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Historical Linguistics


Historical linguistics is concerned with such topics as:
Historical linguistics is very strongly represented in the Field of Linguistics at Cornell, with six faculty members for whom it is a major area of interest, and there unusually rich course offerings in the histories of individual languages and language families.

The Indo-European Concentration

Cornell is one of the few institutions in the United States with two full-time Indo-Europeanists (Alan Nussbaum and Michael Weiss). In addition, a number of faculty members in Linguistics and related fields teach many of the older Indo-European languages on a regular basis. The historical and comparative areas in which there is lively interest more generally in the Linguistics Department also extend well beyond Indo-European. We aim to train students who are both historical linguists and general linguists, encouraging them to take part in the exchange of ideas in the field as a whole. We also believe that extensive training in diachronic approaches adds valuable depth to an understanding of key linguistic issue.

There are usually two courses per term dedicated to central areas of Indo-European. Recent offerings include: Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics, Seminar in Italic Linguistics, Seminar in Indo-European Syntax, Comparative Grammar of Greek, Comparative Grammar of Latin, Greek Dialects, Homeric Linguistics, Archaic Latin, The Sabellic Languages, Old Irish, Seminar in Vedic.

Potential Applicants

We look for students who have a good background in general linguistics and a solid training in at least two ancient Indo-European languages. Potential applicants are encouraged to contact either Michael Weiss, mlw36@cornell.edu, or Alan Nussbaum, ajn8@cornell.edu, for more details about the program.

Course Offerings in Historical Linguistics


Ling 3314 Introduction to Historical Linguistics
offers a general introduction to the goals and methods of the field.

Ling 6606 Historical Syntax
provides a cross-linguistic look at syntactic change. At more advanced levels, the study of historical linguistics is normally pursued through courses in the history of particular languages and language families or courses on pre-modern languages. Courses in these categories offered through the Department of Linguistics include the following. In addition to these, many other courses on ancient and medieval languages are offered through other departments, including Near Eastern Studies, Classics, German Studies, Romance Studies and English.

East Asian Languages

Ling 4411 History of the Japanese Language
Ling 4432 Middle Korean

Indo-European

Ling 2261/ 6661 Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics
Ling 6635 Indo-European Workshop

Indo-European languages of Asia

Ling 1131-1132 Elementary Sanskrit
Ling 2251-2252 Intermediate Sanskrit
Ling 4460 Sanskrit Comparative Grammar
Ling 6617 Hittite
Ling 6619 Rigveda
Ling 6621 Avestan and Old Persian
Ling 6637 Introduction to Tocharian
Ling 6659 Seminar in Vedic Philology

Classical languages

Ling 4451 Greek Comparative Grammar
Ling 4452 Latin Comparative Grammar
Ling 4453 Structure of Latin
Ling 4455 Greek Dialects
Ling 4456 Archaic Latin
Ling 4457 Homeric Philology
Ling 4459 Mycenaean Greek

Romance languages

Ling 3321-3322 History of the Romance Languages

Slavic languages

Ling 4417 History of the Russian Language
Ling 4433 The Lesser Known Romance Languages
Ling 6663 Old Church Slavonic
Ling 6671 Comparative Slavic Linguistics

Germanic languages

Ling 4441 Introduction to Germanic Linguistics
Ling 3315-3316 Old Norse (2 semesters)
Ling 6645 Gothic
Ling 6646 Old High German/ Old Saxon
Ling 6649 Structure of Old English
Ling 3347 Topics in the History of English

The following courses are normally open only to undergraduate students:

Ling 109 English Words: Histories and Mysteries
Ling 2217-2218 History of the English Language

Celtic languages

Ling 6623-6624 Old Irish I, II
Ling 6625 Middle Welsh