Johann-Mattis List
@lingulist.de
Linguist leading the Chair for Multilingual Computational Linguistics at the University of Passau. Working on computer-assisted approaches to historical and typological language comparison.
Infomap by Rosvall and Bergstrom (2008) is so central to my work, I use it in research a lot, but also in teaching, this is such a beautiful algorithm with such a robust and nice implementation!
So apparently the Map Equation (infoMap) can now legally drive in the states.
When we developed this approach, I thought it would be an incremental advance that would not not have staying power.
Martin was more optimistic—and he was right.
Take a look at Martin's new tutorial!
When we developed this approach, I thought it would be an incremental advance that would not not have staying power.
Martin was more optimistic—and he was right.
Take a look at Martin's new tutorial!
The map equation turned 16 a week ago. Since @carlbergstrom.com and I published Maps of random walks on complex networks reveal community structure in PNAS: hierarchical, higher-order, temporal, overlapping variants. Our new ACM tutorial maps the landscape we created. dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3779648
February 6, 2026 at 8:54 AM
Infomap by Rosvall and Bergstrom (2008) is so central to my work, I use it in research a lot, but also in teaching, this is such a beautiful algorithm with such a robust and nice implementation!
New preprint by Frederic Blum (major idea and implementation) and me (the one who criticized and commented), introducing a new approach on regularity assessment.
"Using correspondence patterns to identify irregular words in cognate sets through leave-one-out-validation"
arxiv.org/abs/2602.02221
"Using correspondence patterns to identify irregular words in cognate sets through leave-one-out-validation"
arxiv.org/abs/2602.02221
Using Correspondence Patterns to Identify Irregular Words in Cognate sets Through Leave-One-Out Validation
Regular sound correspondences constitute the principal evidence in historical language comparison. Despite the heuristic focus on regularity, it is often more an intuitive judgement than a quantified ...
arxiv.org
February 3, 2026 at 8:11 AM
New preprint by Frederic Blum (major idea and implementation) and me (the one who criticized and commented), introducing a new approach on regularity assessment.
"Using correspondence patterns to identify irregular words in cognate sets through leave-one-out-validation"
arxiv.org/abs/2602.02221
"Using correspondence patterns to identify irregular words in cognate sets through leave-one-out-validation"
arxiv.org/abs/2602.02221
First contribution in this year to our blog / journal on Computer-Assisted Language Comparison in Practice.
"Transparent Application of Text Generation Tools in Scientific Research"
calc.hypotheses.org/9138
"Transparent Application of Text Generation Tools in Scientific Research"
calc.hypotheses.org/9138
Transparent Application of Text Generation Tools in Scientific Research
In this opinion piece, I share my view on the application of language models and text generation services in scientific research. In my opinion, scientific research that lives up to the promises of op...
calc.hypotheses.org
January 26, 2026 at 8:25 AM
First contribution in this year to our blog / journal on Computer-Assisted Language Comparison in Practice.
"Transparent Application of Text Generation Tools in Scientific Research"
calc.hypotheses.org/9138
"Transparent Application of Text Generation Tools in Scientific Research"
calc.hypotheses.org/9138
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
In the past decade or two, predatory publishers have built a parallel universe of publication opportunities preying on the least privileged & most vulnerable of our colleagues
I got my hands on what passes for peer review at one such journal
ideophone.org/on-plagiaris...
I got my hands on what passes for peer review at one such journal
ideophone.org/on-plagiaris...
On plagiarism, predatory publishers and creating the future we want – The Ideophone
ideophone.org
January 16, 2026 at 7:51 AM
In the past decade or two, predatory publishers have built a parallel universe of publication opportunities preying on the least privileged & most vulnerable of our colleagues
I got my hands on what passes for peer review at one such journal
ideophone.org/on-plagiaris...
I got my hands on what passes for peer review at one such journal
ideophone.org/on-plagiaris...
Mein erster Blogbeitrag im neuen Jahr beschäftigt sich kritisch mit dem Begriff des Halluzinierens von Sprachmodellen: "Vom Fabulieren und Halluzinieren" wub.hypotheses.org/3313
January 12, 2026 at 9:55 AM
Mein erster Blogbeitrag im neuen Jahr beschäftigt sich kritisch mit dem Begriff des Halluzinierens von Sprachmodellen: "Vom Fabulieren und Halluzinieren" wub.hypotheses.org/3313
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
WTF?! 🫣 Is this a joke?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A religious quote, "primitive languages", and nonsense everywhere. Is Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications a scam journal?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A religious quote, "primitive languages", and nonsense everywhere. Is Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications a scam journal?
A cross-linguistic investigation of /h/ symbolism: the case of H2O - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - A cross-linguistic investigation of /h/ symbolism: the case of H2O
www.nature.com
January 8, 2026 at 8:59 AM
WTF?! 🫣 Is this a joke?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A religious quote, "primitive languages", and nonsense everywhere. Is Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications a scam journal?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A religious quote, "primitive languages", and nonsense everywhere. Is Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications a scam journal?
Final preprint in this year (I guess), by our doctoral student David Snee, Luca Ciucci, and myself:
Variation in Language Phylogenies May Result From Variation in Concept Translation
doi.org/10.17613/dpa...
Variation in Language Phylogenies May Result From Variation in Concept Translation
doi.org/10.17613/dpa...
Variation in Language Phylogenies May Result From Variation in Concept Translation
Phylogenetic reconstruction in historical linguistics now typically relies on cognates sets assembled from multilingual wordlists. While more and more scholars now trust in the robustness of the algor...
doi.org
December 18, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Final preprint in this year (I guess), by our doctoral student David Snee, Luca Ciucci, and myself:
Variation in Language Phylogenies May Result From Variation in Concept Translation
doi.org/10.17613/dpa...
Variation in Language Phylogenies May Result From Variation in Concept Translation
doi.org/10.17613/dpa...
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
"Da Chatbots weder Urheberschaft noch Transparenz kennen, haben sie die zwei grundlegenden Säulen umgeworfen, die unsere Wissenschaft bisher getragen haben."
@lingulist.hcommons.social.ap.brid.gy argumentiert, dass gute wissenschaftliche Praxis und KI sich widersprechen.
@lingulist.hcommons.social.ap.brid.gy argumentiert, dass gute wissenschaftliche Praxis und KI sich widersprechen.
Kann man verantwortungsvolle Wissenschaft mit KI betreiben?
Wir blicken auf ungefähr drei Jahre zurück, in denen der Hype um Chatbots und die sogenannte “künstliche Intelligenz” angehalten hat, ohne einen sichtbaren Schaden zu nehmen. In dieser Zeit habe ich erlebt, wie die Anzahl von Menschen, die regelmäßig mit Chatbots über ihre Arbeit sprechen, in meinem Kollegenkreis beständig zugenommen hat. Es gibt einige Poweruser, […]
wub.hypotheses.org
December 15, 2025 at 8:14 AM
"Da Chatbots weder Urheberschaft noch Transparenz kennen, haben sie die zwei grundlegenden Säulen umgeworfen, die unsere Wissenschaft bisher getragen haben."
@lingulist.hcommons.social.ap.brid.gy argumentiert, dass gute wissenschaftliche Praxis und KI sich widersprechen.
@lingulist.hcommons.social.ap.brid.gy argumentiert, dass gute wissenschaftliche Praxis und KI sich widersprechen.
Final blog post in our CALC-Journal in this year.
"Towards a Unified ConversionTable for Semitic Transcriptionsand Transliterations"
With our new project member Carlo Meloni.
calc.hypotheses.org/9109
"Towards a Unified ConversionTable for Semitic Transcriptionsand Transliterations"
With our new project member Carlo Meloni.
calc.hypotheses.org/9109
Towards a Unified Conversion Table for Semitic Transcriptions and Transliterations
In this study we present a preliminary conversion table that can be used for transcriptions and transliterations across different Semitic languages. We introduce the basic idea behind the table, show ...
calc.hypotheses.org
December 17, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Final blog post in our CALC-Journal in this year.
"Towards a Unified ConversionTable for Semitic Transcriptionsand Transliterations"
With our new project member Carlo Meloni.
calc.hypotheses.org/9109
"Towards a Unified ConversionTable for Semitic Transcriptionsand Transliterations"
With our new project member Carlo Meloni.
calc.hypotheses.org/9109
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
📖 ‘To be or not to be?’ That’s just the beginning of a linguistic mystery
The linguist Dr Luca Ciucci is among the editors of a new 1,300-page work exploring how the world's languages handle ‘to be’. Here, he reveals more about his research 👇
@lingulist.de #linguistics 🧪
The linguist Dr Luca Ciucci is among the editors of a new 1,300-page work exploring how the world's languages handle ‘to be’. Here, he reveals more about his research 👇
@lingulist.de #linguistics 🧪
To be or not to be: Exploring a unique word in the world’s languages
Dr Luca Ciucci is among the editors of a groundbreaking work that could help us to understand how the world's languages handle "to be". Here, he explains his research.
www.digital.uni-passau.de
December 15, 2025 at 6:41 AM
📖 ‘To be or not to be?’ That’s just the beginning of a linguistic mystery
The linguist Dr Luca Ciucci is among the editors of a new 1,300-page work exploring how the world's languages handle ‘to be’. Here, he reveals more about his research 👇
@lingulist.de #linguistics 🧪
The linguist Dr Luca Ciucci is among the editors of a new 1,300-page work exploring how the world's languages handle ‘to be’. Here, he reveals more about his research 👇
@lingulist.de #linguistics 🧪
Mein letzter Blogbeitrag in diesem Jahr via @dehypotheses.bsky.social:
"Kann man verantwortungsvolle Wissenschaft mit KI betreiben?"
wub.hypotheses.org/3240
"Kann man verantwortungsvolle Wissenschaft mit KI betreiben?"
wub.hypotheses.org/3240
Kann man verantwortungsvolle Wissenschaft mit KI betreiben?
Wir blicken auf ungefähr drei Jahre zurück, in denen der Hype um Chatbots und die sogenannte “künstliche Intelligenz” angehalten hat, ohne einen sichtbaren Schaden zu nehmen. In dieser Zeit habe ich e...
wub.hypotheses.org
December 14, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Mein letzter Blogbeitrag in diesem Jahr via @dehypotheses.bsky.social:
"Kann man verantwortungsvolle Wissenschaft mit KI betreiben?"
wub.hypotheses.org/3240
"Kann man verantwortungsvolle Wissenschaft mit KI betreiben?"
wub.hypotheses.org/3240
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
Professorship in Indo-European Studies at Copenhagen U. (apply by 12 Jan 2026): jobportal.ku.dk/videnskabeli...
Professorship in Indo-European Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen
jobportal.ku.dk
December 8, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Professorship in Indo-European Studies at Copenhagen U. (apply by 12 Jan 2026): jobportal.ku.dk/videnskabeli...
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
Open letter! Please consider signing
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Gegen die unkritische Anwendung und Implementierung sog. Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in der deutschen Wissenschaft und im Hochschulalltag
openletter.earth/gegen-die-un...
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Gegen die unkritische Anwendung und Implementierung sog. Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in der deutschen Wissenschaft und im Hochschulalltag
openletter.earth/gegen-die-un...
Gegen die unkritische Anwendung und Implementierung sog. Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in der deutschen Wissenschaft und im Hochschulalltag
openletter.earth
November 27, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Open letter! Please consider signing
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Gegen die unkritische Anwendung und Implementierung sog. Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in der deutschen Wissenschaft und im Hochschulalltag
openletter.earth/gegen-die-un...
---
Gegen die unkritische Anwendung und Implementierung sog. Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in der deutschen Wissenschaft und im Hochschulalltag
openletter.earth/gegen-die-un...
Mein Blogbeitrag für November, via @dehypotheses.bsky.social, diesmal zum Aussterben von Standardpasswörtern:
Von bedrohten Spielarten der Kultur
wub.hypotheses.org/3086
Von bedrohten Spielarten der Kultur
wub.hypotheses.org/3086
Von bedrohten Spielarten der Kultur
Die Evolution ist faszinierend, bringt sie doch die schillerndsten Formen und Strukturen in Leben und Kultur hervor. Dabei gibt es jedoch auch immer wieder Aspekte von Vielfalt, die kaum einen zu inte...
wub.hypotheses.org
November 25, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Mein Blogbeitrag für November, via @dehypotheses.bsky.social, diesmal zum Aussterben von Standardpasswörtern:
Von bedrohten Spielarten der Kultur
wub.hypotheses.org/3086
Von bedrohten Spielarten der Kultur
wub.hypotheses.org/3086
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
Offener Brief gegen die zunehmende unkritische Nutzung von KI an deutschen Hochschulen und Forschungseinrichtungen - bitte teilen! openletter.earth/gegen-die-un...
Gegen die unkritische Anwendung und Implementierung sog. Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) in der deutschen Wissenschaft und im Hochschulalltag
openletter.earth
November 20, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Offener Brief gegen die zunehmende unkritische Nutzung von KI an deutschen Hochschulen und Forschungseinrichtungen - bitte teilen! openletter.earth/gegen-die-un...
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
Talente auf der Bühne, spannende Projekte, lebendiger internationaler Austausch und verborgene Talente: Rückblick auf die Forschungskommunikation 2025 u.a. mit @lingulist.de, @sherbold.bsky.social, @haeussler.bsky.social, @mgrani.bsky.social, @hedwigeisenbarth.bsky.social, @passaudpe.bsky.social:
Forschung mit Strahlkraft in die Region und darüber hinaus
YouTube video by Universität Passau
www.youtube.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Talente auf der Bühne, spannende Projekte, lebendiger internationaler Austausch und verborgene Talente: Rückblick auf die Forschungskommunikation 2025 u.a. mit @lingulist.de, @sherbold.bsky.social, @haeussler.bsky.social, @mgrani.bsky.social, @hedwigeisenbarth.bsky.social, @passaudpe.bsky.social:
New blog post in our #CALC in Practice Blog / Journal:
"Manipulating Lexical Forms with the PyLexibank FormSpec"
calc.hypotheses.org/8877
doi.org/10.15475/cal...
"Manipulating Lexical Forms with the PyLexibank FormSpec"
calc.hypotheses.org/8877
doi.org/10.15475/cal...
Manipulating Lexical Forms with the PyLexibank FormSpec
Multilingual lexical data is typically stored in a wide variety of forms, based on many idiosyncratic decisions that vary from dataset to dataset. Here, a simple but efficient solution for the manipul...
calc.hypotheses.org
October 27, 2025 at 2:14 PM
New blog post in our #CALC in Practice Blog / Journal:
"Manipulating Lexical Forms with the PyLexibank FormSpec"
calc.hypotheses.org/8877
doi.org/10.15475/cal...
"Manipulating Lexical Forms with the PyLexibank FormSpec"
calc.hypotheses.org/8877
doi.org/10.15475/cal...
New preprint with Barbara Meisterernst, on a database of qù-tone alternations in Ancient Chinese, now out with Open-Research-Europe, awaiting open peer review.
doi.org/10.12688/ope...
The database can be accessed at qualternations.digling.org
doi.org/10.12688/ope...
The database can be accessed at qualternations.digling.org
doi.org
October 22, 2025 at 12:31 PM
New preprint with Barbara Meisterernst, on a database of qù-tone alternations in Ancient Chinese, now out with Open-Research-Europe, awaiting open peer review.
doi.org/10.12688/ope...
The database can be accessed at qualternations.digling.org
doi.org/10.12688/ope...
The database can be accessed at qualternations.digling.org
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
PHONO-ML Database
La base de données de transcriptions phonétiques en chinois moyen produite par Alexander Delaporte et Guillaume Jacques au CRLAO est disponible publiquement :
Gitlab Huma-Num = gitlab.huma-num.fr/phono-ml/dat...
Github = github.com/alxdrdelapor...
Zenodo = doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
La base de données de transcriptions phonétiques en chinois moyen produite par Alexander Delaporte et Guillaume Jacques au CRLAO est disponible publiquement :
Gitlab Huma-Num = gitlab.huma-num.fr/phono-ml/dat...
Github = github.com/alxdrdelapor...
Zenodo = doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
PHONO-ML / PHONO-ML Database · GitLab
Gitlab Huma-Num
gitlab.huma-num.fr
October 21, 2025 at 9:59 AM
PHONO-ML Database
La base de données de transcriptions phonétiques en chinois moyen produite par Alexander Delaporte et Guillaume Jacques au CRLAO est disponible publiquement :
Gitlab Huma-Num = gitlab.huma-num.fr/phono-ml/dat...
Github = github.com/alxdrdelapor...
Zenodo = doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
La base de données de transcriptions phonétiques en chinois moyen produite par Alexander Delaporte et Guillaume Jacques au CRLAO est disponible publiquement :
Gitlab Huma-Num = gitlab.huma-num.fr/phono-ml/dat...
Github = github.com/alxdrdelapor...
Zenodo = doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Mein Blogbeitrag via @dehypotheses.bsky.social für Oktober beschäftigt sich mit wissenschaftlichen Konstrukten und wie man sie kommuniziert.
Von gefühlten Tatsachen
wub.hypotheses.org/3049
Von gefühlten Tatsachen
wub.hypotheses.org/3049
Von gefühlten Tatsachen
In einem Touché-Comic, den die TAZ auf Bluesky vor ein paar Tagen teilte, wird ein älterer Herr im Schlafanzug von zwei älteren Damen, die an seiner Tür klingeln, zu früher Uhrzeit geweckt. Als er sic...
wub.hypotheses.org
October 20, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Mein Blogbeitrag via @dehypotheses.bsky.social für Oktober beschäftigt sich mit wissenschaftlichen Konstrukten und wie man sie kommuniziert.
Von gefühlten Tatsachen
wub.hypotheses.org/3049
Von gefühlten Tatsachen
wub.hypotheses.org/3049
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
Redirecting
doi.org
October 8, 2025 at 5:14 PM
New preprint by Katja Bocklage (PhD in our ERC project) and many others from our chair just published online with Humanities Commons.
Testing the Potential of Automatically Inferred Affix Colexifications for Linguistic Typology
works.hcommons.org/records/adjy...
Testing the Potential of Automatically Inferred Affix Colexifications for Linguistic Typology
works.hcommons.org/records/adjy...
Testing the Potential of Automatically Inferred Affix Colexifications for Linguistic Typology
Cross-linguistic colexification patterns have proven useful for quantitative studies in lexical typology. While most studies focus on full colexification, where senses are co-expressed by the same wor...
works.hcommons.org
October 2, 2025 at 11:59 AM
New preprint by Katja Bocklage (PhD in our ERC project) and many others from our chair just published online with Humanities Commons.
Testing the Potential of Automatically Inferred Affix Colexifications for Linguistic Typology
works.hcommons.org/records/adjy...
Testing the Potential of Automatically Inferred Affix Colexifications for Linguistic Typology
works.hcommons.org/records/adjy...
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
We're so happy to share our newest ancient DNA findings in Mongolia on the Slab Grave expansion and its consequences for diverse Bronze Age pastoralists! doi.org/10.1038/s414...
September 26, 2025 at 8:27 PM
We're so happy to share our newest ancient DNA findings in Mongolia on the Slab Grave expansion and its consequences for diverse Bronze Age pastoralists! doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
#OTD 5 yrs ago: @mzorki.bsky.social shared some thoughts on #regularexpressions, starting from what they are, and how frequently we use them without even realizing it!
#digitallife #digitaltools #regex #tbt
digitalorientalist.com/2020/09/25/s...
#digitallife #digitaltools #regex #tbt
digitalorientalist.com/2020/09/25/s...
Some thoughts on regular expressions
What are regular expressions and why use them? Those who are interested in the digital humanities or corpus linguistics are very likely to come across regular expressions (or in short regex) – a sy…
digitalorientalist.com
September 25, 2025 at 10:32 AM
#OTD 5 yrs ago: @mzorki.bsky.social shared some thoughts on #regularexpressions, starting from what they are, and how frequently we use them without even realizing it!
#digitallife #digitaltools #regex #tbt
digitalorientalist.com/2020/09/25/s...
#digitallife #digitaltools #regex #tbt
digitalorientalist.com/2020/09/25/s...
Reposted by Johann-Mattis List
Big news: Internet Archive Europe ( @internetarchive.eu ) has opened its new HQ in Amsterdam! 🎉 A home for preservation, access & shared cultural heritage.
Read coverage from @mariabustillos.com in Flaming Hydra: flaminghydra.com/freedom-and-...
Read coverage from @mariabustillos.com in Flaming Hydra: flaminghydra.com/freedom-and-...
Freedom and Sharing at the Internet Archive Europe
On Friday, in a narrow, cream-painted 17th-century row house facing a wide canal bathed in golden light, the Internet Archive Europe celebrated the opening of its new headquarters in Amsterdam. Around...
flaminghydra.com
September 24, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Big news: Internet Archive Europe ( @internetarchive.eu ) has opened its new HQ in Amsterdam! 🎉 A home for preservation, access & shared cultural heritage.
Read coverage from @mariabustillos.com in Flaming Hydra: flaminghydra.com/freedom-and-...
Read coverage from @mariabustillos.com in Flaming Hydra: flaminghydra.com/freedom-and-...