Martin Maiden (born Southampton, UK, 20 May 1957) is Statutory Professor of the Romance Languages at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and a Fellow of

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

. Maiden was educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton, and then at

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...

, where he received a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages, having studied French, Italian, Romance philology, and general linguistics, in 1980 and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

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 ...

in 1987 (doctoral thesis: ''Metaphony and the Italian dialects: a study in morphologisation''). He taught Italian at the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

(1982–1989) and subsequently became a lecturer in Romance Philology at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

(1989–1996), where he was a Fellow of

Downing College Downing College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 950 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to the university between 1596 and 1869, ...

. In 1996 he took up his position in Oxford. Since 2025 he has held Romanian as well as British citizenship. Maiden specializes in the history and structure of the Romance languages, especially varieties of

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

, Dalmatian,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and other Italo-Romance dialects,

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical li ...

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

, and

dialectology Dialectology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , ''-logy, -logia'') is the scientific study of dialects: subsets of languages. Though in the 19th century a branch of historical linguistics, dialectology is often now c ...

. He has published some 150 articles and book chapters, and edited or authored several books, in these areas and the grammar of Italian. He has also co-edited volumes on morphological theory with reference to Romance languages.

Honours

He has been a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

since 2003. He holds an honorary doctorate from the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

(2013), and in 2013 was also appointed to the rank of "Commander" in the Romanian National Order of Faithful Service. In 2018 he was elected a Member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

and in 2019 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Downing College. In 2019 he was also appointed ''Membro corrispondente'' of the Italian ''

Accademia della Crusca The (; ), generally abbreviated as La Crusca, is a Florence-based society of scholars of Italian linguistics and philology. It is one of the most important research institutions of the Italian language, as well as the oldest Academy#Linguisti ...

.''

Selected major works

Maiden is also a contributor to all of the edited volumes cited * 1991 ''Interactive Morphonology. Metaphony in Italy.'' London: Routledge. * 1995 ''A Linguistic History of Italian.'' London: Longman. * 1997 (edited with M. Parry) ''The Dialects of Italy''. London: Routledge. * 1998 ''Storia linguistica dell’italiano'', Bologna: il Mulino. * 2007 (with C. Robustelli) ''A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian''. London: Hodder Arnold. * 2011 (edited with J. C. Smith and A. Ledgeway) ''The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages I Structures''. Cambridge: CUP. * 2011 (edited with J. C. Smith, M. Goldbach and M.-O. Hinzelin) ''Morphological Autonomy. Perspectives from Romance Inflectional Morphology.'' Oxford: OUP. * 2013 (edited with J. C. Smith and A. Ledgeway) ''The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages II Contexts''. Cambridge: CUP. * 2016 (edited with A. Ledgeway) ''The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages''. Oxford: OUP. * 2018 ''The Romance Verb. Morphomic Structure and Diachrony.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. * 2020 (edited with S. Wolfe) ''Variation and Change in Gallo-Romance Grammar.'' Oxford: OUP * 2021 (with A. Dragomirescu, G. Pană Dindelegan, O. Uță Bărbulescu, and R. Zafiu) ''The Oxford History of Romanian Morphology.'' Oxford: OUP * 2022 (edited with A. Ledgeway) ''The Cambridge Handbook of Romance Linguistics.'' Cambridge: CUP

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maiden, Martin Living people 1957 births Academics of the University of Bath Accademia della Crusca Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Dalmatian language Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Downing College, Cambridge Linguists from England Linguists of Italian Linguists of Romance languages Linguists of Romanian Members of Academia Europaea People educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton People from Southampton