Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Lars Johanson (born March 8, 1936) of Turcology sadly passed away in Mainz, Germany on November 24, 2025. A Swedish-born linguist, he played a crucial role in establishing the study of Turkic languages as a modern linguistic discipline. In addition to his significant work on Turkic linguistics, his studies in general linguistics, primarily language typology, are of great importance. His theoretical models for the study of verbal aspect systems, evidentiality, and contact linguistic phenomena have been applied to a number of languages.
Obituaries and Dedications to Professor Johanson and his life’s work.
Forthcoming publication
Turkic (Lars Johanson, 2021, republished 2026 in paperback)
Now re-published in paperback form, Cambridge Languages Surveys: Turkic will be available from August 27th 2026.
The volume provides a full description of the features of the Turkic languages, covering structural, functional, historical, sociolinguistic and literary aspects. It presents the history and cultures of the speakers, together with detailed descriptions of the linguistic structures and usage of languages including Turkish, Azeri, Turkmen, Tatar, Kazakh, Uzbek, and Uyghur. It is a valuable resource for academic researchers, students of linguistic typology and comparative linguistics, for general readers, and for all those involved in Turkic studies. View the Table of Contents here.
Available from the publisher CUP here.
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September 16, 2026 – Lars Johanson: A scholar crossing borders
First announcement for this event: Lars Johanson. A scholar crossing borders, organized by Orient-Institut Istanbul, Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, and Liszt Institute: Hungarian Cultural Center Istanbul.
The program will include short, ten-minute presentations of Lars Johanson’s curriculum vitae and academic legacy in Sweden, Germany, Türkiye, Hungary, China and Japan. The written version will also include Prof. Alexandra Aikhenvald’s account of his scholarly activities in Australia. Speakers are Birsel Karakoç (Sweden), Astrid Menz (Germany), Sumru Özsoy (Türkiye), Éva Kincses Nagy (Hungary), and Abdurishid Yakup (China and Japan).
The event will be held at the Orient-Institut Istanbul on September 16, 2026 at 7pm. A final notice and invitation will be posted on the website https://oiist.org/, distributed via the Institutes’ email lists, and shared on various social-media channels about three weeks before the event.
Registration for in-person attendance should be made via the Orient-Institut’s website. Online attendance will be possible, and will not require registration – the link will be made available on the website and in the invitation mail.
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July 16-18, 2026 – Summer School in Documentation of Endangered Languages
University of Artvin and Çoruh, Turkey, July 16-18, 2026
https://tehlikedekidiller.artvin.edu.tr
The University of Artvin and Çoruh, Turkey, held an international summer school in the documentation of endangered languages. Scholars at this university in the eastern Black Sea area study the region’s minority languages Laz (Caucasian), Romeyka (Pontic Greek), and Hemşinli (Armenian). As Artvin is close to both Georgia and Iran, their field of research includes also Meskhetian Turkish in Georgia and Turkic languages in Iran. Invited lecturers with rich experience in language documentation gave talks for a group of students coming from Turkish universities.
The school was devoted to the memory of Lars Johanson, whose participation had been planned but thwarted by his death in November 2025. His former students made presentations to honour his scholarly legacy.