Historical Linguistics

Principles of historical linguistics: how languages change over time and the methods used to reconstruct these developments. The course focuses on phonological change, with units also covering morphological change, syntactic change, and semantic change. It will introduce students to types of evidence used in reconstruction and models used to analyze and explain language change. We will cover language relationships and the methods of establishing familial groupings, and compare patterns due to familial descent to patterns associated with language contact and borrowing. Examples will be drawn from a variety of languages, both ancient and modern.