[PLing] Heiner Eichner 1942-2024

[Melanie Malzahn]

Dear Colleagues,

I have the sad duty to inform you that our emeritus Heiner Eichner 
passed away on March 7th as a result of pneumonia.

 From 1989 until his retirement in 2010, he was Professor of General and 
Indo-European Lingusitics at the University of Vienna and Corresponding 
Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

As a member of the Erlangen School, Heiner Eichner was one of the most 
influential Indo-Europeanists of the late twentieth century and helped 
to pioneer today's Handbook Knowledge.

His meticulous methods of reconstruction and his encyclopedic knowledge 
of linguistic facts were hardly equaled. His love for learning modern 
languages brought less studies ones into the focus of attention, 
including modern Iranian, which he also promoted as director of the 
Iranian Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

He will be remembered as an enthusiastic teacher and a scholar deeply 
committed to his field.

Melanie Malzahn