Eleanor Coghill

Eleanor Coghill is Professor of Semitic Languages in the Department of Linguistics and Philology at Uppsala University. Her academic profile centers on the linguistic analysis and documentation of Neo-Aramaic dialects, particularly those from Northeastern Iraq.

Her research interests encompass:

• Historical development of Neo-Aramaic dialects
• Morphological and syntactic structures in Semitic languages
• Language contact phenomena between Neo-Aramaic and Arabic
• Grammaticalization processes in endangered languages
• Documentation of rapidly disappearing linguistic varieties

Professor Coghill's scholarly output reveals a consistent trajectory of detailed linguistic analysis combined with fieldwork-based documentation. Her recent publications (2022-2025) demonstrate continued engagement with cutting-edge research in Neo-Aramaic linguistics, with particular emphasis on morphological borrowing, dialectal variation, and grammatical features across different Neo-Aramaic varieties.

She has made significant contributions to major reference works in Semitic linguistics, including chapters in 'The Semitic Languages' (Routledge, 2019) and co-editing the comprehensive 'Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures — A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan' (2025). Her 2016 monograph 'The Rise and Fall of Ergativity in Aramaic: Cycles of Alignment Change' published by Oxford University Press represents a major theoretical contribution to historical linguistics.