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Natalie Korobzow

Abteilung für Sprach- und Kulturevolution
Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig

E-Mail: natalie_korobzow@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de

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About me

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution. My research is driven by the desire to gain a better understanding of human prehistory. I am fascinated by rare linguistic phenomena and enjoy working out the details of their origin, but I am also interested in the bigger implications of my findings for the history of mankind.

I approach these questions by practicing “language archaeology” where I combine traditional historical-comparative methodology with insights from diachronic language typology and anthropology to access states of languages that are not directly attested in the form of texts. I have worked on Mayan, Indo-European and Yeniseian languages. A further interest of mine is the development of the Aramaic script and derivates of it, especially in Central Asia. For my PhD dissertation, I investigated split ergativity in Ch’orti’ Maya and its origin in the ancient Mayan language recorded in the hieroglyphic texts.

As a member of the QUANTA team, I work on numerals in Mesoamerica. In particular, I am studying their prehistory and the role cultural inventions like the Mesoamerican calendar have played in establishing the vigesimal system across the whole language area.

Curriculum Vitae

Academic Degrees
2019–2024PhD in Linguistics (summa cum laude), University of Cologne      
Thesis: “Split Ergativity in Ch’orti’ Maya: A Contribution to a Diachronic Typology of Alignment Change”   
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Eugen Hill, University of Cologne & Prof. Dr. Uta Reinöhl, University of Freiburg
2016–2019M.A. in Linguistics, University of Cologne
2012–2016B.A. Ancient American Studies & Anthropology and Scandinavian Studies (double major), University of Bonn
2011–2014B.A. Romance Studies (major) and Celtic Studies (minor), University of Bonn
Academic Positions
since 2024Postdoctoral researcher in the ERC-funded Synergy project “QUANTA: Origin of cognitive tools for quantification”    
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig
2022–2024Doctoral researcher in the DFG-funded project “VedaWeb 2.0 – Developing a collaborative workspace for Old Indo-Aryan texts”
Chair of Comparative Philology, Department of Antiquities, University of Würzburg
2021–2022Teaching assignment “Diachrone Sprachtypologie” (Diachronic Language Typology)           
Department of Linguistics, University of Cologne
2017–2020Research assistant in the DFG-funded research project “VedaWeb – An Online Research Platform for Old Indic Texts“           
Department of Linguistics, University of Cologne
2016–2021Research assistant in the project “Averroes Edition” funded by the North Rhine-Westphalia Academy for Sciences and Arts (AWK NRW)   
Thomas-Institut, University of Cologne

Publications

Fries, Simon & Natalie Korobzow. 2024. On the dating of sound changes and its implications for language relationship. The case of Proto-Yeniseian *p- > Ket h-, Yugh f-. Diachronica. Online-first articles.
DOI

Halfmann, Jakob, Svenja Bonmann, Simon Fries & Natalie Korobzow. 2024. A New Reading of the Bactrian Part of the Dašt-i Nāwur Trilingual (DN I). Indo-Iranian Journal 67(1). 5–51.
DOI

Bonmann, Svenja, Simon Fries, Natalie Korobzow, Laura Günther & Eugen Hill. 2023. Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. Part I: Word-Initial Consonants. International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics 5. 39–82.
DOI

Bonmann, Svenja, Jakob Halfmann, Natalie Korobzow & Bobomullo Bobomulloev. 2023. A Partial Decipherment of the Unknown Kushan Script, Transactions of the Philological Society 121.2.
DOI

Fries, Simon & Natalie Korobzow. 2024. On the dating of sound changes and its implications for language relationship. The case of Proto-Yeniseian *p- > Ket h-, Yugh f-. Diachronica. Online-first articles.
DOI

Halfmann, Jakob, Svenja Bonmann, Simon Fries & Natalie Korobzow. 2024. A New Reading of the Bactrian Part of the Dašt-i Nāwur Trilingual (DN I). Indo-Iranian Journal 67(1). 5–51.
DOI

Bonmann, Svenja, Simon Fries, Natalie Korobzow, Laura Günther & Eugen Hill. 2023. Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. Part I: Word-Initial Consonants. International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics 5. 39–82.
DOI

Bonmann, Svenja, Jakob Halfmann, Natalie Korobzow & Bobomullo Bobomulloev. 2023. A Partial Decipherment of the Unknown Kushan Script, Transactions of the Philological Society 121.2.
DOI

Korobzow, Natalie. 2016. Nynorn: Die Rekonstruktion des Norn. Dialectologia et Geolinguistica 24, 126–144.
DOI

Linnemeier, Jan-Niklas & Natalie Korobzow. 2024. Shining in the Distance – PIE colour terms revisited. XVII. Fachtagung “The Speakers of Indo-European and their World – 150 years of Indo-European studies in Basel”, 9–12 September 2024, University of Basel.

Bonmann, Svenja, Jakob Halfmann & Natalie Korobzow. 2024. Multilingualism in Central Asia: What “Afghanistan’s Rosetta Stone” can tell us about peoples and cultures in the Kushan empire. Fifth Conference of the Hellenistic Central Asia Research Network (HCARN) “Whose custom is it anyway? Empire, cities and people through archaeology, art and written sources in Hellenistic Central Asia”, 21–23 March 2024, University of Paris-Nanterre.

Bonmann, Svenja, Jakob Halfmann & Natalie Korobzow. 2023. Deciphering the Unknown Kushan Script. Invited talk at the Department of General Linguistics, University of Freiburg.

Halfmann, Jakob, Svenja Bonmann & Natalie Korobzow. 2023. A First Look at a New Language of the Kushan Empire. 37th South Asian Languages Analysis Roundtable (SALA-37), 4–7 October 2023, Venice.

Halfmann, Jakob, Svenja Bonmann, Natalie Korobzow & Simon Fries. 2023. A New Look at the Bactrian Part of the Dašt-i Nāwur Trilingual (DN 1). International Symposium “Takht-i Sangin as an example of the synthesis of the civilizations of East and West”,  4–6 October 2023, Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Dushanbe (online).

Korobzow, Natalie. 2023. The Significance of Open Data in Historical-Comparative Linguistics. Arbeitstagung “Sound Change and Morphological Analogy” of the Indo-European Society (IG-AT2023), 12–14 September 2023, University of Cologne.

Halfmann, Jakob & Natalie Korobzow. 2023. The Evolution of Spatial Orientation Systems in Mayan and Nuristani, 26th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 26), 4–8 September 2023, University of Heidelberg.

Bonmann, Svenja, Simon Fries, Laura Günther, Natalie Korobzow & Eugen Hill. 2023. Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. 26th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 26), 4–8 September 2023, Universität Heidelberg.

Bonmann, Svenja, Jakob Halfmann & Natalie Korobzow. 2023. A Partial Decipherment of the Unknown Kushan Script. 10th European Conference of Iranian Studies (ECIS10), 21–25 August 2023, University of Leiden.

Bonmann, Svenja, Jakob Halfmann & Natalie Korobzow. 2023. A Partial Decipherment of the Unknown Kushan Script. International Scientific Work Seminar of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan on the topic “Discovery of the Almosi Inscriptions and Their Position among the Ancient Scripts of Central Asia”, 1 March 2023, Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Dushanbe (online).
https://www.academia.edu/97965292/

Korobzow, Natalie. 2022. Directions of Alignment Change. 25th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 25), 1–5 August 2022, University of Oxford.

Korobzow, Natalie. 2022. Future Tense in Old and Modern Icelandic. 6th Indo-European Research Colloquium, 7–8 March 2022, University of Cologne/Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Jena (online).