Historical Linguistics

This course is a survey of the basic mechanisms of how languages change over time and of the methods used to reconstruct these developments. We examine phonological change, morphological change, syntactic change, and semantic change, as well as interactions between these types of changes. Students will learn about types of evidence in reconstruction of change and about theoretical models of change. We will cover language relationships and the methods of establishing familial groupings, and we will compare patterns due to familial descent, language contact, and borrowing. Examples will be drawn from a variety of languages, both ancient and modern.