written by Iris Kamil (University of Edinburgh), recipient of a travel and fieldwork bursary from the Philological Society

The workshop on the Afroasiatic Middle t-Morpheme was held over two days, from the 8–9 of May 2024 at the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Linguistics and English Language. 

Across Afroasiatic, middle morphology (i.e. the expression of reflexives, passives and anticausatives) appears to be expressed by a uniform set of morphemes, n– and t-. However, no studies or joint efforts had previously been undertaken with the aim of compiling the different contexts and rules with which these morphemes may be used, nor of mapping out the morphemes’ diachronic development. Although these morphemes had received some past treatment (though mostly only in Semitic and Berber), the precise scope and function of the morphemes remained obscure and ambiguous. 

The goal of this workshop was thus a first attempt at compiling the patterns of middles across Afroasiatic, starting with the t-morpheme, bringing together scholars working in different methodologies and different fields of study. It was hoped that (a) the exchange of different approaches and (b) the exploration of various patterns across languages could help us to workshop the function and scope of the morpheme and better understand its diachronic development.

Our workshop featured a wide range of methodological frameworks, including generative grammar, diachronic typology, frameworks at the syntax-phonology interface, philology and the historical-comparative method. We had talks on Semitic, Berber, Cushitic and Egyptian, featuring over twenty different languages within these four families. The data presented ranged from corpora attestations as early as 2,500 BCE to recently-collected fieldwork data (some even collected within the last year). Among the participants were PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, lecturers and assistant and tenured professors. In regard to the exchange of information, the workshop was thus highly successful. It was held in hybrid format, in order to increase accessibility and enable participation from a global audience. Indeed, we drew an audience from five continents, with fourteen in-person participants and around 35 online attendees.

The final day concluded with a lengthy discussion (of around one and a half hours) concerning the recurring patterns explored throughout the two days, as well as hypotheses and approaches to how one might treat the morpheme both synchronically and diachronically.

Not only has the workshop been immensely useful to my own research and thesis, but it has hopefully also had an impact on Afroasiatic, theoretical and typological linguistics. We hope that this workshop improved our general understanding, not only of the t-morpheme in Afroasiatic, but also of Afroasiatic middle morphology in general. The workshop will have proceedings, likely in the form of a special edition journal, and will hopefully return for a second instalment in the future, again with the premise of special focus on only one grammatical form.

The workshop would not have been possible if not for the kind support of the Philological Society, which allowed us to cover the hospitality needed to welcome our speakers. The experience of organising an event of this magnitude, with the support of so many helpful hands, was furthermore immensely beneficial to my academic skills training, and an opportunity I am well aware not every PhD student gets.