Kirill Babaev
Associate Professor

  • Contact details
babaev @ yandex.ru
  • Occupations
Historical and comparative linguistics, African languages, Niger-Congo languages, morphology of person marking, morphological reconstruction, distant language relationship
  • Languages
English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Turkish
  • Personal statement
B.A., Regional Studies, Moscow State University for International Relations (1999);
M.A., International Relations, Moscow State University for International Relations (2000);
B.A., Financial Management, Academy of the National Economy for the Government of Russia (2005);
Ph.D., Historical, Comparative and Typological Linguistics, Russian State University for Humanities (2008);

Associate Professor, Center for Comparative Studies, Russian State University for Humanities (since 2008);
Founding Editor, Journal of Language Relationship (since 2008);
Member of the Editorial Board, de Gruyter Versita Publishing Program in Linguistics (since 2010);
Executive Director, Foundation for Fundamental Linguistic Research (since 2010).
Senior Researcher, Institute for Oriental Studies for the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2011);
Vice-President, Society of Orientalists of Russia (since 2011);
Executive Director, LSC Publishing House (since 2011).

  • Membership
Niger-Congo International Congress, Organising Committee (2010-2012);
Russian Linguistic Expedition to West Africa (2010);
Scientific Council for Problems of Reading (2011).
  • Selected publications & reviews

2011
  • Zialo: the Newly-Discovered Mande Language of Guinea. Studies in African Linguistics 82. Muenchen: Lincom. 260 pp.
  • The Zialo language: grammar sketch and vocabulary. Moscow: RSUH, 2011. 422 pp.
  • On the reconstruction of some tense/aspect markers in Proto-Mande. Journal of Language Relationship, 6, 2011. Pp. 1-23.
  • Person Markers in South-Western Mande Languages: a comparison and a reconstruction. Papers of the Institute of Linguistic Research. Vol. 7, part 2. St. Petersburg: Nauka. Pp. 393-449.
  • The Niger-Congo Reconstruction Project and the Perspectives of Niger-Congo Comparative Studies. Journal of Language Relationship, vol. 5. Pp. 146-150.
  • The Zialo language and the classification of South-Western Mande languages. Bulletin of the St. Petersburg State University. Series 13. Oriental and African Studies. Vol. 3, 2011. Pp. 10-22.
  • V.F.Vydrin and African Language Studies. Perekhvalskaya E. (ed.), Le Monde Mande. To the 50th anniversary of Valentin Vydrin. Materials of the Expedition to West Africa. Saint-Petersburg: Nestor-Istoria. Pp. 5-17.
  • The Macrofamilies of Africa: the contemporary state of the comparative historical studies and genetic classification. Kochergina V. (ed.), Synchonic and Diachronic in Comparative and Historical Linguistics. Materials of the 8th international conference on comparative linguistics (Moscow, 31 Jan - 02 Feb 2011). Moscow: Dobrosvet. Pp. 14-15.
  • The Ethiopian Language. Manual. O.Davydenkov. Referativny zhurnal. Yazykoznanie, vol. 3. Pp. 185-192.

2010
2009
  • The Problem of Clusivity in Indo-European vs. Nostratic. Orientalia et Classica XXVIII. Papers of the Institute of Oriental Cultures and Antiquities. Aspects of Comparativistics, no. 4. Moscow: RSUH Publishers. Pp. 112-124.
  • On the reconstruction of Benue-Congo person marking. Vydrin, V. (ed.), African Collection - 2009. St.-Petersburg: MAE RAN. Pp. 165-173.
  • On the Origins of Personal Pronouns in the World's Languages. [О происхождении личных местоимений в языках мира.] Voprosy yazykoznaniya, vol. 4. Pp. 119-138.
  • Review: In Hot Pursuit of Language in Prehistory. Essays in the four fields of anthropology. By John D. Bengtson (ed.). Amsterdam - Philadelphia, 2008. Journal of Language Relationship, vol. 2. Pp. 139-143.
  • Review: Africana Linguistics. Vol. XIV, 2008. Journal of Language Relationship, vol. 2. Pp. 173-174.
  • Reconstructing Niger-Congo Personal Pronouns. The 6th World Congress of African Linguistics. Cologne, August 2009. Pp. 62-63.
  • Various Sides of the Nostratic 'Side'. Reports at the International Conference “Historical Comparative Linguistics. Altaistics. Turcology”. Moscow, RSUH, 4-7 June, 2009. Pp. 17-19.
    Once Again on the Comparison of Personal Pronouns in Proto-Languages. Journal of Language Relationship, no. 1. Pp. 37-48.

2008
  • The Origins of the Indo-European Person Markers [Происхождение индоевропейских показателей лица]. Moscow & Kaluga: Eidos.
  • The Role of the External Comparison for the Reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European Person Markers [Роль данных внешнего сравнения при реконструкции индоевропейских показателей лица]. Ph.D. Thesis. Moscow: RSUH.
  • On the Issue of Origins of Personal Markers in the Languages of Eurasia. Gazieva, I. (ed.), Oriental Languages and Cultures. Abstracts of the 1st International Scientific Conference. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Pp. 7-8.
  • Reconstructing Benue-Congo Person Marking I. Proto-Bantoid. Journal of West African Linguistics, vol. XXXV, 1-2 (2008). Pp. 131-183.
  • On the Reconstruction of Niger-Congo Perosnal Pronoun System. Gazieva, I. (ed.), Oriental Languages and Cultures. Materials of the 2nd International Scientific Conference. Moscow: RSUH. Pp. 11-17.
  • Nostratic Personal Marker *q. Orientalia et Classica XIX. Works of the Institute of Oriental Cultures and Antique Studies. Aspects of Comparativistics, vol. 3. Moscow: RSUH. Pp. 473-498.

2007
  • On the Issue of Origins of Personal Pronouns in Eurasian Languages. Gazieva, I. (ed.), Oriental Languages and Cultures. Materials of the International Scientific Conference. Moscow: RSUH. Pp. 15-20.
  • On the Reconstruction of Two Series of Personal Pronouns in Nostratic. [О реконструкции двух серий личных местоимений в ностратическом праязыке.] Voprosy filologii, vol. 4, 2007. Pp. 146-156.