Romance Linguistics : Etymology, History, Politics [ LROM1311 ]

To have had basic training in general linguistics and phonetics in particular.  It is preferable to have taken LROM1222 French Linguistics II : historical approach.

The course is divided in two parts :
1) Description of the emergence and development of various Romance languages, from latin to nowadays, in their sociolinguistic (ex. standardisation process, official and symbolic status, geographic distribution) and political (ex. linguistic unification and language policies) dimension.
2) On the basis of etymological case studies (discovery of etymological correspondences between Latin and Romance languages), formal and comparative description of the main phonological and lexical characteristics of Romance languages.

By the end of the course, the student will be able : 
- master general knowledge about the history and the sociolinguistic and political situation of various Romance languages;
- understand the typological and genetic relationships between Romance languages;
- put in place methodical analysis in comparative etymology of Romance languages;
- describe and analyses formal similarities and differences between major Romance languages.

Written examination

30 hours of lectures

General introduction : examination of the methodology of comparing languages and on the relationships between language and culture.

Comparison of Romance idioms : there is special emphasis on the phonetic and lexical aspects which played a determining role in the fragmentation of Romance-speaking Europe and, in general, on consideration of important geo-linguistic phenomena.

See the document entitled  'Bibliography' on the iCampus course website.

http://icampus.uclouvain.be/claroline/document/document.php?cidReset=true&cidReq=LROM1311

Document folder : bibliography, development diagrams, maps.