2022-23

Swahili is the most popular language of Sub-Saharan Africa, spoken in most countries of Eastern and Central Africa by more than 50 million people. Swahili is characterized by the typical complex Bantu structure. However, it is particularly easy to pronounce and fast learned.

The Elementary Swahili series is designed to help students acquire communicative competence in Swahili and a basic understanding of its structures. The course presents basic phonological, grammatical, and syntactic patterns of Kiswahili.

Through a variety of exercises, students develop communicative functionality in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Emphasis is put on dialogues and role-plays, individual and group presentations, and the use of audiovisual and web-based resources. Swahili culture and African culture in general are an important component of the course.

At the end of the elementary course series, the students are able to communicate efficiently in everyday life situations, write and present short descriptive notes about elementary pieces of verbal creation (documentaries and video series in Swahili). This course allows fulfilling the non-Indo-European language requirement.

TTH 11:00 am – 12:20 pm

This course continues to increase grammatical structure, receptive and expressive skills, conversational skills, basic linguistic convergence, and knowledge of idioms. Field trip required.

MWF 11:30 am – 12:20 pm

This course develops advanced American Sign Language skills through the study of ASL Literature and Storytelling. Using several different genres of video-based ASL texts, we will study native signers use of stories in the Deaf American community. We will work towards comprehending, discussing, analyzing, and producing ASL stories. A high-intermediate to advanced knowledge of ASL is required.

TTH 11:00 am – 12:20 pm

American Sign Language is the language of the deaf in the United States and much of Canada. It is a full-fledged autonomous language, unrelated to English or other spoken languages. This introductory course teaches the student basic vocabulary and grammatical structure, as well as aspects of deaf culture.

MWF 9:30 – 10:20 am, 10:30 – 11:20 am

This course is an independent study under the guidance of a faculty advisor, indicated by the section number. Please consult with the faculty member in question before enrolling.

This course deals with a variety of topics specific to Linguistic Pedagogy.

TH 3:30 – 4:50 pm

The course aims to guide students on their research in a structured way and to present professionalization information crucial to success in the field. The course is organized largely around working on the research paper, with the goal of making it a conference-presentable and journal-publishable work. Topics covered include abstracts, publishing, handouts, presentation skills, course design, creating and maintaining a CV, cover letters, webpages, and in general everything that is required for you to successfully compete for jobs in linguistics.

W 12:00 – 1:50 pm

The Iberian Peninsula is host to a number of languages. These include not only Spanish and European Portuguese, the dominant languages in Spain and Portugal, respectively, but also minoritized languages such as Galician, Basque, Catalan, and others. This class will investigate the morphosyntax of minoritized Iberian languages, drawing comparisons with the dominant languages in the area (Spanish, Portuguese, and French), which have exerted enormous influence on the minoritized languages due to centuries of contact. The focus will be the morphosyntax of these languages, but we also aim to better understand the complex social, historical, and political forces that have shaped them, as well as the way they continue to be affected by these forces and their long and sometimes fraught relationship with the dominant languages.

This course introduces cross-linguistic phonological phenomena and methods of analysis through an indepth examination of fundamental notions that transcend differences between theoretical approaches: contrast, neutralization, natural classes, distinctive features, and basic non-linear phonological processes (e.g., assimilation, harmony, dissimilation).

TTH 2:00 – 3:20 pm

Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.