Celtic Linguistics

4 units
TuTh 11-12:30
Professor Eve Sweetser and Professor Gary Holland

L&S Breadth: Social & Behavioral Sciences

This course introduces students to the linguistic analysis of the structures of the Celtic languages, and to the history of those linguistic structures over time. Students will learn about the place of Celtic languages within the Indo-European language family, the earliest documented strata of Celtic (including Continental Celtic), and the relations between older and modern Celtic languages. Since Celtic is typologically special within Indo-European (Verb-initial order, conjugated prepositions, mutations), modern linguistics has taken a particular interest in the morphology and syntax of the living Celtic languages. We will read syntactic and morphological studies of Irish, Welsh and Breton, investigating these areas. The sociolinguistic setting of the modern Celtic languages is also a crucial influence on their structure and history; language death and language renewal efforts will be studied in this course as well.

Texts: TBA

Prerequisites: Prior acquaintance with at least one Celtic language, consent of instructor.