EDU 5352 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!)