History of the German language and German linguistics

Elective Course

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the major fields of history of the German language and German linguistics as they apply to Standard German. It will introduce students to the broad outlines of the historical development of the German language from the earliest times until the modern period. It will look at some of the key sound changes and at the grammatical developments which give the modern language its distinctive features. There will also be discussions on regional variation within the German-speaking world. The linguistic aspect of this course will cover the traditional branches of linguistic theory: phonology, the study of the sounds and sound systems; morphology, the study of word structure, and syntax, the study of sentence structure.