Admission requirements
None.
Description
The Gothic language is the oldest substantially documented Germanic language and was spoken by the barbarian confederations of the Goths and the Vandals in the final days of the Roman Empire. The Gothic language is primarily known to us from sixth-century Italian manuscripts which contain a fourth-century bible translation. However, additional witnesses to the Gothic language can be found in Gothic runic inscriptions, Gothic epigraphic inscriptions and Gothic religious tractates. Because of its antiquity, the Gothic language can serve as a starting point for the linguistic comparison of the Germanic languages, offering a similar archaic language stage as Latin does for the Romance language family. A dual category like Greek, a synthetic passive like Latin; Gothic has it all! This course offers an introduction to the Gothic language by exploring its philology and historical context, its grammar and its historical phonology and morphology. This way, the student will be provided with a window on the language and culture of one of the most iconic peoples of Late Antiquity.
Course objectives
In this course, the student will get acquainted with Gothic philology and acquire a reading proficiency in biblical Gothic. Additionally, the student will learn how the phonology and morphology of the Gothic language relates to the other Germanic languages and to the PIE ancestral language. At the end of the course, the student will be able to read the Gothic bible independently with help of a dictionary and relate the phonemes of the Gothic language to the corresponding sounds in the Germanic sister branches.
Timetable
Mode of instruction
Tutorials
Course Load
5 ec = 140 hours, 28 hours of tutorials, 67 hours of preperation, 42 hours of preperation for the exam, 2 hours for the exam. No midterm.
Assessment method
Written exam. Students who failed the exam, can take the resit.
Blackboard
The slides that are used during the course will be made available on Blackboard
Reading list
Syllabus, made available through Blackboard.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on this website
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Registration Contractonderwijs
Contact
Education Administration Office van Wijkplaats
E-mail address Education Administration Office van Wijkplaats: osz-oa-wijkplaats@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
This course is open to students from the BA Linguistics only.