Learning objectives

The course of Comparative Philology of Classical Languages offers an introduction to the comparative study of the cultures and linguistic structures of ancient Indo-European languages in a diachronic perspective, with particular reference to Latin and Greek. Cultural aspects, literary genres and linguistic systems will be taken into consideration, the last with reference to the categories of nominal and verbal morphology, based on the reconstructive method, in order to describe selected grammatical categories of the Protolanguage (Proto-Indo-European). The structural aspects of the development and change of some grammatical categories, described in a diachronic perspective, especially of those belonging to the nominal and verbal morphology, are particularly referring to Old Greek and Latin, Sanskrit and the German languages. The phenomena will be presented through the reading and discussion of selected texts in order to show their reconstruction for the protolanguage and of some pragmatic or syntactic features in the texts. The texts will be chosen among the oldest documents of some Indo-European languages such as Mycenaean Greek, Old Latin, Vedic, Gothic, Hittite and Lithuanian. Expected results Adequate knowledge of the history and methods of the traditional studies in Comparative Indo-European linguistics.- Adequate knowledge of the morphological inventory for nominal and verbal derivation - The ability to understand and apply the comparative method on the base of the attested languages. – The ability to recognize forms and morphemes, phrases and categories in the Ancient languages and to compare them. The skill to use the right concepts and a correct scientific terminology when discussing issues of (proto-)language reconstruction, language change, language comparison.