Hannes A . Fellner
Professor, Professor of Digital Corpus Linguistics
Academic Positions:
Full Professor, Department of Comparative Literature and Language Studies, University of Vienna, since 2025
Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, since 2021
Principal Investigator, Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, since 2018
Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, 2019-2021
Assistant Professor, Leiden University Centre of Linguistics, Leiden University, 2017-2018
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, 2013-2017
Education:
Ph.D., Linguistics, Harvard University (2013)
M.A., Linguistics, Harvard University (2008)
Mag. phil. (M.A.), Linguistics, University of Vienna (2005)
Research interests:
Historical linguistics
Indo-European morphology
Tocharian philology and linguistics
China, Central Asian and Silk Road studies
Digital Philology, Humanities and Humanism
Dialectical Philosophy
Member of the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/members/learned-society/young-academy
Director of the Austrian Institute for China and Southeast Asia Studies
https://www.icsoa.at/
Board member of the Fondazione Centro di Studi Filosofici (Sant'Abbondio, Schwitzerland)
https://www.hansheinzholz.com/
Chair of the Society for Dialectical Philosophy
https://www.dialektische-philosophie.org/
Address: Digital Philology
Department of Comparative Literature and Language Studies
University of Vienna
Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien
Historical Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
University of Vienna
Sensengasse 3a, 1090 Wien
Academic Positions:
Full Professor, Department of Comparative Literature and Language Studies, University of Vienna, since 2025
Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, since 2021
Principal Investigator, Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, since 2018
Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, 2019-2021
Assistant Professor, Leiden University Centre of Linguistics, Leiden University, 2017-2018
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, 2013-2017
Education:
Ph.D., Linguistics, Harvard University (2013)
M.A., Linguistics, Harvard University (2008)
Mag. phil. (M.A.), Linguistics, University of Vienna (2005)
Research interests:
Historical linguistics
Indo-European morphology
Tocharian philology and linguistics
China, Central Asian and Silk Road studies
Digital Philology, Humanities and Humanism
Dialectical Philosophy
Member of the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/members/learned-society/young-academy
Director of the Austrian Institute for China and Southeast Asia Studies
https://www.icsoa.at/
Board member of the Fondazione Centro di Studi Filosofici (Sant'Abbondio, Schwitzerland)
https://www.hansheinzholz.com/
Chair of the Society for Dialectical Philosophy
https://www.dialektische-philosophie.org/
Address: Digital Philology
Department of Comparative Literature and Language Studies
University of Vienna
Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien
Historical Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
University of Vienna
Sensengasse 3a, 1090 Wien
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Papers by Hannes A . Fellner
The project aims to provide a comprehensive paleographic survey of the Brahmi variant of Central Asia and, to that end, develop digital tools for the study of this writing system, which will also be available to the public.
After introducing some preliminaries on our research object and the structure of our database, we present three case studies on Tocharian B that demonstrate how the system we are developing can already be used to gain new insights into the relationship between the different variants of the writing system, as well as the relationship between paleographic and linguistic variation.
Malzahn treats the VGCs in TB -i TA -e as an innovation based on PIE bahuvrīhis/root compounds. She explains the second type in TB -a TA -ø as inherited compounds ending in *-eh2 (Gk. βουζύγης ‘yoking oxen’, Lat. agricola ‘cultivating the land’) and root compounds with second members that ended in a laryngeal.
Based on new evidence this paper argues that the distribution of the Tocharian VGCs does not depend on root structure, but is connected to present stem formation. It will be shown that VGCs in TB -i TA -e pattern with thematic present stems classes, whereas VGCs in TB -a TA -ø pattern with athematic present stem classes.
This morphological analysis together with recent progress in the understanding of PIE compounds in *-eh2 (Fellner&Grestenberger 2016) will shed new light on the prehistory of Tocharian VGCs. Following Fellner&Grestenberger 2016 and Fellner 2014 I argue that the VGCs in TB -a TA -ø cannot be traced back to compounds ending *-eh2 or roots nouns with final laryngeals on morphological and phonological grounds.
Based on the fact that VGCs in TB -a TA -ø show the same inflection as other verbal nouns, e.g., the nt-participles (TB näkṣeñca TA näkṣant: TBA näk- ‘destroy’), I show that they have to be traced back to IE compounds that were renewed as *ōn-stems and can thus be equated with Germanic compounds of the type OHG herizogo < PGmc. *harjatugô ‘leader of the army, duke’.
We show that the usage of *-nt- in Tocharian does not differ qualitatively from that of the inner-Indo-European languages and that *-mh1no-, albeit synchronically grammaticalized as gerund-like form, originally had the same function in Tocharian as its reflexes in the inner-Indo-European languages. With respect to their participial morphology, Tocharian is therefore less archaic as previously thought and patterns with the inner-Indo-European languages, while the Anatolian branch remains the most archaic one in the family.