Comparative Indo-European Linguistics

You do not have to come to Brno personally to take the entrance exam. The result of the admission process depends on the quality of the documents that you provide. Those will be assessed by the admission committee and you will be notified about the results via e-mail.

Eligibility Criteria

Only university graduates of Master's degree programmes of Philology/Linguistics/concrete language philology can be admitted to the doctoral study programme (full-time or combined mode) after passing an entrance examination. Graduates of other programmes can be admitted only in special cases. It is always good to contact the supervisor, prof. Václav Blažek (blazek@phil.muni.cz) before applying.

Terms of Admission

1. Submission of an electronic application in the Masaryk University Information System.
2. Submission of applicant's Master's Thesis:
   • a) Applicants from outside of Masaryk University: Submission of a copy of the applicant's Master's Thesis. If this is not available, an English-language summary of the Thesis must be provided together with a minimum twenty-page sample of the applicant's academic or scholarly writing in English.
   • b) Graduates of Masaryk University need not submit a copy of their Master's Thesis, as theses are available to the Doctoral Studies Committee via the Masaryk University Information System.
3. Submission of a transcript(s) of university/college studies.
4. Submission of a research proposal for the doctoral dissertation in English.
5. Submission of a letter of motivation in English.
6. Applicant's CV in English.

Application Deadlines

1 January - 30 April for the enrollment in the Fall semester
1 July - 31 October for the enrollment in the Spring semester

Documents set out above in the Terms of Admission are required to be provided in digital form and attached to the online application by April 30th or October 31st.

Contact

admission@phil.muni.cz

The program s goal is to recognize and understand the diachronic development of languages, primarily Indo-European; to understand structures and trajectories, on which these structures are changing and to acquaint the basic language facts and methodology.

The goals of the study are:

i. to acquaint the basic typological and structural properties of the language systems of the old Indo-European languages;

ii. to acquaint the needed methodology of the diachronic description of languages;

iii. to apply these methods to analyse a concrete problem (the subject of the Ph.D. thesis)

The program is a possible superstructure either for the M.A. program "General linguistics" (of the same department) or any other concrete philology of a given IE language.

The students follow an individual study plan, framed up by their supervisor and oriented toward a concrete methodological development and linguistic analysis. The study is single-subject only.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• both synchronically and diachronically analyze the systems and structures of the Indo-European languages
• apply the chosen method independently
• bring own innovative approach both material and methodological
• to write a paper and publish it, to actively take part on the scientific conferences
• know the history of the methods of the Indo-European linguistics

The study is primarily intended for those 

students which are interested in the professional carrier in academics.

An integral part of the study is publishing papers (in the extent given by the individual study program) and teaching at least one term course.

The extent and form of the PhD thesis follow the study regulations of Masaryk University. An important pre-requirement is the preparation of a PhD thesis proposal.

By writing a PhD thesis the students must demonstrate their knowledge of the current state of the field and of the adequate methodology as well as provide their own innovation both in the methodology and understanding of the topic under study.