Languages of Past Cultures: Historical Linguistics and Anthropology.

Catalog description

Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: ANTH 103 or ANTH/ENGL/ LING 390 . Considers the basic principles of diachronic linguistics in terms of the questions that historical linguists ask and the kinds of data they have at their disposal to answer them. Discusses uses of linguistic data in the reconstruction of past cultures in different parts of the world, analyzing strengths and weaknesses of such data and suggesting ways in which it can be usefully combined with information from other disciplines.