LING-603 Sociohistorical Linguistics (3)

The study of historical linguistics is the lens through which linguists attempt to uncover what appear to be mysterious and random occurrences, but are in fact the result of codified language change. With the application of the comparative method, students learn how languages change and how change is in part affected by external sociohistorical factors. Students work on a language of their choice and explore solving linguistic puzzles. English language examples of these puzzles include ‘I do’ vs ‘she does,’ ‘children’ vs ‘childs,’ and the pronunciation of ‘enough’ vs ‘through.’ Students learn that these inconsistencies are the result of just ordinary and rather typical universal phenomena that affect all world languages. Crosslist: LING-403.