Spring 2006

ANS 372 • Indo-European Language and Culture-W

Course Description

Several centuries ago scholars hypothesized that there was once an Indo-European people speaking a single language, and that this speech community broke up before the dawn of history. The hypothesis is based on similarities among languages such as Greek, Old persian, Sanskrit, Latin, and Hittite as well as language families such as Celtic, Germanic (including English), and Slavic. Study of linguistic and cultural artifacts gives us insight into the early speakers, and comparative-historical methods allow us to track the evolution of these languages and cultures.

Texts

AHD: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 3rd Ed. (or an edition of the Appendix with the article by Calvin Watkins, ("Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans", a chart of Indo-European sound correspondences, and the appendix of Indo-European Roots). Mallory, James P. 1989. In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and the Myth. Justus, Carol F. & Darien A. McWhirter.2005. Intoroducing the Indo-Europeands. Manuscript. A language grammar from an approved list.

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