Кто читает:: Школа иностранных языков

Статус:: Курс по выбору

Когда читается:: 1-й курс, 4 модуль

Преподаватель

Яковенко Екатерина Борисовна

Full Syllabus

Abstract

Have you ever deciphered runic inscriptions, or leafed through parchment pages of the Gothic Bible, or read grammatical exercises left by a German monk of the 10th century? Can you pronounce Icelandic pre-aspirated consonants or Afrikaans nasal vowels? Can you think of an article joined on to the end of the word or a verbal prefix finding its place at the very end of the sentence? If not and if you believe these gaps in your knowledge need filling the course “Germanic languages: History and Actual State” is meant for you. Falling in two parts, the course implies the study of Early Germanic languages as well as modern ones. Taking it, you will have an idea of what the Germanic languages were like a thousand and a half years ago and what they are now. You will be taken to an amazing world of such languages as English, German, Luxemburgish, Dutch, Yiddish, Frisian, Afrikaans, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese and familiarized with their history, spread, phonetics, graphics, grammar, and vocabulary. Though you are not supposed to acquire communicative skills, you will listen to speech records in these languages and even try to read texts in all of them. As language and culture are inseparably connected, an insight into the Germanic languages is going to be one into Germanic cultures – they are even more various. Guided by the lecturer, you will follow the Goths in their migrations and the Vikings in their everyday activities, climb the Table Mountain in Cape Town and Icelandic glaciers, enter rural dwellings of ethnic Germans in the USA and Jewish shtetls in Europe – be prepared to do that. The lecturer of the course is Ekaterina Borisovna Yakovenko, Doctor of Sciences (Philology), leading research fellow of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Department of Germanic Languages), Professor of the School of Foreign Languages HSE (an invited lecturer). Being a passionate scholar and teacher and an ardent traveller who has visited quite a lot of countries (but not all yet!) where Germanic languages are spoken, Ekaterina Borisovna believes that the Germanic languages are the most interesting thing in the world. And she is certainly right.

Learning Objectives

The objectives of mastering the discipline are: 1) an in-depth study of the characteristic features of the Germanic group of languages as part of the Indo-European language family, the main stages of development and the distinctive features of each of the Germanic languages; 2) the expansion, deepening and systematization of knowledge of Germanic languages and cultures in diachronic and synchronous aspects.

Expected Learning Outcomes

Students can analyze identify the state of language features synchronically and diachronically.
Students can attest to the current state of modern Germanic languages relying on data on their historical development.
Students can identify typologically relevant features of Germanic languages.

Course Contents

Ancient Germanic languages.
Modern languages.

Assessment Elements

Presentation
Test
Project

Interim Assessment

2023/2024 4th module
0.3 * Presentation + 0.4 * Project + 0.3 * Test

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Harbert, W. (2007). The Germanic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=185822
Wolfgang Kehrein, & Richard Wiese. (2014). Phonology and Morphology of the Germanic Languages (Vol. Reprint 2013). Tübingen: De Gruyter. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=756499

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Bahnick, K. R. (2017). The Determination of Stages in the Historical Development of the Germanic Languages by Morphological Criteria : An Evaluation. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1882816
Purwitasari, A. (2018). Syntax Studies in Historical Linguistics: Word Order in English and German as Indo-Germanic Languages. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.773F31B
R.D. Fulk. (2018). A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages. Web server without geographic relation, Web server without geographic relation (org): John Benjamins Publishing Company. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.9A252214

Authors

Yakovenko Ekaterina Borisovna

Магистерская программа «Иностранные языки и межкультурная коммуникация»

Research Seminar "Germanic Languages: History and Actual State"