LING 3321

History of Romance Languages I

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2020-2021.

The Romance languages are the lasting imprint of all that happened to the Latin language as it moved through time, territories, and people of many ethnicities.  While the Latin of antiquity retained its prestige in high culture, the natural untutored usage of ordinary people was always free to go its own way.  This course covers the following topics, selected to create a panoramic view:  Formation of the general Romance seven-vowel system from Latin.  Early and widespread sound changes in popular Latin.  Finding and interpreting evidence for trends in popular Latin pronunciation.  The comparative method and its limitations.  Essential later sound changes, some of which ceate a whole new order of consonants unknown to Latin but conspicuous in Romance.  Nouns and adjectives from Latin to Romance.  Formation of the present indicative: the competing forces of sound change and analogical adjustment.  A brief overview of Portuguese.  Variants of the seven-vowel system.  Salient features of Romanian.  Factors that helped shape the vocabulary of Romance.  Medieval diglossia.  Emergence of Romance vernaculars newly recognized by their speakers as languages distinct from Latin and from each other.  Close analysis of the oldest surviving document written unmistakably in Romance (842 C. E.).

When Offered Fall.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: a 2000-level (or higher) course in any Romance language, and some familiarity with a second one or with Latin.

Breadth Requirement (HB)
Distribution Category (HA-AS, HST-AS)

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