Prospectus

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Indo-European Linguistics I

Course
2017-2018

Admission requirements

Some knowledge of an ancien Indo-European language, e.g., Latin or Greek, is strongly recommended.

Description

Which phonemes do we reconstruct for Proto-Indo-European and why? Why does Latin actus have a long a, but aptus a short one? When was the RUKI-rule phonemicized? How were the laryngeal pronounced and what type of evidence helps us to answer that question? These are all questions about the historical phonology of Proto-Indo-European that will come up during this course. Combined with the course Indo-European linguistics II: Morphology, which is taught in the second semester, the course will enable the student to reconstruct Proto-Indo-European words on the basis of words from various Indo-European languages.

Course objectives

Obtaining knowledge about phonological change between Proto-Indo-European and its daughter languages.
Obtaining knowledge about the following sound laws: Brugmann, Bartholomae, Lachmann, Winter, Grimm, Verner, Kluge, Grassmann, ruki-regel, Sievers, Osthoff.
Understanding the arguments for possible phonetic interpretations of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European phonemes.
Developing reconstruction skills.
Applying sound laws to reconstructed forms.

Timetable

The timetable is available on the MA Linguistics website

Mode of instruction

Lecture/Seminar
Reading scholarly literature

Course Load

26 hours of instruction, 2 hours examination, 112 hours preparation and reading literature.

Assessment method

Written examination with open questions. There is a resit with the same format.

Blackboard

Blackboard will be used for distribution of course materials.

Reading list

R. Beekes, Comparative Indo-European linguistics: an introduction. Second edition, revised and corrected by M. de Vaan. Benjamins, 2011.

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available in [English])http://hum.leiden.edu/students/study-administration/usis-english.html) and Dutch

Students other than MA Linguistics need permission from the coordinator of studies before enrolling.

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable

Contact

Please contact Student administration van Eyckhof for questions.