Using the tools of linguistics, undertake a voyage of discovery to uncover the origins of language families around the world and the ways languages have developed and changed over time.
Overview
Syllabus
- By This Professor
- 01: Why Are There So Many Languages?
- 02: The First Family Discovered: Indo-European
- 03: Indo-European Languages in Europe
- 04: Indo-European Languages in Asia
- 05: The Click Languages
- 06: Niger-Congo: Largest Family in Africa I
- 07: Niger-Congo: Largest Family in Africa II
- 08: Languages of the Fertile Crescent and Beyond I
- 09: Languages of the Fertile Crescent and Beyond II
- 10: Nilo-Saharan: Africa’s Hardest Languages?
- 11: Is the Indo-European Family Alone in Europe?
- 12: How to Identify a Language Family
- 13: What Is a Caucasian Language?
- 14: Indian Languages That Aren’t Indo-European
- 15: Languages of the Silk Road and Beyond
- 16: Japanese and Korean: Alike yet Unrelated
- 17: The Languages We Call Chinese
- 18: Chinese’s Family Circle: Sino-Tibetan
- 19: Southeast Asian Languages: The Sinosphere
- 20: Languages of the South Seas I
- 21: Languages of the South Seas II
- 22: Siberia and Beyond: Language Isolates
- 23: Creole Languages
- 24: Why Are There So Many Languages in New Guinea?
- 25: The Languages of Australia I
- 26: The Languages of Australia II
- 27: The Original American Languages I
- 28: The Original American Languages II
- 29: The Original American Languages III
- 30: The Original American Languages IV
- 31: Languages Caught between Families
- 32: How Far Back Can We Trace Languages?
- 33: What Do Genes Say about Language Families?
- 34: Language Families and Writing Systems
Taught by
John McWhorter
