Undergraduate Course: Early Germanic Dialects (LASC10080)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences | 
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences | 
 
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) | 
Availability | Available to all students | 
 
| SCQF Credits | 20 | 
ECTS Credits | 10 | 
 
 
| Summary | The course offers a comparative survey of the early Germanic languages: Gothic (East Germanic), Old Norse (North Germanic), Old Saxon, Old English, Old Frisian, Old Low Franconian and Old High German (West-Germanic), in the context of the historical background of the Germanic tribes and the Migration Period. The course builds on knowledge of basic concepts of phonology, morphology and syntax, and comes with a package of interactive exercises on LEARN by means of which students can refresh this knowledge. | 
 
| Course description | 
    
    This course explores the prehistory of English, as part of its shared linguistic history with the other early Germanic languages. We will look at proto-Germanic, the reconstructed earliest shared ancestor, and see how each of the early Germanic languages has gone its own way.
    
    
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Information for Visiting Students 
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 English Language/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. | 
 
		| High Demand Course? | 
		Yes | 
     
 
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |   
Learning Outcomes 
|     an understanding of:  the shared linguistic history of the Germanic language, linguistic relatedness and language change, and the linguistic impact of language or dialect contact
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Reading List 
Bremmer, Rolf H. 2009). An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 
Hogg, Richard (2002). Dutch dialects and Stammbaum Theory. In: Of Dyuersitie & Chaunge of Langage, edited by Katja lenz and Ruth Möhlig, 212-223, C. Winter: Heidelberg. 
König, Ekkehard & Johan van der Auwera (eds.). (1994). The Germanic Languages. London: Routledge. 
McWhorter, John H. (2002). What happened to English? Diachronica 19:2, 217-272. 
Robinson, Orrin (1992). Old English and its closest relatives: a survey of the earliest Germanic languages. Stanford Calif.: Stanford University Press 
Wright, Joseph (1954). Grammar of the Gothic Language, 2nd edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 
Ringe, Don (2006). A Linguistic History of English. Vol.1: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. New York: Oxford University Press. |   
 
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills | 
Not entered | 
 
| Additional Class Delivery Information | 
Teaching Contact Time: 9 weeks out of 11 at 3 hours/week = 27 hours 
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| Keywords | Not entered | 
 
 
Contacts 
| Course organiser | Prof Bettelou Los 
Tel: (0131 6)51 1842 
Email:  | 
Course secretary | Ms Lynne Robertson 
Tel: (0131 6)50 9870 
Email:  | 
   
 
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