Classics

This advanced course in Indo-European linguistics is an optional course for students of the degree program in Classics with a good knowledge of Greek and Latin. The course aims at offering students the scientific and methodological tools necessary to correctly apply the comparative-reconstructive method, in all of its potentialities and taking into account its limits. The course has an "empirical" cut, such that the students will find themselves reconstructing the phonological and morphological systems of the Proto-Indo-European based on the direct application of the comparative-reconstructive method to the lexical correspondences lists. The topics covered in this course are the most technical, but also the most exciting part of Historical Linguistics. For students it is a unique opportunity to acquire an appropriate and rigorous heuristic method in ascertaining the kinship between languages, accurately distinguishing what is genealogically inherited from what depends on borrowings, linguistic contact or chance. Indo-European Linguistics does not usually constitute a degree course because it is a discipline considered too old-fashioned and too difficult, since it presupposes the knowledge of at least two or three ancient languages; however, only advanced courses of this kind allow students to independently continue their studies in the field of Historical Linguistics.