UCL - Buddhist Languages

[GLOR2752]

[30h] 6 credits

This two-yearly course is taught in 2008-2009, 2010-2011,...

Teacher(s):

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

Introduction to Buddhist philology and more specifically to the reading of original texts in several ancient languages from Southern or Central Asia.

Main themes

The lectures are devoted to the philological study of the ancient languages from Southern Asia (Pâli, Gândhârî, Buddhist Sanskrit) or Central Asia (Tokharian, Khotanese, Sogdian, Tibetan, Uighur), in which Buddhist works were composed or translated, as well as to the commented reading of selected texts in these languages. A different language and text corpus are choosen every year.

Content and teaching methods

This course provides a specialisation in Buddhist philology, and more specifically in the reading of original texts in several ancient langages of Southern and Central Asia, in which Buddhist works were composed or translated. The lectures are devoted, depending on the year (even/uneven), to the grammatical and lexical study of Indo-Aryan languages (Pâli, Gândhâri, Buddhist Sanskrit), Middle-Iranian languages (Khotan Saka, Sogdian) or Tocharian, as well as to the commentary of selected texts.
Besides the lectures, each student prepares by himself the linguistic analysis of a text written in one of these languages, chosen according to his interest and his level of learning.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

A thorough knowledge of the Sanskrit language is presupposed for attending the class.