Birgit Anette Olsen
Encyclopedia
Birgit Anette Olsen (April 2, 1952, Denmark
) is a Danish linguist, associate professor at the Roots of Europe
research center at the University of Copenhagen
. She is an expert on Proto-Indo-European
and Indo-European languages
in general, especially derivational morphology
and the history of Armenian
. She has also published important articles on linguistic reconstruction
and the history of Latin
, Greek
, Anatolian
and Germanic languages
. She is married to Jens Elmegård Rasmussen
, and her official surname is Rasmussen, but as a linguist she uses her maiden's name Olsen to avoid confusion in references.
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
) is a Danish linguist, associate professor at the Roots of Europe
Roots of Europe
Roots of Europe is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Copenhagen, focusing on prehistoric Europe...
research center at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
. She is an expert on Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
and Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
in general, especially derivational morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
and the history of Armenian
Armenian language
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
. She has also published important articles on linguistic reconstruction
Linguistic reconstruction
Linguistic reconstruction is the practice of establishing the features of the unattested ancestor of one or more given languages. There are two kinds of reconstruction. Internal reconstruction uses irregularities in a single language to make inferences about an earlier stage of that language...
and the history of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Anatolian
Anatolian languages
The Anatolian languages comprise a group of extinct Indo-European languages that were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language.-Origins:...
and Germanic languages
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
. She is married to Jens Elmegård Rasmussen
Jens Elmegård Rasmussen
Jens Elmegård Rasmussen is associate professor of Indo-European Studies and head of the Roots of Europe research center at the University of Copenhagen. He is an expert on Proto-Indo-European and Indo-European languages in general, especially morphophonemics, but he has also published articles on...
, and her official surname is Rasmussen, but as a linguist she uses her maiden's name Olsen to avoid confusion in references.
Selected publications
- 1988, The Proto-Indo-European Instrument Noun Suffix *-tlom and its Variants. Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
- 1999, The Noun in Biblical Armenian. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
- 2010, Derivation and composition: Two studies in Indo-European word formation. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft.