Prof David Stifter

    Early Irish (Sean-Ghaeilge), Chronologicon Hibernicum, Arts and Humanities Institute, School of Celtic Studies

    Gaeilge agus fáilte

    Professor

    Arts Building
    22
    (01) 708 3710
    Biography

    Biography

    Current Research Interests: Language variation and change in Old Irish, comparative Celtic linguistics (esp. Old Irish and Continental Celtic), language contact in the ancient world and on the early medieval British Isles.

    Professor David Stifter is Professor of Old Irish at Maynooth University Department of Early Irish since 2011. He received an ERC Consolidator Grant for the project 'Chronologicon Hibernicum - A Probabilistic Chronological Framework for Dating Early Irish Language Developments and Literature' (Horizon2020 Grant Agreement no. 647351) in 2015. He studied Latin, Russian and Indo-European linguistics at the University of  Vienna, and received his Mag. Phil. in 1998 for a thesis on the Old Irish influence on the Latin of the Nauigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis. As part of his studies, he spent the year 1995/6 at Maynooth University studying Old and Middle Irish with Prof. Kim McCone. In 2003 he was awarded his PhD for a thesis on the Didactics of Old Irish.

    From 2000–2008 David Stifter was contract assistant at the Department of Linguistics at the University of Vienna. During this time, he played a major role in establishing and developing the Celtic studies programme at the University. He is a founding member and secretary of the Societas Celtologica Europaea (European Association of Celtic Studies scholars)

    From 2006, he directed and worked on three different research projects:

    Prof. Stifter is currently Principal Investigator in the ERC-funded project Chronologicon Hibernicum - A Probabilistic Chronological Framework for Dating Early Irish Language Developments and Literature' (https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/chronhib

    Professor Stifter has published widely on the Old and Middle Irish language and literature, and on the Continental Celtic languages (Celtiberian, Gaulish and Lepontic). His introductory handbook Sengoídelc. Old Irish for Beginners (Syracuse University Press 2006) has been adopted for teaching Old Irish in universities world-wide and was awarded the 2006 Michael J. Durkan Prize for Books on Language and Culture of the American Conference for Irish Studies.

    He is founder and editor of the interdisciplinary Celtic-studies journal Keltische Forschungen (Vienna 2006–).  He co-edited several volumes in Celtic and Indo-European linguistics, among them the four-volume collection The Celtic World. Critical Concepts in Historical Studies (Routledge 2007).

    Selected Publications:

    • Roma, Elisa, Stifter, David (eds.) (2014) 'Linguistic and Philological Studies in Early Irish'. Lewiston, NY - Lampeter.
    • Viret, Jérémie, Lambert, Pierre-Yves, Stüber, Karin, Stifter, David, Repanšek, Luka (2014) 'La défixion gauloise de Chartres'. Paris.
    • Stifter, David (2015) 'The Language of the Poems of Blathmac'. In: Ó Riain, Pádraig (ed.) The Poems of Blathmac Son of Cú Brettan: Reassessments, Irish Texts Society: London, 47-103.
    • Griffith, Aaron, Stifter, David, ‚New and corrected ms. readings in the Milan glosses‘, Études Celtiques 40 (2014), 53–83.
    • Stifter, David (2014) 'The history of the Old Irish preverb to-'. In: Roma, Elisa, Stifter, David (eds.) Linguistic and Philological Studies in Early Irish, Edwin Mellen Press: Lewiston, NY – Lampeter.
    • Stifter, David (2013) 'Towards the Linguistic Dating of Early Irish Law Texts'. Medieval Irish Law. Text and Context (=Sydney Series in Celtic Studies 12), The University of Sydney Celtic Studies Foundation 2013,
    • Stifter, David (2011) 'Lack of Syncope and other nichtlautgesetzlich Vowel Developments in OIr. Consonant-Stem Nouns. Animacy Rearing its Head in Morphology?'. In: Thomas Krisch, Thomas Lindner, Michael Crombach, Stefan Niederreiter (eds.) Indogermanistik und Linguistik im Dialog. Akten der XIII. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft vom 21. bis 27. September 2008 in Salzburg., Ludwig Reichert Verlag: Wiesbaden.
    • Stifter, David (2009) 'Chapter 4. Early Irish'. In: Ball, Martin J., Müller, Nicole (eds.) The Celtic Languages, Routledge: Abingdon - New York.
    • Stifter, David, Martin Braun, Michela Vignioli, Chiara Dezi, with the cooperation of Corinna Scheungraber, Anna Adaktylos, Eva Lettner, Marcel Schwarz (2009) 'Lexicon Leponticum (http://www.univie.ac.at/lexlep)'. -,
    • Stifter, David (2006) 'Sengoídelc. Old Irish for Beginners'. Syracuse NY.

    Recent Invited Lectures & Presentations:

    • ‘The language of the Poems of Blathmac’ (The 16th Annual Irish Texts Society Seminar on The Poems of Blathmac Son of Cú Brettan, edited by James Carney, Irish Texts Society vol. 47 (1964), University College Cork, 8 November 2014)
    • ‘In the Thicket of Times’ (Celtic Studies Association of North America. Annual Con­fe­rence 2014, Hotel Roanoke, Roanoke VA, 6 March 2014)
    •  ‘Linguistic approaches to dating, theory and practice’ (Medieval Celtic Law Texts: a framework for scholarly, legal and social development, University of Sydney, Celtic Studies Conference, 25 October 2012)
    •  ‘Die Behandlung von Gruppen von Labiallaut und n im Keltischen’ (plenary paper at: Gedenksymposium Schindlers Listen: Ein Vierteljahrhundert Jochem-Schindler-Lehre in Wien, Institute for Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, 13 September 2012).
    • ‘Phonological History of Celtic’ (Celtic Spring in Copenhagen. Workshop for Roots of Europe – Language, Culture, and Migrations, University of Copenhagen, 24 May 2012)
    • ‘An Léann Ceilteach san Ostair’ (Léachtaí Colm Chille XLIII. Saothrú an Léinn Cheiltigh ag Scoláirí Thíortha na Gearmáinise, Ollscoil na hÉireann Má Nuad, 31 March 2012).
    • ‘Magic Regained. New Readings in the Stowe Missal fol. 67v’ (34th Annual UC Celtic Studies Conference & Annual Meeting of the Celtic Studies Association of North America, University of California Los Angeles9 March 2012)
    Research Publications Professional Teaching