Joaquín Gorrochategui

Joaquín Gorrochategui Churruca (born 17 August 1953) is a Spanish linguist, emeritus professor of Indo-European linguistics at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). He works in historical linguistics on the languages of the pre-Roman Iberian Peninsula and the ancient languages of Western Europe, and is regarded as a leading authority on the history of the Basque language. A pupil and continuator of Koldo Mitxelena, he coordinates the Hesperia database of Palaeohispanic languages and epigraphy, and in 2023 was awarded the Euskadi Research Prize.

Early life and education

Gorrochategui was born in Eibar, in the Basque Country, on 17 August 1953. He read classical philology at the University of Salamanca, where he took his licenciatura and his doctorate. He completed the doctorate in 1982 with a thesis on the indigenous onomastics of Aquitaine, supervised by Koldo Mitxelena. He then studied at Toulouse and undertook postgraduate work on Celtic linguistics at the University of Bonn under Karl Horst Schmidt. As a researcher he held stays at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, the Ausonius Institute of the University of Bordeaux and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and was a visiting professor at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris.

Career

Gorrochategui became professor (catedrático) of Indo-European linguistics in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of the Basque Country, and later professor emeritus. He has directed the university's Institute for the Sciences of Antiquity and its doctoral programme in linguistics, and served as dean of the Faculty of Letters and as director of its publishing division.