Romance Linguistics Course Descriptions

Romance Linguistics 692

Introduction to Romance Linguistics
Instructor: Wayne J. Redenbarger
G 3 - 5 Credit Hrs.

Pre-requisites

One year of Romance language or permission of the instructor. No open for students with credit for French 692 or Italian 692. Taught in English. This course counts toward: the Italian major (as one of the courses taught in English), the French major (as an elective for all the major tracks), the Linguistics major or minor, the Spanish major (as an elective and the one course taught in English permitted to count for the major).

Course Description

RL692 is a modern introduction to the Romance languages family. The principal course goal is to present the synchronic system of Latin/Vulgar Latin and analyze the evolution of this system into the principal Romance families. The focus is on Latin, Portuguese and Spanish (= Hispano-Romance), Provençal and Old Northern French (= Gallo-Romance), and Old Northern Italian.

The course will be very hands-on. From Latin through Italian we will solve problem sets in the traditional areas of phonology, morphology, and etymology. Highlights of external history will be covered: maps, timelines, etc. will be presented to provide a context for the linguistic material.

In the end students will understand the basics of the phonological and morphological processes of Latin, the three major Romance families, and how to use the key reference tools to do further work. Problem sets, a group project data base, and a short paper will be required.

Required Textbooks

The Romance Languages
Author: Martin Harris and Nigel Vincent, eds.
Published by: Oxford University Press
Year Published: 1980 ISBN: 0195208293

From Latin to Romance in Sound Charts
Author: Peter Boyd-Bowman
Published by: Georgetown University Press ISBN: 087840077X