006.
Career Highlights
Lecturer, German Linguistics, University of Munich (2002-2007);
Feodor-Lynen Visiting Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Linguistics, University of Melbourne (2007); Lecturer, English Linguistics, University of Munich and Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (2007-2009).
