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Languages of the World: A Six Part Course with Dr. Asya Pereltsvaig
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During this six-week course, we will acquaint ourselves with the diversity of human languages, examine how languages evolve, and trace historical relationships among languages.
Together we will take a whirlwind tour of the world’s language with stopovers in six mystery locations (a different location each week) and through examining the languages spoken in those places, we will learn the story of populations migrating, splitting, evolving, and interacting, and their languages changing and evolving.
- Languages of Central Europe – Languages, Language families, and Dialects
- Languages of the Caucasus – Sounds: Typical and “Exotic”
- Languages of Eurasian Steppes – Word structure: Agglutinative vs Fusional languages
- Languages of Oceania – Grammars: Simple and Convoluted
- Languages of the Balkans – Language Contact
- Languages of California – Life, Death, and Rebirth of Languages
Asya Pereltsvaig received a PhD in Linguistics from McGill University and has taught at Yale, Cornell and Stanford, as well as in several U.S. and European universities. Her expertise is in language and history, and the relationship between them. Her most recent books, Languages of the World: An Introduction, 3rd edition (2020) and The Indo-European Controversy: Facts and Fallacies in Historical Linguistics (2015) were published by Cambridge University Press.
This conversation is suitable for all ages.
90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.
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This is like taking a great college course without any grading! It's fascinating, with smart and useful explanations.
Don't miss this stupendous toe dip into the languages of the world. It's not just about various tongues but about geography, currents, migration patterns, boats, world empires, heritage. I wish the class had been twice as long. Dr. Asya captivates.
I daresay no one could possibly explain the Austronesian language family, global currents, glottal stops, and boat navigation as deftly and with such humor as Dr. Asya Pereltsvaig. Wow. If you want to expand your brain, just take a seminar or a course with her. You will come out a lot smarter, or at least be scintillating during the next Zoom office meeting.
Linguistics is fascinating!