ERC Advanced GrantThe Development of Literacy in the Caucasian Territories

Jost Gippert studied Comparative Linguistics, Indology, Japanese and Chinese at the universities of Marburg and Berlin (FU). Degree of philosophical Doctor (Dr.phil.) in 1977 with a study on the infinitive syntax of Indo-European languages. Various positions as a lecturer and university assistant in Indo-European linguistics in Berlin, Vienna, and Salzburg (1977-1990). Worked as a computational linguist in the field of Oriental languages at the University of Bamberg from 1990 to 1993. From 1994 to 2022 holder of the chair of Comparative Linguistics at the University of Frankfurt / Main. Member of the Academy of Sciences of Gelati (Georgia) and the Academy Project Turfan Studies of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Speaker of the research unit “Digital Humanities Hesse” (2011–2014) and the “Centre for the Digital Foundation of Research in the Humanities” (since 2015–2017 and 2019). Founder and leader of the TITUS project aiming at a comprehensive collection and WWW edition of texts in ancient Indo-European (and neighbouring) languages (since 1987). Manuscript studies on palimpsests of Caucasian origin (Georgian, Armenian, 'Caucasian-Albanian') and on manuscripts of Indian and Central Asian provenance ( Tocharian, Avestan, Maldivian, etc.). Since 2022 Senior professor at the Centre for Manuscript Studies, University of Hamburg and leader of the ERC project 'DeLiCaTe'.

Emilio Bonfiglio is a philologist and cultural historian of the late antique and early medieval periods, specializing on the study of Greek, Latin, Armenian, and Syriac patristic and early Christian texts. After obtaining his MPhil (2008) and DPhil (2011) from the University of Oxford, he has held research and teaching positions at the universities of Geneva, Oxford, Vienna, Boğaziçi, and Tübingen. Additionally, he was the recipient of two Calouste Gulbenkian fellowships in Geneva and Istanbul, a British Academy PDF at Oxford, and, more recently, the Byzantine Fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks in 2020/2021. His research focuses especially on the edition of John Chrysostom and the medieval history and literature of the Armenians, for which he combines expertise in philology, codicology, palaeography, and cultural history. His most recent publications have dealt with the history of the Armenians in the Holy Land and the reception of John Chrysostom in medieval Armenia.

Mariam Kamarauli started her studies in linguistics in 2010. After obtaining her Master’s degree in 2015, she was accepted as a member of the research training program (Graduiertenkolleg) 'Nominal Modification' at Frankfurt University, where she completed her dissertation project in 2018. Her thesis 'The Nominal Domain in Georgian. A Diachronic Analysis' covers the historical development of the Georgian language (Old, Middle, and Modern Georgian) with regard to the nominal domain and discusses previously unresearched topics such as the development of definiteness in Georgian. Prior to the DeLiCaTe project, Dr Kamarauli worked as a lecturer of general linguistics at the Institute of Empirical Linguistics at Frankfurt University. Her main research focus is on Caucasian languages, Syntax, Semantics, and Typology.

Eka Kvirkvelia defended a PhD thesis with the title 'Codicological and Textological Analysis of 11th-Century Georgian Manuscripts of the Gospel and the History of Formation of Giorgi Athonite’s Recension of the Four Gospels'. The aim of the research was to conduct a palaeographical, codicological, and textual analysis of 11th-century manuscripts containing the Georgian translation of the Gospels which reflect the editorial work of George the Athonite and on the basis of this study to single out the basic principles characteristic of translation and editorial activities of George the Athonite. In addition, she has participated in the publication of the academic text of the hymnographic collection of the Lenten Triodion under George the Athonite’s redaction according to all ancient Georgian manuscripts (11th-13th centuries).

Eka Kvirkvelia participates in Georgian and international projects, she is the author of a number of scientific articles. Her research areas are: Georgian Palaeography and Codicology, Old Georgian Language, History of the Georgian Literary Language, Georgian Epigraphy, Digital Epigraphy, Textual criticism of the Georgian Four Gospels, Georgian Hymnography.

Hasmik Sargsyan is a PhD student at the University of Frankfurt (topic of the PhD thesis: 'Turkic, Persian, and Arabic loans in Early and pre-Modern Armenian non-standard texts', supervised by Jost Gippert and Monika Rind-Pawlowski). Masters degrees in Iranian Studies (M.A., Yerevan State University, 2007) and Empirical Linguistics (M.A., Goethe University of Frankfurt, 2015, topic of the thesis: 'Relative Clauses introduced by zi in Classical Armenian'). Her interests in linguistics include, in the first place, different aspects of the synchrony and diachrony of Armenian, Iranian languages. contact languages of Armenian and language contact in general.