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(1) Students acquire knowledge of the principles of language change;
(2) They are able to understand and apply the terminology and concepts involved in the description of language change;
(3) They are acquainted with the ways in which data sets can be turned into language history;
(4) They possess knowledge of the outlines of the history of the English language and the interactions of the different languages in the British Isles.
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The British Isles are dominated by two language families: Germanic in the form of English is pervasive throughout the isles as a result of an expansion movement that started in the fifth century. Celtic consists of Irish in Ireland, Scots Gaelic in the Scottish Highlands, Welsh in Wales, as well as the extinct Cornish and Manx languages. Celtic has been receding gradually, being superseded by English. Other players are Latin, Scandinavian, and French. The course explores the linguistic history of the British Isles by focusing on two themes:
(1) The general principles of the study of language change, also called historical linguistics. The student is introduced to theories and methodologies;
(2) General principles are profusely illustrated by examples taken from English and Celtic, which together form a concise linguistic history of the languages of the British Isles as well as their interactions.
LAS and TCS students who follow this course as part of the core curriculum of their major need to complete a compulsory preparation course/assignment. See https://tcs.sites.uu.nl/ for more information.
In the Celtic programme of study, this course is the methods course in the specialisation Language contact and language change.
In the English Language and Culture programme, this course is begins the Language Matters specialisation (in odd years).
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