German 140: Language and Linguistics

Instructor: Christopher Stevens

In this course you will acquire a fundamental understanding of language and linguistics in general and a broader and deeper understanding of the German language in particular. After defining language and surveying basic linguistic principles, our discussions will include: the history of German and its dialects, Austrian, Swiss and Luxembourger German, the orthography of modern standard German and its phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and lexis.  This course is mostly taught in English but you will have to draw on your German abilities to read and understand spoken German, to do linguistic exercises, and to write a few summaries in German.