Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold

Curriculum Vitae

• Born: 1953 in Bad Neustadt (Germany)
• 1979-1985: Studies of history and culture of Islamic countries, Semitic studies and applied linguistics (English) at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. Master of Arts degree. Thesis: The Vocabulary of the Arabic Dialects of Bahrein
• 1985-1987: Two years research-leave at the Aramaic villages of Qalamūn (Syria), funded by the DAAD. I focused on a comparative analysis of the phonetics and morphology of the three Western Neo-Aramaic dialects.
• 1987-1988: Postgraduate studies of Semitic studies, history and culture of Islamic countries, and geography at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen. In July 1988 doctoral degree summa cum laude. Title of the thesis: Phonetics and Morphology of Western Neo-Aramaic.
• 1988-1991: Research officer at Prof. Dr. Otto Jastrow's project "Western Neo-Aramaic". Publication of four volumes containing texts of the Western Neo-Aramaic.
• 1991-1996: Assistant at the chair of Semitic Studies at the institute of Language and Culture of the Near East at the University of Heidelberg. In this period fieldwork on the Arabic dialects of Antiochia spoken by the immigrants in Germany.
• 1993: Research leave in Dhofar, to gather data on the Modern South Arabic languages.
• 1996-1997: Assistant at the Institute of Extraeuropean Languages and Cultures of the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg.
• 1997: Post-doctoral thesis ("Habilitation") on the Arabic dialects of Antiochia at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg.
• 1997-1999: Senior assistant at the institute of extraeuropean languages and cultures of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg. I continued to work on the dictionary of Western Neo-Aramaic.
• since October 1999: Professor of Semitic studies at the Institute of language and culture of the near east of the University of Heidelberg.