UNIVERSITY OF SZEGED
DOCTORAL SCHOOL IN LINGUISTICS
NEWS
ALTAIC STUDIES
Programme director: Prof. István Zimonyi DSc
Department of Altaic Studies
H-6722 Szeged, Egyetem u. 2. Hungary
Phone: +36-62-544-404
Fax: +36-62-544-319
E-mail: zimonyi at hist.u-szeged.hu
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
Languages of instruction: Hungarian or English
8 semesters – total credits: 240
1. Obligatory requirements (200 credits)
a) Research (a total of 170 credits, as follows: 10 each in semesters 1 and 2, and 25 each in semesters 3 through 8)
Research leading to the dissertation, as specified by the dissertation advisor.
The research requirement involves completion of a research report in each of the first two semesters of coursework, to be accepted by the dissertation advisor, and the completion of a publishable paper in each of the semesters 3 through 6.
In semesters 7 and 8, completed chapters of the dissertation are to be handed in and an oral presentation based on them to be given for the successful fulfillment of the research credits.
b) Obligatory courses: 6 (contact hours: 2 hours weekly, 5 credits per course, total of 30 credits)
Semester 1:
1. Comparative and historical Turkic phonetics
2. Comparative and historical Turkic morphology
3. Comparative and historical Mongolistics
Semester 2:
4. Comparative Altaistics
5. Philological analysis of Altaic texts (Old Turkic)
6. Philological analysis of Altaic texts (Middle Turkic and Mongolian)
2. Optional requirements (a total of 40 credits, 20 of them to be completed in semesters 1–4 and 20 in semesters 5–8, to be fulfilled in any combination of the five categories of requirements below)
a) Optional courses (from any program within the Doctoral School of Linguistics): 4 credits each (a maximum of one per semester, to be taken with the approval of the program director and dissertation advisor)
b) Directed study (with dissertation advisor) (4 credits per semester)
c) Conference presentations (individually authored or co-authored presentation or poster presentation listed in the conference program)
poster presentation in mother tongue 1
poster presentation in a second/foreign language 2
oral conference presentation in mother tongue 4
oral conference presentation in a second/foreign language 5
d) Paper published or accepted for publication
paper in mother tongue 4
paper in a second/foreign language 5
e) Teaching (one one-hour seminar course of 14 weeks: 2 credits; a maximum of 8 credits per semester, and a total of 48 credits as per University of Szeged Regulations of Doctoral Studies and Conferring the Doctoral Degree).
f) Scholarly peer review 1
COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION: SUBJECTS/AREAS
Comparative Altaic studies
Comparative Turkology
THE READING LISTS OF THE COMPLEX EXAMS 2021
RESEARCH TOPICS
Issues in the history and description of Altaic languages
Supervisor: Prof. András Róna-Tas MHAS
Mongolian word-formation
Supervisor: Bajarma Kempf PhD
Turkic word-formation
Supervisor: László Károly PhD
CURRENT STUDENTS
Semester 1:
Bence Gombkötő
Semester 3:
Togabayeva Guldana
Semester 7:
Isik Murat
MAJOR COURSES
Analysis of Old Turkic texts (László Károly PhD, Tibor Porció PhD)
Analysis of Middle Turkic texts (Éva Kincses Nagy PhD, Mária Ivanics DSc)
Recent developments of diachronic, comparative and synchronic Altaic Studies (Bajarma Kempf PhD)
Theory of language kinship (András Róna-Tas MHAS)
Introduction to research in Altaic Studies (András Róna-Tas MHAS)
Recent developments in the history of Mongolian (Bajarma Kempf PhD)
Recent developments in the history of Turkish (Éva Kincses Nagy PhD)
Phonology (see Theoretical linguistics)
AVAILABLE FACILITIES FOR STUDENTS
The programme gives access to the internationally known specialised libraries of Gyula Németh (professor of turkology) and Lajos Ligeti (orientalist professor). Besides, students can use the library of the Department of Altaic Studies, too. The above mentioned libraries include some 16.000 volumes and nearly 10.000 offprints. The Department’s library offers a rich collection of journals as well, with the leading titles of the field. PhD students can use all the facilities of the Department of Altaic Studies.
CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION
Apart from the knowledge of the oriental (Turkish, Mongolian) language under investigation, knowledge of European languages (English, German, Russian) is also required.
Knowledge of the literature given by the programme:
Georg, Stefan, Peter A. Michalove, Alexis Manaster Ramer and Paul J. Sidwell, Telling general linguists about Altaic. Journal of Linguistics 35, 1999, 65–98.
Johanson, L. – É. Á. Csató (eds.), The Turkic languages. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
Johanson, L., Discoveries on the Turkic Linguistic Map. Stockholm: Svenska Forskningsinsti-tutet i Istanbul, 2001.
RECENT DISSERTATIONS
A tuva nyelv mongol jövevényszavai [The Mongolian loanwords of the Tuva language], Baiarma Khabtagaeva, Prof. Árpád Berta and Prof. András Róna-Tas, 2007
Yakut derivational morphology. An historical approach. Deverbal nominals, László Károly, Prof. Árpád Berta and Prof. András Róna-Tas, 2008
