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Ling 98A: the Baltic Languages

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Ling 98a: The Baltic Languages Linguistics Tutorial Lena Borise Spring 2016 [email protected] Second session Office hours: TBA __________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Course description Which living Indo-European language is structurally closest to Sanskrit? Which Indo-European language has been in contact with Finnic for so long that it is sometimes called a Finnic language with Indo-European vocabulary? These, and many other questions about the Baltic languages will be addressed in this tutorial. The aim of the tutorial is to investigate the structural properties of the languages that belong to the Baltic subgroup of the Indo-European language family. The Baltic subgroup, though historically closely related to Slavic, today consists of Latvian and Lithuanian, two languages that are quite distinct from their other Indo- European neighbors. As national languages of Latvia and Lithuania, respectively, they are thriving languages with a rich historical tradition. However, as a small language family (Latvian has 1.75 million speakers, and Lithuanian has 3 million), the Baltic subgroup rarely appears on linguistic course curricula. This is unfortunate, since the languages in question feature many curious linguistic phenomena. This tutorial aims to provide an introduction to Baltic linguistics, focusing on Latvian and Lithuanian, as well as an extinct Baltic language, Old Prussian. The topics to be covered include phonology, morphology and syntax of these languages, as well as some broader topics like language change within the family, and especially continuous and manifold language contact in the Baltic area. Importantly, apart from providing the students with an opportunity to investigate the structure of these languages, the tutorial can contribute linguistic facts and data for the students’ other projects. For their final paper, the students will pick a phenomenon from one of the topics discussed during the course, and compare and assess any existing proposals on it, and/or provide an analysis of their own. Prerequisites: An introductory linguistics course: Linguistics 101: The Science of Linguistics, or Linguistics 83: Language, Structure, & Cognition. 1 2. Course Requirements Class participation - 20% Your class participation is an essential part of the course. Please make sure you come to class on time, well prepared, with the readings complete, and ready to contribute to the discussion. Problem sets - 30% There will be three problem sets, based on the readings and the linguistic phenomena discussed in class. Late submission of assignments is penalized (unless there is a note from a physician); 5% is taken off the total mark for the assignment for each day it is overdue. In-class paper presentation - 20% Each class participant is required to give a ~ 20 minute presentation of a research paper on one of the topics discussed in class. Ideally, the paper should be related to the topic of the final project. Please meet with me to confirm your paper choice; I can also help you select a paper for presentation. Final project - 30% For the final project, you are required to write a ~5-8 page essay investigating a phenomenon in a Baltic language. The choice of the phenomenon/language is yours, but you are required to meet with me in Week 5 to finalize the topic of your project. The final paper is due a week after the final class. 3. Weekly schedule (subject to revision) Week Topic Readings (italics = recommended) 1 Introduction: Baltic languages from Sabaliauskas, 1993 the Indo-European perspective Dini, 2014 (sel.) 2 Phonological and accentological Dambriunas et al., 1980 (sel.) properties of Baltic Derksen, 1991 Kiparsky, to appear 3 Nominal and verbal morphosyntax Ambrazas, 1997 (sel.) Kalnača, 2014, ch. 1-2 Nau, 1998 (sel.) 4 Aspects of Baltic syntax Kalnača, 2014, ch. 3-4, 6 Lavine, 2006 5 Language change in the Baltics; Zinkevičus, 1998 (sel.) textual evidence; Old Prussian Schmalstieg, 1974 6 Language contact and language Dahl & Koptjevskaja-Tamm, 2001 mixing in the Baltic region (sel.) Final paper due 2 References Ambrazas, Vytautas. 1997. Lithuanian grammar . Vilnius: Baltos lankos. Dahl, Östen, and Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm, eds. 2001. Circum-Baltic Languages: Volume 1: Past and Present . John Benjamins Publishing. Dahl, Östen, and Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm, eds. 2001. Circum-Baltic Languages: Volume 2: Grammar and Typology . John Benjamins Publishing. Dambriunas, Leonardas, & Klimas, Antanas. 1980. Introduction to modern Lithuanian . Brooklyn, NY: Franciscan Fathers. Derksen, Rick. 1991. An introduction to the history of Lithuanian accentuation. Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics , 45-84. Dini, Pietro U. 2014. Prelude to Baltic Linguistics: Earliest Theories about Baltic Languages (16th Century) ; On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics, Vol. 36. Amsterdam, Rodopi. Kalnača, Andra. 2014. A Typological Perspective on Latvian Grammar . De Gruyter Open Ltd. Kiparsky, Paul. To appear. Livonian stød. In Wolfgang Kehrein, Björn Köhnlein, Paul Boersma & Marc van Oostendorp (eds.), Segmental Structure and Tone . Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Lavine, James E. 2006 Is There a Passive Evidential Strategy in Lithuanian? . In Proceedings from the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society , 42 (2), 41- 55. Nau, Nicole. 1998. Latvian. Munchen-Newcastle: Lincom Europa Sabaliauskas, Algirdas. 1993 We, the Balts . Vilnius: Science and Encyclopedia Publishers. Schmalstieg, William R. 1974. An Old Prussian Grammar. The phonology and morphology of the three Catechisms. The Pennsylvania State University Press Zinkevičus, Zigmas. 1998. The history of the Lithuanian language . Vilnius 3 .
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