Course Description
Provides an overview of the extra-linguistic factors that affect language use in historical languages; provides an introduction to conducting sociolinguistic inquiry on linguistic varieties for which direct linguistic evidence is limited. Emphasis is placed on quantifiable methods for correlating extra-linguistic factors with observable changes in language use over time.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate stdents will be responsible for a formal oral
presentation, and will have different requirements for the final
research paper, which must be 15-20 pages (as compared to
undergraduates' 8-10 page requirement). Accordingly, graduate
students will have additional primary and secondary material to
read, and to incorporate into their oral presentation and final
paper.
Athena Title
Historical Sociolinguistics
Prerequisite
LING 3060 or LING 3150 or LING 3150W
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
General Competence • Understanding of the basic correlation between language contact and language change, including typological changes in contact settings. • Understanding of the function of social institutions and social networks within a linguistic community. • Understanding of the interaction between social factors and language acquisition, change, and shift. Specialized knowledge • Broad overview of the theoretical approaches and methods of studying language change, as caused by language-external factors, especially the principles and practices of sociolinguistic inquiry for historical communities of speakers. • Close familiarity with both primary sources and extra- linguistic evidence used to study social structure, population movement, and language contact within and between earlier linguistic communities. • Close familiarity with previous literature on contact between languages in the period before direct attestation; and methods of identifying innovations derived through contact. Specialized abilities • The ability to track and model quantifiable changes in the demographics and population movements of specific groups and sub-groups over time. • The ability to reconstruct language use in sociohistorical context, in a given community at a given point in time. • The ability to correlate language-external (social) factors with events of language change and/or language shift, specifically when analyzing and comparing shared features, innovative features, and parallel developments within and between language families. • The ability to reconstruct probable language use for earlier historical stages of a variety of a language, based on language-external (social) evidence, and modern daughter languages.
Topical Outline
This course will normally be taught with a focus on a specific family of languages, which may vary depending on faculty expertise and student interest. The following is a representative sample topical outline focusing on the Germanic language family: 1. Historical Linguistic Reconstruction of (Proto-)Germanic 2. The Germanic Homeland 3. Contact on the Baltic: Germanic and Finnic 4. Contact on the European Continent: Germanic, Italic, and Celtic 5. Ausgliederung and Abspaltung: The breaking up of the Germanic family of languages and the outward migration from Scandinavia 6. Writing Systems: The innovation and spread of Runic, Gothic, and Latin-based scripts 7. Onomastics: Names of places, people, and natural landmarks 8. Physical Artifacts: Inscriptions on spearheads, combs, brooches, bones, helmets, and runestones 9. Earliest Textual Evidence of Germanic