Prof. Nicole Nau
Wednesday, 11:30-13:00
Room C1
Course description
Over centuries, various situations of contact between people (such as neighbourhood, trade, mission, colonization, political hegemony) have left traces in the languages spoken around the Baltic Sea and formed an areal relatedness that can be distinguished from genetic relationship. This lecture gives an overview of the main languages and contact constellations of the area and explores the linguistic outcomes. Students will broaden their knowledge about individual languages and their history as well as key concepts of language contact research. They will further develop their skills in describing and comparing language structures and their understanding of processes of language change.
The lecture is organized in three parts. After the introduction, five lectures will present characteristics of languages of the different branches (Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, Finnic, other) and their role in the BSA. This is followed by a discussion of selected contact situations, including multilingual towns and cities in various periods of history. The third part focuses on parallels in lexicon and grammar as outcome of language contact and the characterization of the BSA as a linguistic area or contact superposition zone.
Requirements:
Regular active attendance and participation in class discussion; small assignments about reading material and questions from the lecture; two written tests.
A formal syllabus including a bibliography can be found here:
The lecture is designed for students of Scandinavian studies but open to everyone. Knowledge of Scandinavian languages is not required.