INDO-EUROPEAN AND THE INDO-EUROPEANS
Did you know that almost all European languages (including English) and Sanskrit derive from the same proto-language, Indo-European? We will examine how this ancestral language, or perhaps dialect group, which was once confined to Ukraine and the south Russian steppe, managed to spread across all Europe and into Iran and north India according to many scholars’ interpretation of the archaeological evidence. We will also look at the comparative method, as it is used to reconstruct the vocabulary, phonology and grammar of Indo-European, and how many core words and the various parts of speech, such as the noun and verb, evolved in some of the languages that make up this family
Course Outline:
- rise of the Proto-Indo-Europeans in prehistory
- from Proto-Indo-Uralic to Proto-Indo-European
- Hittite (translation of a passage)
- Indo-European pronouns
- Indo-European vocabulary: numerals 1 – 10
- separation of the branches of Indo-European
- Sanskrit (translation of a passage)
- the Indo-European noun and the origins of grammatical gender
- Indo-European vocabulary: kinship terms
- the Italo-Celtic branch
- Latin (translation of a passage)
- the Indo-European verb
- Indo-European vocabulary: parts of the body
- the Germanic branch
- the Indo-European origins of adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and articles
- development of Indo-European into Germanic and of Germanic into Gothic and Old English
- Gothic (translation of a passage)
- Indo-European vocabulary: religion and mythology
Learning Outcomes:
On completion of the course learners will
- understand how Indo-European and its speakers possibly came to spread across Europe and beyond
- see how core vocabulary can be used to reconstruct Indo-European society
- understand how many of the arcane features of the grammar of certain Indo-European languages possibly came about
- be able to appreciate the place of English in the Indo-European language family
THIS COURSE IS AVAILABLE AS AN ONLINE SELF-STUDY COURSE.
$40 USD
THIS COURSE IS REGULARLY TAUGHT IN AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND.
Eight two hour sessions. Please enquire regarding price for in-person courses in Auckland.