Historical Linguistics 3130 A

Extra reconstruction problems

Extra problems which we will take up at Monday's class are now available: Additional problems to work on for Nov. 28 and Dec. 1, 2005

I will try to go over these during Monday's class, but we will not have much time to spend on it, so it is important that you have worked on them ahead of time if you are to get any benefit from them.

We will also be discussing Section 5.4 to 5.6 of the textbook, which we should have done last class. Some of this will be review, so it may not take long. The important part is Grimm's Law, Verner's Law, and Grassman's Law, two of which should sound familiar. If possible, you should read this section before class, unless you have already done so.

We will cover the highlights of Section 6.1 to 6.4 (linguistic classification) on Monday's class in accordance with our schedule. It may help if you skim through it.

On Thursday, we will cover internal reconstruction (Chapter 8), but I would like to introduce it on Monday, so you can start to work on a couple of problems. Also on Thursday, we must finish off our brief survey of the history of writing systems.

The final class on Monday, December 5, is a review. We will have a chance to review the final homework then and to go over the topics you need to study for the final exam.