Stefan Michael Newerkla (; born October 7, 1972) is an Austrian linguist, Slavist and philologist. He has taught as Professor of West Slavic Linguistics at the University of Vienna since 2004 and has been Full Member (Fellow) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 2018.

Biography

Born in Horn, Lower Austria, Newerkla majored in Slavonic Studies as well as

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

American Studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory. Sch ...

Vienna University The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public university, public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the Geogra ...

(1996). He took his PhD (1998) at this very university with his doctoral

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

diglossia In linguistics, diglossia () is a situation in which two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled " ...

in the school system of the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

-speaking

crown lands Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. ...

of the

Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

(1740–1918) featuring the West Bohemian district town of

Plzeň Plzeň (; German and English: Pilsen, in German ) is a city in the Czech Republic. About west of Prague in western Bohemia, it is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabita ...

. From 2000 to 2003 he was employed in a research project of the

Austrian Science Fund The Austrian Science Fund (german: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, FWF) is the most important Austrian funding organization for basic research. The FWF supports research in science, engineering, and the humanities through a ...

(FWF) on linguistic contacts between

, Slovak and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, which he completed with his postdoctoral thesis (

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

) on German

loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...

in Czech and Slovak, highlighting their historical development, giving their first evidence in literature and presenting previous and new etymologies for them. Newerkla was appointed Professor of West Slavic Linguistics at the Alma Mater Rudolphina Vindobonensis in 2004. He is married to Lenka Newerkla, a senior lecturer of Czech at the

University of Salzburg The University of Salzburg (german: Universität Salzburg), also known as the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (''Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg'', PLUS), is an Austrian public university A public university or public college is a univ ...

. Together, they have three children. His brother

Nikolaus Newerkla Nikolaus Philipp Newerkla (; born 1974 in Horn, Austria) is a harpsichordist, arranger and conductor. He began his musical career by studying piano at the University of Music in Graz under Eike Straub. Inspired by his long-standing teacher, the o ...

is the conductor of the award-winning ensemble

Quadriga Consort Quadriga Consort aka Quadriga Early Music Band is an early music ensemble from Austria. Founded in 2001 by harpsichordist Nikolaus Newerkla, the ensemble plays rearranged early British and Irish traditional music performed on period instruments. ...

Work

Newerkla's research interests include

- Slavic

language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

as a linguistic area, language

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...

schooling A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...

and

language education Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinary field. There are four main learning categories for language education: ...

in the

, and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

's contributions to

and Slovak National

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

. Moreover, he is co-author of

textbooks A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...

and exercise books for Czech and Slovak language classes. Newerkla publishes several book series, and – together with Fedor Poljakov – the international journal ''Vienna Slavic Yearbook'' ( Harrassowitz publishing house). Currently, Newerkla is working mainly on two research areas supported by the

(FWF) – on the project "German and Slavic languages in Austria: aspects of language contact", which is part of the Special Research Programme (SFB) "German in Austria. Variation – Contact – Perception", and together with Roman Krivko and Fedor Poljakov on the international joint project "Slavic studies in exchange: Austria and Russia in 1849–1939". Together with Alexandra N. Lenz, Newerkla also contributes to the thematic platform on

multilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) with the project "Aspects of Multilingualism in Austria: Competence – Usage – Attitudes". Moreover, he is founding member of the "Research Platform for the Study of Transformations and Eastern Europe".

Honors

Newerkla has been elected Member of the Academic Assembly of the

Czech Academy of Sciences The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes back ...

since 2010 and of its Science Council since 2013. In 2017, he was awarded the ''

Josef Dobrovský Josef Dobrovský (17 August 1753 – 6 January 1829) was a Czech philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Czech National Revival along with Josef Jungmann. Life and work Dobrovský was born at Balassagyarmat, Nógr ...

Honorary Medal for Merit in the Philological and Philosophical Sciences'' of the

. In 2014, Newerkla was elected Corresponding Member and in 2018 Full Member (Fellow) of the Division of Humanities and the Social Sciences of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Since 2022 he is also elected Member of the Academy Council of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

References

External links

Information about the researcher
at the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Information about the researcher
at the

Information about the researcher
at the "Research Platform for the Study of Transformations and Eastern Europe"

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newerkla, Stefan Michael 1972 births Living people Linguists from Austria Sociolinguists Slavists Historical linguists University of Vienna alumni Academics of the University of Vienna Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences People associated with the Czech Academy of Sciences People from Horn, Austria 20th-century linguists 21st-century linguists