GERMANIC PHILOLOGY

According to the Dublin descriptors, the expected learning achievements are listed as follows:

1) Knowledge and Understanding

By the end of the course, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding about the origins of ancient and modern Germanic languages, their place among other Indo-European languages, the main phenomena related to linguistic change, and the socio-cultural elements related to the emergence and spread of Germanic languages.

2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding

Students are expected to be able to present and place the various aspects of the discipline in a diachronic perspective (language change) and a synchronic one (cultural and historical aspects, literary macro-phenomena).

3) Autonomy of judgment

Students will be able to independently rework the content learned during the class and infer relationships among the various aspects of the subject matter in a personal way.

4) Communication skills

Students will be able to express themselves in an appropriate and varied language suitable to the course content, expounding the learning content in an articulate and argued way.

5) Learning skills.

Students will be able to learn independently and autonomously, so as to assimilate the learning content and rework it in a personal way.

Traditional /Lectures.

Translation exercise from original texts.

Attendance in this course is highly recommended

The reconstructed Germanic protolanguage: methods of historical-comparative linguistics.

Relative chronology of the Germanic protolanguage: Proto-Germanic and Common Germanic.

From Indo-European to Germanic: consonant and vowel phonetic change.

Indo-European and Germanic accent.

The Germanic languages and their subdivision.

Isoglosses of the Germanic languages.

Indo-European and Germanic Ablaut.

Essentials of Germanic morphology: Strong and Weak verbs; Preterite Present and Athematic verbs.

The Germanic futhark and the runic writing system.

Culture and institutions of the ancient Germanic peoples.

Contacts with the non-Germanic world.

Names of the days of the week.

Germanic and Nordic mythology.

The Conversion and the beginnings of the written tradition.

Translation of short texts from Vǫluspá and Hávamál.

- Elliott, Ralph W. V., Runes. An Introduction, Cambridge [Manchester University Press] 1980, pp. 1-20; 45-75.

- Molinari, Maria Vittoria, La filologia germanica, Bologna [Zanichelli] 1987, pp. 5-76; 77-82; 87; 91-108; 118-135; 151-160.

 

Notes about phonology, linguistic reconstruction, runic inscriptions, culture topics will be available on STUDIUM.

 

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library.