Don Ringe
· Professor Historical linguistics, Indo-European, morphologyUniversity of Pennsylvania · Linguistics
Active 1970–2024
About
Don Ringe is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include historical linguistics and Indo-European linguistics, with specific focus on Greek, Tocharian, and Germanic languages, as well as morphology. He is a member of the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science. Professor Ringe teaches courses such as Introduction to Linguistics: Language Change and the Linguistic History of English, contributing to the academic understanding of language evolution and historical language development.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Philosophy
- Linguistics
- Geology
- History
- Psychology
- Paleontology
- Economics
- Mathematics
- Macroeconomics
- Epistemology
Selected publications
2024-03-28
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter discusses syntactic change in the prehistory and history of Ancient Greek. The most important change is a gradual shift in underlying constituent order spanning the whole attestation of Ancient Greek, which is outlined in some detail. Prohibitions are discussed in some detail because their structure might reveal something about the inherited verb system. Also discussed are the use of the moods, clitics, prepositions, univerbation of compound verbs, and the expression of reflexives.
2024-03-28
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This short chapter briefly describes the book and its purpose. It explains the author’s point of view, emphasizing that the book’s main purpose is to present what is already known about the prehistory of Greek. Important points are that the reader is expected to have at least some acquaintance with Ancient Greek and some with modern linguistics (though not with any particular linguistic theory).
The Linguistic Roots of Ancient Greek
2024-03-18 · 4 citations
book1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This book traces the development of Proto-Indo-European into Ancient Greek of about the 5th century bc, attempting to recover the relative chronology of changes whenever possible and to explore in detail how the Ancient Greek dialects diversified. It is roughly parallel to From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (2nd ed.; Oxford University Press, 2017) and is intended for readers who have at least begun to learn Ancient Greek and are interested in its prehistory. Readers should be aware that this book is not a complete historical and comparative grammar of Greek.
The development of Proto-Greek inflectional morphology
2024-03-28
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter discusses the changes in inflectional morphology that took place in the development of Greek down to (approximately) the point at which the dialects began to diverge. Tense and aspect stems, mood suffixes, the augment, verb endings, nonfinite forms, and the accent patterns of Greek verbs are each discussed in detail. The development of the nominal system is organized somewhat differently. The case system and the accent-and-ablaut patterns, both of which were simplified in Greek, are treated first. Stem types of nouns and adjectives are then discussed one by one, with detailed lists of inherited members of stem classes. Inflectional endings are treated separately, as are pronouns and numerals.
Widely shared later innovations
2024-03-28
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter discusses innovations which cut across older, well-established dialect groupings and which therefore must have spread across existing dialect boundaries. Sound changes discussed include the second compensatory lengthening and other changes to ns-clusters; the loss of the digamma and its consequences; contractions of vowels in hiatus and the system of long mid vowels; outcomes of Proto-Greek affricates; and psilosis. Among morphological changes the most important are the development of 3pl. imperatives, the development of subjunctives and optatives, and extensive changes to perfect stems. None of these changes is characteristic of a single dialect group. All, however, gave rise to salient differences between dialects, and none is confined to a single dialect.
The initial diversification of Greek dialects
2024-03-28
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter addresses the diversification of Greek into the attested groups of dialects. It demonstrates that a strict cladistic diversification cannot be proved—not surprisingly, as the Greek dialects remained in contact for centuries. But it also establishes that an Aiolic group and a South Greek group, both probably defined by changes spreading through a dialect continuum, are historically significant dialect groups. It is argued that West Greek and Arkado-Cyprian, by contrast, are conservative relic areas within Greek and South Greek respectively. Phonological and morphological evidence for each of these proposed groups is discussed. In addition, other widely shared phonological and morphological innovations are treated, especially the development of labiovelars and syllabic liquids. Finally, the relatively late creation of a preposition meaning ‘into’ is discussed.
2024-03-28
other1st authorCorrespondingExtract Abbreviations ... Conventions I have systematically distinguished the secondary long mid vowels and ō ('spurious diphthongs') from the inherited diphthongs ει and ου both because the distinction is etymologically important and because the two pairs were actually pronounced differently in Attic far down into the 5th century bc, as we learn from Attic inscriptions (Threatte 1980: 172–6, 238–42; sociolinguists will recognize the pattern of early 'crossover' spellings as evidence for phonemes with overlapping but distinct variable realizations). In citing specific Homeric passages and epigraphical forms I have given the attested spelling, with a note on what it actually means if the context does not make that clear. Specific citations of literary works are identified conventionally. I have cited the fragments of lyric poets from David Campbell's Loeb edition, since it is up to date and sufficiently rigorous. For the most part I cite inscriptions from Schwyzer (1923) and Buck (1955), since those collections are easily accessible; they are identified respectively as DGE and 'Buck' (with no date). Inscriptions in the Cypriote syllabary, however, are cited from Masson (1961) as 'Masson' (with no date), and Pamphylian inscriptions from Brixhe (1976) as 'Brixhe' (with no date). (Other citations of these works are given with date and page number.) Attestations of Mycenaean forms can be found in Aura Jorro (1999). Hjalmar Frisk's etymological dictionary (Frisk 1960–1974) is cited simply as 'Frisk'. For citation abbreviations see the list above.
The phonological development of Proto-Greek
2024-03-28
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter discusses the regular sound changes that took place in the development of Greek down to (approximately) the point at which the dialects began to diverge. Chronological relationships between the changes are determined, to the extent that is possible; the attestation of Mycenaean Greek in the Linear B script is employed as a fixed chronological point. Developments of laryngeals are discussed in exceptional detail because they were complex. The sources and development of Proto-Greek *h and the development of inherited *y, which were also complex, are discussed in detail. More straightforward changes, discussed more briefly, include early developments of nasals and of obstruent clusters, conditioned unrounding of labiovelars, aspirate devoicing, an odd loss of voiceless dentals stops before word-final *i, and the development of the distinctive Greek restrictions on the placement of accent.
2024-03-28
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter discusses the sources of the Ancient Greek lexicon. Innovations in derivational morphology are discussed first; then a look at the sources of the basic vocabulary of the language, using the Swadesh hundred-word list, is attempted.
2024-03-28
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract Attic-Ionic occupies a distinctive place among Ancient Greek dialect groups. It is both the best-attested group (by far) and the group that most obviously constitutes a clade in a reasonably strict sense of the term. This chapter discusses the origin and diversification of the Attic-Ionic dialect group, as well as distinctive changes that spread through the group after it was well diversified. The relative chronology of changes affecting the Attic dialect is discussed in detail, with references to earlier work, since our extensive attestation of Attic makes that relative chronology exceptionally easy to recover (thus providing a natural laboratory for studies of linguistic relative chronology in the distant past). Most of the chapter discusses phonological changes, but the (few) shared morphological changes are also treated, notably the origin and spread of secondary 3pl. -σαν.
Recent grants
Frequent coauthors
- 15 shared
Joseph F. Eska
Virginia Tech
- 5 shared
Tandy Warnow
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- 4 shared
Ann Taylor
- 4 shared
Ann Taylor
- 3 shared
Esra Erdem
Sabancı Üniversitesi
- 3 shared
Steven N. Evans
- 3 shared
Luay Nakhleh
- 2 shared
Vladimir Lifschitz
The University of Texas at Austin
Education
- 1984
Ph.D., Historical linguistics, Indo-European, morphology
Yale
- Resume-aware match score
- Save to shortlist
- AI-drafted outreach
See your match with Don Ringe
PhdFit ranks faculty by your research interests, methods, and publications — grounded in their actual work, not templates.
- Free to start
- No credit card
- 30-second signup