Diachronic Linguistics: How Languages Change

The course deals with questions such as: What are the implications of two languages being related, and how does a language develop through time? How does a sound or the meaning of a word change, and how do new ways of inflection occur? How can we reconstruct a proto-language, and what occurs when a new language suddenly arises? The contents and focus in this course may vary somewhat from semester to semester.

Knowledge and general competence

After having finished the course, the student is at least expected to have knowledge about, use or discuss:

• Important elements of the history of the subject
• Important principles of reconstruction
• Important principles and phenomena in language change, basic language typology, and language contact

Skills

After having finished the course, the student is at least expected to:

• Apply this competence in academic reflection on relevant issues
• Perform reconstructions, and discuss and analyze linguistic phenomena and processes on the basis of theoretical competence within the subject

Lectures and teaching in smaller groups. Obligatory exercises have to be approved before the candidate may sit the written exam. Each of the obligatory papers should be 3-6 A4 pages. In special cases, students may be eligible to sit a take-home exam instead of a regular exam. An application is required. Approved obligatory assignment is valid for 2 semesters (the semester in which the approval is given, plus the following semester).