Languages of the World

Cross listed with LINGST 3620-01

How many languages are spoken around the world? Why do some languages have clicks or why do some languages have tones? This course gives an introduction into the diversity of the languages of the world, their geographical distribution, genetic relationships, and their typological similarities and differences. We will discuss the unique nature of the human language, we will study and compare linguistic features of the different languages spoken around the world and we will also review approaches to classify the languages according to their historical relationships or similarities in grammar. During the semester, we will get to know a variety of recurrent cross-linguistic patterns, many of which can be cast into typological universals. With the accompanying exercises, we will learn to apply typological methods and concepts to data from unfamiliar languages.