Slavic 351/551:
Introduction to the History
of the Slavic Languages
Spring
2011
Instructor: Katarzyna
Dziwirek Telephone: 543-7691
Office: Smith Hall M260 e-mail: dziwirek@uw.edu
Office Hours: Mon, Wed, 12:30-1:20
TA: Nika Egorova Telephone: 543-7641
Office: Smith Hall M262 e-mail: nikaspb@uw.edu
Office Hours: Tue 11:30-12:20, Fri 1:00-2:00
The scope of the course:
1. Language evolution, Indo-Europeans: evidence for the Indo-European language family and its subgroups, what were the Indo-Europeans like, what was their language like, where did they come from, etc.
2. The place of Slavic within Indo-European (relationships to other subgroups)
3. The development of today's Slavic languages from the ancestral Common Slavic
4. The development of writing systems, national languages, and literatures
5. Principles of historical linguistics: sound change, analogy, semantic change, etc.
6. The relevance of historical linguistics: how linguistic evidence furthers our knowledge of human cognitive development, the culture of our ancestors, etc.
What you should know after
this course:
· basic principles of language change
· main features of Slavic languages (e.g. be able to tell that English flow and Russian плaвaть, Polish pływać and Serbo-Croatian plivati are related, and why they are different)
· main features of the three groups and individual Slavic languages, so that you can look at a text from a Slavic language and be able to tell which language it is (for example, know why in Russian "star" is zvezda, while in Polish it is gwiazda, etc.)
Materials:
Readings on electronic reserves, a class packet (available at Professional Copy, 4200 University Ave).
Requirements for 351:
u Readings and Class Participation: Follow the reading schedule closely and be prepared to discuss assigned texts in class. See handout on Reading and Class Discussion on the class website. Class participation = 100 points.
v Mini-presentation on Indo-Europeans: 25 points
w Exercises: In class and take-home = 175 points total
x Exams: 3 tests 3 x 100 = 300 points
Requirements for 551:
u
-x plus:
A short final paper (5 or > pages) (50 points) and class presentation (25 points). You should discuss your topic with the instructor or the TA and by 5/10 send an email to the instructor with your topic and three references you plan to use. See the class website for hints on How to write a research paper, consult the Selected References file, and check out Past student paper topics. During the last week of classes you will present your research to the class (with handouts).
Slavic 351/551 Materials
There are no textbooks for
this class, but we use chapters from several key books:
Aitchison, Jean. 1996. The Seeds of Speech: Language Origin and Evolution. Cambridge University Press.
Aitchison, Jean. 2001. Language Change: Progress or Decay? Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, Lyle. 2004. Historical Linguistics: An Introduction. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Carlton, Terence R. 1990. Introduction to the Phonological History of the Slavic Languages. Columbus, OH: Slavica.
Hock, Hans Heinrich. 1986. Principles of Historical Linguistics. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Mallory, J. P. and D. Q. Adams. 2006. The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford University Press.
Townsend, Charles E. and Laura A. Janda. 1996. Common and comparative Slavic. Columbus, OH: Slavica.
Slavic 351/551 Reading
Schedule
All readings are on
electronic reserves
Week
1: Introduction to historical linguistics, language evolution, classification
of sounds
Video: Human Language Series, Part 3, Human Language Evolves
Lyle Campbell Historical Linguistics: An Introduction: Ch. 1 “Introduction”
H. Hock Principles of Historical Linguistics: Ch. 1 “Introduction”, Ch. 2 “Phonetics, transcription…”
Jean Aitchison The Seeds of Speech: Ch. 5 “The family tree”, Ch. 6 “A devious mind”, Ch. 8 “Small
beginnings”
Week
2: Out of Africa: Language dispersion, introduction to Indo-Europeans
Video: Nova: In Search of the First Language
Jean Aitchison The Seeds of Speech: Ch. 13 “The widening circle”
Merritt Ruhlen The Origin of Language: Ch. 1 “Language and History”, Ch. 3 “Controversy”
J. P. Mallory and D. Q. Adams The Oxford Introduction: Ch. 1 “Discovery”, Ch. 5 “Relationships”,
Ch. 26 “Origins”
Week
3: Indo-Europeans: people and language, sound change and the comparative method
Philip Baldi Indo-European languages
J. P. Mallory and D. Q. Adams The Oxford Introduction: Ch. 3 “Reconstructing PIE”
H. Hock: Ch. 3 “Sound Change: the regularity hypothesis” & Ch. 18 “Comparative method”
Jean Aitchison Language Change Ch. 13 “The Mad Hatter’s tea-party”
PRESENTATIONS on Indo-European Language and Culture:
551 students should choose starred chapters from Mallory and Adams.
Calvert Watkins Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans (on eres)
General
Terms + Nature xxiii-xxvii
People
and Society xxvii-xxix
Economic
Life xxix-xxxi
Ideology xxxi-xxxiv
Archeology xxxiv-xxxv
B. Fortson Indo-European Language and Culture (on eres)
Society 17-19
Economy
and Law 19-22
Deities
22-24
Ritual 24-26
Myths 26-29
Poetics 29-34
Personal
Names 34-35
Archeology
and Material Culture 35-39
Location
of the Homeland 39-44
Mallory and Adams The
Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and The Proto-Indo-European World
Chapter
8 The Physical Word 120-131
*Chapter
9: Indo-European Fauna 132-155
Chapter
10: Indo-European Flora 156-172
*Chapter
11: Anatomy 173-201
Chapter
12: Family and Kinship 203-218
Chapter
13: Health and Home 219-229
Chapter
14: Clothing and Textiles 230-238
Chapter
15: Material Culture 239-253
Chapter
16: Food and Drink 254-266
*Chapter
17: Proto-Indo-European Society 266-286
*Chapter
18: Space and Time 287-306
Chapter
19: Number and Quantity 307-320
*Chapter
20: Mind, Emotions and Sense Perception 321-351
Chapter
21: Speech and Sound 352-367
*Chapter
22: Activities 368-408
Chapter
23: Religion 408-414
Chapter
24: Grammatical Elements 415-422
Chapter 25: Comparative Mythology 423-441
Week 4: Indo-European continued, Early Slavs
and Common Slavic
Jean Aitchison Language Change Ch. 11 “Doing what comes naturally”
Townsend and Janda: Ch. II “Proto-Indo-European to Early Proto-Slavic”
J. P. Maher Common Slavic *slověne
TEST 1: Indo-European, phonetics, the comparative method, basic sound changes
Week 5: Common Slavic: relationship to
Indo-European and phonological developments
Townsend and Janda: Ch. III “Proto-Slavic to Late Common Slavic: Rising Sonority”
Townsend and Janda: Ch. IV “Proto-Slavic to Late Common Slavic: Synharmony”
H. Hock: Ch. 9 p. 167-179 on analogy
Jean Aitchison Language Change Ch.
12 “Repairing the patterns”
Week
6: Common Slavic: post CS phonological changes, morphology, semantic change
Townsend and Janda: Ch. VIII “Evolution of Slavic Declension”
Lyle Campbell Historical Linguistics: An Introduction: Ch. 9 “Semantic Change and Lexical Change”
Jean Aitchison Words in the Mind Ch. 13 “Drifting Words: Layering and Meaning Change”
Richard Trim Metaphor Networks, Ch. 7 “Metaphor Paths in Base Concepts”
Susie Dent Fanboys and Overdogs “Regulating Confusion” p. 24-30, “Smoothing out the Wrinkles”
Geoffrey Nunberg Going Nucular “Caucasian Talk Circles”
Week
7: Development of separate Slavic languages
Carlton: Ch. I “The Slavic Languages Past and Present”
Bernard Comrie Slavonic Languages
Excerpts from Comparative Dictionary of the Slavic Languages IN CLASS PACKET
Excerpts from Comparative Conversational Slavic Languages IN CLASS PACKET
Townsend and Janda: Ch. X “Surveys of Five Modern Slavic Languages”
TEST 2: sound change, reconstruction, main sound changes in Common Slavic
Week
8: Development of separate Slavic languages continued, writing systems
Denise Schmandt-Besserat The Earliest Precursor of Writing
David Barton Some problems with an evolutionary view of written language
Mikael Parkvall Limits of Language “Written language”
Week
9: Slavic literacy and writing systems
Carlton: Ch. II “The Slavic Writing Systems”, Ch. III “The Beginning of Slavic Literacy”
Paul Cubberley “The Slavic Alphabets”
Paul Cubberley “Alphabets and transliterations”
Week
10: Reasons for language change
H. Hock: Ch. 20 “Linguistic change: Its nature and causes”
Jean Aitchison Language Change Ch.10 “The reason why”
Jean Aitchison “Psycholinguistic Perspectives on Language Change”
Video: Do you speak American?
PRESENTATIONS of term papers by Slavic 551 students
TEST 3: features of the 3 Slavic groups and Slavic alphabets