126-027 Germanic Languages

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

37.5 points of second/third year subjects. European studies students wishing to enrol in this subject would normally have completed 37.5 points of European studies at second/third year, see Prerequisites.

Semester

Subject Description

Germanic languages constitute one branch of the Indo-European language family. Languages as diverse as German, English, Icelandic, Afrikaans, Yiddish and Pennsylvania German (and quite a few more) all share a common origin. In this subject students will discuss how such languages now differ from each other; how they came to achieve the status of separate languages; and how a knowledge of one or more sheds light on developments in the other, including dialectal variation. A knowledge of English and German will be presupposed, but students with a knowledge of other Germanic languages will be most welcome.