The Faculty is delighted to announce the new project ‘History of the Istro-Romanian Language’, generously supported by the Leverhulme Trust.

‘Istro-Romanian’ is a severely endangered language now spoken in its homeland, the Istrian peninsula, Croatia, by some 120 people and by members of an international diaspora. It is a Romance language uniquely affected by contact with the non-Romance Croatian, yet there is no comprehensive, internationally accessible, history. There is already a tradition of research on this remarkable language in Oxford, and the new project aims to produce such a history in English: the first part will describe the ‘external’ history of the language and the speech community, including the postwar diasporic period, while the second part will be a detailed ‘internal’ structural history. The judgements and testimonies of the surviving speakers will closely inform this work.

The project will be led by Martin Maiden, with Oana Uță Bărbulescu, Ștefania Costea, and Adina Brădeanu as researchers. Fabian Helmrich (working on an AHRC-funded DPhil on aspect in Istro-Romanian) will be an associate of the project. Congratulations to them all, and we look forward to learning more about Istro-Romanian as their work progresses!