This book is a revised version of my PhD Thesis, submitted at Philipps-Universität Marburg (Germany) on the 11th of December 2018. The defence took place on May 8th 2019 and the work was accepted for publication by Brill one year later. I would like to thank Craig Melchert and Olav Hackstein for allowing me to publish in their series as well as Elisa Perotti and Cas Van den Hof for their collaboration on the technical preparation and typesetting of the book.
During my time as a graduate student, I had the chance to work as a research assistant for several projects, first and foremost the eDiAna-project (Digital Philological-Etymological Dictionary of the Minor Ancient Anatolian Corpus Languages) financed by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and led by Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Rieken, Prof. Dr. Olav Hackstein and Prof. Dr. Jared Miller. The time spent on the synchronic and etymological dictionary of the Anatolian languages (2014–2017, 2018–present), while working together with the other members of the project, did contribute much to the production of my thesis. In this respect, I would like to thank Dr. Andreas Opfermann, Dr. Zsolt Simon, Dr. Thomas Steer and Dr. Anja Busse. During the one-year interruption of the project (2017–2018), I was offered a short contract within the HFR-project (Das Corpus der hethitischen Festrituale) financed by the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz and led by Prof. Dr. Daniel Schwemer and Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Rieken, to whom I am very thankful. Within this frame, I had the pleasure to work together with Dr. Susanne Görke on the Palaic festival texts. Our collaboration was likewise contributive to my knowledge and understanding of this cuneiform language, which naturally also plays a role in the present monograph. Afterwards, I was offered a contract as Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft for the preparation of the volume Keilschrifttalfeln aus Kayalıpınar 1. Textfunde aus den Jahren 1999–2017, edited by Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Rieken. Within the scope of this task, I have learned much that benefitted the technical side of my dissertation, before it was submitted within the same year.
Within the frame of the eDiAna-project and beyond, I would like to express my gratitude and best regards to Dr. habil. Ilya Yakubovich, with whom I had the opportunity to discuss a countless number of topics related to the Anatolian languages. He was always ready to hear my new ideas and discuss my opposing views vis-à-vis his own, through which my knowledge of the subject has benefited much. He consistently supported me, as I was working on the compilation of my thesis and publication of my academic work, for which I am tremendously grateful.
Despite the long distance between us, though partially filled by our meetings at conferences, Prof. Dr. Craig Melchert has always generously guided me through my work on Anatolian and Indo-European Linguistics. His own academic work has always been a model for me and my admiration towards him was confirmed by our meetings, during which I listened to him speak about our field of research for several hours without missing a single word. Furthermore, he played a huge part in the process of revising Anatolian Verbal Stem Formation, paid an incredible attention to every detail, and contributed to a significant improvement of several chapters—a debt that could never be repaid.
Prof. Dr. Oettinger from the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg had generously accepted to be my second advisor for my PhD thesis. I am deeply thankful for all the time and advice he gave me. To my colleagues and friends Theresa Roth and Ulrich Geupel, my fellow graduate students, I would like to express my sincerest regards and thanks for their help on all sorts of matter. Their presence and support through this challenging period in life will always be remembered.
Other people who have played a role during the writing of the dissertation and its publication and who should not be left unmentioned are Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miguel Villenueva Svensson, Dr. Anna Bauer and Adrian Saldanha, to whom I am also very thankful.
Last but not least, Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Rieken, who has not only been my supervisor on the thesis, but also my M.A. professor, deserves in my eyes more praise and gratitude than it is possible to express in this preface. When I moved from Canada to Germany, eager to do an M.A. in Indo-European Linguistics within the famous German tradition, my expectations were met with great satisfaction. Prof. Rieken contributed brilliantly to the fulfilment of my curiosity for the field of Indo-European studies, taught me a strict methodology and converted me to the Anatolian branch, for which I have developed a great passion. Furthermore, I am immensely thankful for her meticulous and patient guidance during my first steps into the academic world. Her support during my thesis, every time accompanied by the best of advice, has been cherished and will always be a model for me.
David Sasseville
Marburg, May 2020