Teaching
Courses for 2008-09:
Freshman Seminar 34x. Language and Prehistory (fall term).
An introduction to the use and misuse of linguistic evidence as a tool for investigating the past. The 19th-century identification of the Indo-European language family misled some intellectuals into positing the now rejected idea of a genetically and culturally superior Aryan "race." What does the relationship between two languages really tell us about their speakers? How can genuine cases of linguistic borrowing or "influence" be distinguished from resemblances that come about through pure chance?
Linguistics 220ar. Advanced Indo-European (fall term).
Topics in Indo-European comparative grammar; conducted as a seminar.
Linguistics 122. Introduction to Indo-European (spring term).
An introduction to the historical study of the Indo-European languages, using the comparative method to arrive at a picture of the parent language of the family, Proto-Indo-European.
Topic to be arranged in consultation with interested students; conducted as a seminar.
Other courses I have recently taught:
Linguistics 123. Indo-European Phonology and Morphology
Linguistics 158. From Indo-European to Old Irish
Linguistics 168. Introduction to Germanic Linguistics
Linguistics 224. Historical and Comparative Linguistics
Linguistics 247. Topics in Germanic Linguistics
NB: Ling. 220ar and Ling. 221r are "topics" courses whose focus — often a language or language area — varies from year to year. In recent years Lithuanian, Tocharian, and Italo-Celtic have all been taught under this heading.