EDU5352 Historical Linguistics
By learning and applying the fundamental methods of linguistic reconstruction, participants investigate the history of languages and extrapolate into their futures. Concentration will be on the Indo-European language family and within that, the Germanic branch that includes English. Depending on class interest, other families (Romance, Japanese, etc.) can and will be discussed. There will be a survey of languages of unusual histories: mixed languages, pidgins and creoles, lingua francas, signed languages, and others. From Proto-World to Proto-Indo-European to World Englishes. (Review the structure of language and your grammatical terms along the way!)