Historical Linguistics

Cross listed with LINGST 4660 and 7660

How do languages evolve? This course provides an introduction to Historical Linguistics, the study of how languages change over time. We will examine the fundamental principles of historical and comparative linguistics by studying the different aspects of language change (phonological, morphological and lexical) across a wide variety of languages.

In addition, we will discuss the main methods used in historical linguistics to classify languages: glottochronology, lexicostatistics and the comparative method, which is also used to reconstruct ancestral states of languages. Finally, we will explore newer approaches borrowed from the field of biology known as “phylogenetic methods” used to investigate the evolution of languages.