Aims

By the end of the course, students will have acquired a detailed overview of the full range of Oriental languages, enabling them to decide what to specialize in later on in the course

Main themes

In this course, students are given a historical and typological overview of a range of Oriental languages. Each language is studied individually, placed in its historical, geographic and socio-cultural context and defined through its structure and membership of a particular language family (eg Semitic or Indo-European). Attention will also be paid to the writing system particular to each language and to the specific issues raised by the language-writing relation.

Content and teaching methods

The course is divided into three parts:
1. Semitic languages: a general introduction to the Semitic language family; languages using the cuneiform writing system; Phenician; Hebrew and Early Aramaic dialects; Syriac; Ethiopian and Arabic.
2. Indo-European languages: a general introduction to the Indo-European language family; Anatolian languages; Indo-Iranian and Tokharian languages; Sanskrit; Greek; Armenian and the Slavic languages.
3. Other languages: a general introduction to Oriental languages and language families which belong neither to the Semitic or Indo-European language families; languages using the cuneiform writing system; Egyptian and Coptic; Georgian.

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

Course entry requirements : none.
Evaluation : Evaluated and certified by an oral examination with members of the teaching team.

Other credits in programs