Manfred Markus (born 15 February 1941 in

Hagen Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...

, Germany), is a German-Austrian linguist and university professor. He has been professor emeritus since 2009.

Education and career

After studying philosophy,

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

, English, and German at the universities of

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

, and

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

and the "

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

" at the

University of Regensburg The University of Regensburg () is a public research university located in the city of Regensburg, Germany. The university was founded on 18 July 1962 by the Landtag of Bavaria as the fourth full-fledged university in Bavaria. Following groundbr ...

in 1980, Markus was chairholder as a full professor of English

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and mediaeval English literature at the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...

, Austria, from 1981 to 2009. He was head of the English Department there from 1985 to 1995 and from 2005 to 2007. He was also visiting professor and guest lecturer at several international universities, in particular, at the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the Public university, public university system of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, University of Massachusetts Lowell ...

in Amherst, but also in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. Markus is (co-) author or (co-) editor of 22 scholarly books and some 120 articles. He was also co-editor of the book series ''Austrian Studies in English'' (formerly ''Wiener Beiträge zur Philologie''). His edition and translation of the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

Arthurian romance ''

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English alliterative verse. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot comb ...

'' into German (1974; 4th ed. 2009) has as yet remained the only German edition of this text. With a background in English and American literary studies, Markus after 1975 focused on linguistics, both

synchronic Synchronic may refer to: * ''Synchronic'' (film), a 2019 American science fiction film starring Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan *Synchronic analysis, the analysis of a language at a specific point of time *Synchronicity, the experience of two or m ...

and

diachronic Synchrony and diachrony are two complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis. A ''synchronic'' approach - from ,("together") + ,("time") - considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. In contrast, a ''diac ...

. He is widely known as the director of ICAMET (the Innsbruck Computer Archive of Machine-Readable English Texts), with the two historical text corpora ''Innsbruck English Letters 1386-1698'' and ''Innsbruck Middle English Prose'' on his record as compiler. His main achievement as a corpus linguist, however, is the creation of an online version of Joseph Wright's comprehensive ''

English Dialect Dictionary English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

'' (1898-1905), '' EDD Online'', which, by its software, allows for an access to English dialects worldwide from 1700 to 1903. Markus continued to be director of the ''EDD Online'' project, initiated by him in 2005, until its completion in 2022. With his book ''Literaturlinguistik'' (2025), he explores the cooperation of linguistics and literary studies. In 2006, a ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'' was dedicated to Manfred Markus.

Personal life

Markus has been living in Innsbruck since 1981. He has both the Austrian and the German citizenship. With his wife Ingrid he has two sons,

Dirk Markus Dirk Erich Markus (born January 15, 1971) is a German-born entrepreneur. He is a founding partner of private equity investment group Aurelius. From an initial investment of €500,000 invested in 2005, Markus created one of Europe's largest pri ...

(born 1971), who is co-founder of the investment company

Aurelius Group Aurelius Group is a global investor with offices in Amsterdam, London, Luxembourg, Malta, Milan, Munich, New York, and Stockholm. The company focuses on alternative investment, private equity, private debt and real estate investments. History ...

, and Ron Markus (born 1974), who is a writer and producer for German TV-series

Personal life

Markus has been living in Innsbruck since 1981. He has both the Austrian and the German citizenship. With his wife Ingrid he has two sons,

(born 1971), who is co-founder of the investment company

, and Ron Markus (born 1974), who is a productive writer and producer for German TV-series

Main fields of research

English dialectology, historical English, phonology, contrastive and corpus linguistics, English varieties, Middle English literature, narrative technique and stylistics, corpus linguistics

Publications

Books

Markus, Manfred. 2021. ''English Dialect Dictionary Online: A New Departure in English Dialectology.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Markus, Manfred. 1990. ''Mittelenglisches Studienbuch.'' UTB Große Reihe. Tübingen: Francke. Markus, Manfred. 1985. ''Point of View im Erzähltext: Eine angewandte Typologie am Beispiel der frühen amerikanischen Short Story, insbesondere Poes und Hawthornes.'' Sonderheft 60. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft. Markus, Manfred. 1977. ''Tempus und Aspekt. Zur Funktion von Präsens, Präteritum und Perfekt im Englischen und Deutschen''. Kritische Information, 61. München: Fink. Markus, Manfred, ed. and transl. 1974. ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Sir Gawain und der Grüne Ritter.'' Stuttgart: Reclam (4th ed. 2009. Stuttgart: Reclam). Markus, Manfred. 1971. ''Moderne Erzählperspektive in den Werken des Gawain-Autors.'' Nürnberg, Regensburg: Carl Verlag (Neuauflage 1987. Frankfurt/M., Bern, New York: Lang).

Edited volumes

Markus, Manfred, Yoko Iyeiri, Reinhard Heuberger and Emil Chamson, eds. 2012. ''Middle and Modern English Corpus Linguistics: A Multi-dimensional Approach.'' Studies in Corpus Linguistics 50. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Markus, Manfred, Clive Upton and Reinhard Heuberger, eds. 2010. ''Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary and Beyond: Studies in Late Modern English Dialectology.'' Frankfurt am Main et al.: Peter Lang. Manfred Markus, with Christian Mair, eds. 1992. ''New Departures in Contrastive Linguistics: Proceedings of the Conference Held at the Leopold-Franzens-University of Innsbruck, Austria, 10–12 May 1991.'' 2 vols. Anglistische Reih 5/6. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft.Review of ''New Departures in Contrastive Linguistics'': Richard C.L. Matthews, ''AAA: Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik'',

Selected articles

Markus, Manfred. 2022. "Wright about Wight: a dialect glossary of the Isle of Wight based on EDD Online." ''Journal of Linguistic Geography'' 10.2: 76–86
Wright about Wight: A dialect glossary of the Isle of Wight based on EDD Online
Markus, Manfred. 2021. "OED and EDD: comparison of the printed and online versions." ''Lexicographica'' 37: 261–280. Markus, Manfred. 2021. "Aphesis and aphaeresis in Late Modern English dialects (based on EDD Online)." ''English Studies'' 102.1: 124–141. Markus, Manfred. 2020. "What did Joseph Wright mean by meaning: The complexity of lexical semantics in the English Dialect Dictionary Online." ''International Journal of English Studies'' 20.1: 1-25. Markus, Manfred. 2017. "The Survival of Shakespeare’s Language in English Dialects (on the Basis of EDD Online)." ''English Studies'' 98.8 (2017): 881- 896. Also published online 8 September 2017
The Survival of Shakespeare’s Language in English Dialects (on the Basis of EDD Online)
Markus, Manfred. 2015. "’Sirrah, What's Thy Name?’: The Genesis of Shakespeare's Sirrah in Relation to Sir and Sire in Late Middle and Early Modern English." ''English Studies'' 96.2: 1–13.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Markus, Manfred 1941 births Living people