LIN 211 Indo-European Linguistics and Poetic Traditions
What do Russian, Hindi, Gaelic, Icelandic, Latin, Greek, and English have in common? All these languages and their “descendants” and “relatives” (spoken by 3 billion people today) trace their linguistic ancestry back over 5,000 years to a common source: Proto-Indo-European (PIE). This course provides a comparative and historical approach to the development of these Indo-European languages and the cultures associated with them. We begin with the comparative method of linguistic reconstruction that leads us to the phonology, morphology, and syntax of reconstructed PIE; we will also discuss PIE society, religion, and poetic traditions, and the controversy of locating the PIE homeland. We then explore the development from ancient to modern times of the various branches of this language family.
Cross Listed Courses
CLA 347.