Historical Phonology (P01200)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : PPL-P-HP-EL

This course considers some of the key phenomena that are discussed in connection with the historical phonology of English and other languages; it also considers many of the general linguistic points that we need to take into account when we try to understand them.

We will aim for both theoretical and empirical coverage, so that by the end of the course, you should have a good understanding of both (i) how, in principle, and in what ways the phonology of (varieties of) a language can change, and of (ii) some of the key phonological changes which have occurred in (varieties of) English, throughout its history.

Many of the changes and types of changes that we will investigate will come from periods in the history of the English, from its 'prehistory', and from the variation that can be observed in present-day varieties, but we will also consider changes from other languages as we attempt to understand how and in what way the phonology of a language can change. We will also investigate how our knowledge of the patterns of change in phonology fits in with general models of phonological theory.

Shared with UG Course U02512 Historical Phonology.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Language Sciences, (School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, Schedule I)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 3 hour(s) per week for 9 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
* explain the issues involved in the investigation of phonological change
* analyse key phenomena in the history of the phonology of English and other languages using the fundamental tools of phonological theory
* investigate how general issues in (i) historical linguistic theory and (ii) phonological theory hold-up when confronted with a detailed investigation of data from the history of English phonology
* progress onto the study of current live research questions in historical English phonology and in general language-universal historical phonology