LING 4060/6060

This is a course in the Old English language; the goal is for students to learn how to pronounce, read, and translate Old English prose and, near the end of the semester, Old English poetry. In some respects, the course is similar to any a course in any modern foreign language, with vocabulary quizzes, grammar tests, and translation exercises.  

Students who have had courses in a more highly-inflected language like Latin or German, or an introductory linguistics course such as LING 2100 (or more advanced courses in historical linguistics and other old Germanic languages) will have an advantage over those who have not; but for those with no formal linguistic background, for whom this course is consciously and specifically intended, the first few lessons will include general comments on phonology and phonetics, grammatical inflections – e.g., noun declensions and verb conjugations – and the syntax of OE sentences, making every effort to accommodate students whose familiarity with grammatical categories and linguistic terminology is moribund or nonexistent. The last weeks of the semester are spent on translation of more lengthy passages of OE prose and some poetry.