LING 210: Language History

Course Description

Addresses the question "Why does language change?" Specific topics include: the history and origin of writing; why pronunciation changes; change in vocabulary and what it tells us about change in culture and society; the relation between "language" and "dialect"; multilingualism and its consequences, including Pidgins and Creoles; genetic relationship between languages, with focus on the "Indo-European" family (English, German, French, Russia, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, etc.) and the relationships between human languages. Prerequisite: Fulfillment of the foreign language requirement of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.