Лезов Сергей Владимирович

Responsibilities

Coordinator of the Moscow Circle for Aramaic Studies

Education and Degrees

1995

Candidate of Sciences* (PhD)

1981

Degree
Lomonosov Moscow State University

* Candidate of Sciences
According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) 2011, Candidate of Sciences belongs to ISCED level 8 - "doctoral or equivalent", together with PhD, DPhil, D.Lit, D.Sc, LL.D, Doctorate or similar. Candidate of Sciences allows its holders to reach the level of the Associate Professor.

Professional Interests

Semitic Languages aramaic languages Aramaic studies neo-aramaic languages Christian Palestinian Aramaic Akkadian language Akkadian literature Assyriology biblical hebrew morphosyntax ergativity corpus linguistics historical corpus linguistics

Awards and Accomplishments

Best Academic Supervisor in the category ‘Student Engagement with External Customers’ — 2023

Supervisor of the following Doctoral theses

for a Candidate of Sciences degree

1
The Akkadian Ventive and Its Functions in Old Assyrian, 2025

Courses (2025/2026)

Imperial Aramaic (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Humanities field of study Asian and African Studies; 5 year, 1-4 module)Rus
Research Seminar Aramaic Folklore of Upper Mesapotamia and Its Kurdish Origins (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Humanities field of study Asian and African Studies; 5 year, 1-3 module)Rus
Syriac (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Humanities field of study Asian and African Studies; 5 year, 1-3 module)Rus
Past Courses

Timetable for today

Full timetable

Conferences

2018
ÜBERLEBEN IM SCHATTEN: Geschichte, Sprache und Kultur des Syrisch-Aramäischen Christentums (Берлин). Presentation: Qattīl as a predicate in Classical Syriac: a corpus-based description

2017
1st Arba’ello International Conference and Workshop on Syriac and Sureth Language Studies (Эрбиль). Presentation: Differences between Midyat and village dialects of Ṭuroyo: The basic lexicon

2016
International Conference on Neo-Aramaic Dialectology: Jews, Christians and Mandaeans (Варшава). Presentation: A Diachronic Perspective on the Intransitive Preterit (Qatəl) of Ṭuroyo
7th Meeting of the International Association for Comparative Semitics (Мадрид). Presentation: Adnominal prepositional phrases in Akkadian and elsewhere in Semitic

2015
International Conference on Surayt Aramaic (Кембридж). Presentation: Surayt Aramaic (Ṭuroyo) as a Second Language: Acquisition of the Basic Lexicon
Verfolgt und Vertrieben: Christen im Vorderen Orient 1915-2015 (Гейдельберг). Presentation: Unsolved problems related to emergence and development of Modern Aramaic

2014
7th Biannual Conference of the Association for Comparative Semitic Linguistics (Москва). Presentation: The Structural Isoglosses Separating Proto-Turoyo from Classical Syriac

2013
Neo-Aramaic Dialectology: Jews, Christians, and Mandaeans (Иерусалим). Presentation: A Verb Glossary of Ṭuroyo

2012
The Classification of Semitic Languages: Archaism and Innovation (International Association for Comparative Semitics) (Кордова). Presentation: History of Aramaic: a Project

14

Apr

2026

‘These Languages Are Now under Threat, So We Must Hurry’

Sergey Loesov, professor at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies (Faculty of Humanities), and his colleagues document endangered languages while working in the field in Tur Abdin and Qalamoun. In this interview, Prof. Loesov discusses field linguistics, Kurdish assistants, and a ‘bold analogy’ with the Prague Linguistic Circle.

21

Nov

2025

'I Have Always Been Fascinated by Deciphering: Reading Texts That No One in the Modern World Had Ever Read Before'

The deciphering of a recently discovered inscription at the Iraqi archaeological site of Tell Dehaila has led to a major breakthrough: the settlement was inhabited during the New Babylonian period, from the eighth to the sixth centuries BC, extending its known lifespan by more than a thousand years compared to earlier estimates. Ilya Arkhipov, Deputy Director and Associate Professor at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies of the HSE Faculty of Humanities, spoke to the HSE News Service about the Russian–Iraqi expedition, his passion for antiquity, and the teaching of ancient languages and Oriental history at HSE University.

10

Sep

2025

HSE Doctoral Student Awarded for Best PhD Presentation at 58th Societas Linguistica Europaea Conference

From August 26–29, 2025, the largest annual linguistics conference, Societas Linguistica Europaea, took place in Bordeaux, France. Doctoral students and researchers from HSE University took part in the event. The paper ‘Lability Drift in Modern Aramaic languages’ by Elena Shvedova was highly praised by the expert community and took first place among PhD student presentations. In an interview with the HSE News Service, Elena Shvedova spoke about her research and the conference itself.

Sergey Loesov