The first part of this course starts out with a comparative history of the Germanic languages, dealing with their common ancestry and showing how individual languages such as German, Dutch and English – to name but a few – emerged and developed. Students will be familiarized with aspects of both internal and external language history.
The second part of the course focuses on the concept of linguistic standardization: what is standardization, to which extent did it affect the different Germanic languages, how do norms and notions of ‘bad language’ affect actual language use, and how does this relate to more recent trends of destandardization? Theoretical issues will be illustrated with examples from and research on various Germanic languages, and the standardization history of Northern and Southern Dutch will be examined in more detail as an elaborate case in point. We will discuss issues of standardization and standard language ideologies, prescriptivism, dialect contact, prestige, linguistic nationalism, and purism as we run through the history of Dutch from 1500s to the present.
Finally, students will also be expected to apply the acquired concepts to one of their languages of study by reporting on a case study of their own. By comparing the various cases from different languages, we will discuss similarities and differences in terms of language history and standardization.
Target audience
This course is aimed at any MA or PhD student with an interest in the language history of the Germanic languages, and Dutch in particular. No knowledge of Dutch is required, although a basic reading proficiency in more than one of the Germanic languages is advisable. Students from various disciplines in the humanities are encouraged to enroll. All teaching and required reading will be in English.
Assessment
15% Class participation
active participation in class discussions, based on critical questions about the reading
students have to be prepared to give a brief summary of the reading in class
30% Required readings and reflection papers
four or five summaries of required readings (chosen freely)
hard copy to be handed in at the start of the class
400-800 words
including three or four critical questions raised by the reading
20% Class presentation
class presentation (about 30-50 minutes) giving an overview of the standardization history of any Germanic language of the student’s choice
starting from one of the chapters in the Germanic Standardizations volume (Deumert & Vandenbussche)
integrating relevant theoretical frameworks and the actual case discussed
preparing questions for discussion, leading the class discussion
35% Final paper
critical and elaborate exploration of any aspect of standardization (language internal and/or language external), based on an extensive case study from one Germanic language of the student’s choice
combining a sound theoretical basis with an extensive overview of the case
may (but does not have to) build on the earlier class presentation
based on extensive library research
3500-4500 words (excluding references; use APA or any other common citation style)
submission: in hard copy and by email, no later than May 4th.
Mon 23 Apr. 2012 week 14
Revision and Q&A for final paper
— Reading days: 25-27 Apr. –
Readings
Students will be expected to read approx. two to three journal articles or book chapters to prepare for each class. During the first part of the course, reading will be more limited, whereas there will be more required reading during the second part of the course. Also, students should be prepared to discuss their reading in class.
Reading material will be made available on Blackboard on a weekly basis as the course progresses.
One of the key texts of the course is Deumert & Vandenbussche (2003), Germanic Standizations: Past to Present. A copy of this work will be available in the library.
Indo-European
1/18
Required reading:
Chapter 2, pp. 35-63, “The discovery of Indo-European”. Hock, H. H. & B. D. Joseph (1996). Language history, language change, and language relationship. An introduction to historical and comparative linguistics. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Also, if you’re not familiar with the phonetic alphabet and linguistic terminology for describing speech sounds, you may want to read chapter 1, pp. 22-34, “Phonetics, phonetic symbols, and other symbols”.
Additional reading:
Chapter 1, pp. 3-22, “Introduction”. Baldi, P. (1983). An introduction to the Indo-European languages. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Campanile, E. (1998). “The Indo-Europeans. Origins and culture.” In: Ramat, A. G. & P. Ramat (eds.), The Indo-European languages, London / New York: Routledge, pp. 1-24.
Chapter 2, pp. 11-33, “The Indo-European Family of Languages”. Beekes, R. S. P. (1995). Comparative Indo-European linguistics : an introduction. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: Benjamins.
The Germanic language family
1/23
Required reading:
Chapter 1, pp. 1-23, “The Germanic language family”. Robinson, O. W. (2002). Old English and its closest relatives. A survey of the earliest Germanic languages. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Ramat, P. (1998). “The Germanic languages.” In: Giacalone Ramat, A. & P. Ramat (eds.), The Indo-European languages, London / New York: Routledge, pp. 380-414.
Additional reading:
Chapter 1, pp. 1-14, “The Germanic Languages”. Nielsen, H. F. (1989). The Germanic languages. Origins and early dialectal interrelations. Tuscaloosa/London: University of Alabama Press.
Chapter 2, pp. 15-34, “Germanic: An Indo-European Language Group”. Nielsen, H. F. (1989). The Germanic languages. Origins and early dialectal interrelations. Tuscaloosa/London: University of Alabama Press.
Chapter 3, pp. 35-65, “Germanic Tribal Movements”. Nielsen, H. F. (1989). The Germanic languages. Origins and early dialectal interrelations. Tuscaloosa/London: University of Alabama Press.
Chapter 2, pp. 24-42, “Germanic: a grammatical sketch”. Robinson, O. W. (2002). Old English and its closest relatives. A survey of the earliest Germanic languages. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
The cradle of Dutch
2/6
Required reading:
Buccini, A. F. (2010). “Between Pre-German and Pre-English. The origin of Dutch”. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 22 (4): 301–14.
Additional reading:
Pp. 85-98. Donaldson, B. C. (1983). Dutch. A linguistic history of Holland and Belgium. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.
Introduction to standardization
2/13
Required reading:
Vandenbussche, W. (2007). “Shared standardization factors in the history of sixteen Germanic languages.” In: Fandrych, C. & R. Salverda (eds.), Standard, Variation und Sprachwandel in germanischen Sprachen, Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
Pp. 1-7 & 59-87. Joseph, J. E. (1987). Eloquence and power. The rise of language standards and standard languages. London: Frances Pinter.
Chapters 1-2. Cooper, R. L. (1989). Language planning and social change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Additional reading:
Kloss, H. (1967). “’Abstand languages’ and ‘Ausbau languages’”. Anthropological Linguistics 9 (7): 29-41.
Haugen, E. (1972 [1964]). “Dialect, language, nation.” In: Dil, A. S. (ed.), The Ecology of Language. Essays by Einar Haugen, Stanford: Stanford UP, pp. 237-54.
Norm selection in Golden Age Dutch: bottom-up approaches
2/20
Required reading:
Willemyns, R. (2003). “Dutch.” In: Deumert, A. & W. Vandenbussche (red.), Germanic Standardizations. Past to Present, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 93-125.
Goss, E. & R. Howell (2006). “Social and structural factors in the development of Dutch urban dialects in the Early Modern period.” In: Cravens, T. D. (ed.), Variation and reconstruction, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 59-88.
Milroy, J. (1992). “Social network and prestige arguments in sociolinguistics.” In: Bolton, K. & H. Kwok (red.), Sociolinguistics today. International perspectives, London: Routledge, pp. 146-62.
Additional reading:
Howell, R. (2006). “Immigration and koineisation. The formation of Early Modern Dutch urban vernaculars”. Transactions of the Philological Society 104 (2): 207-27.
Kerswill, P. & P. Trudgill (2005). “The birth of new dialects.” In: Auer, P., F. Hinskens, & P. Kerswill (eds.), Dialect change: convergence and divergence in European languages, Cambridge: CUP, pp. 196-220.
Contact, community and change
2/27
Required reading:
Trudgill, P. (2009). “Sociolinguistic typology and complexification.” In: Sampson, G., D. Gil, & P. Trudgil (eds.), Language complexity as an evolving variable, Oxford: OUP, pp. 98-109.
Trudgill, P. (2010). “Contact and sociolinguistic typology.” In: Hickey, R. (ed.), The handbook of language contact, Malden (MA): Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 299-319.
Trudgill, P. (2011). “Social structure, language contact and language change.” In: Wodak, R., B. Johnstone, & P. Kerswill (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Sociolinguistics, London: Sage, pp. 236-48.
Additional reading:
Trudgill, P. (2010). Investigations in sociohistorical linguistics. Stories of colonisation and contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Available at the library]
Trudgill, P. (2011). Sociolinguistic typology. Social determinants of linguistic complexity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Available at the library]
Codification and stigmatization in North and South
3/12
Required reading:
Pp. 11-53. Davies, W. V. & N. Langer (2006). The making of bad language. Lay linguistic stigmatisations in German, past and present. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Van der Wal, M. (1992). “Dialect and standard language in the past. The rise of the Dutch standard language in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.” In: Van Leuvensteijn, J. A. & J. B. Berns (eds.), Dialect and standard language in the English, Dutch, German and Norwegian language areas. Seventeen studies in English or German., Amsterdam: North-Holland, pp. 119-28.
Vosters, R., G. Rutten, M. Van der Wal, & W. Vandenbussche (2012, in press). “Spelling and identity in the Southern Netherlands (1750–1830).” In: Jaffe, A., J. Androutsopoulos, M. Sebba, & S. Johnson (eds.), Orthography as social action. Scripts, spelling, identity and power, Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 137-61.
And, if necessary, reread:
Milroy, J. (1992). “Social network and prestige arguments in sociolinguistics.” In: Bolton, K. & H. Kwok (eds.), Sociolinguistics today. International perspectives, London: Routledge, pp. 146-62.
Student presentations and discussion
3/19
No required reading.
Acceptance and implementation: language policy in the long 19th century
3/26
Required reading:
De Wever, B. (2008). “From language to nationality. The case of the Dutch-speaking Belgians in the nineteenth century.” In: Broomans, P., G. Jensma, H. Vandevoorde, & M. Van Ginderachter (eds.), The Beloved Mothertongue. Ethnolinguistic nationalism in small nations. Inventories and reflections, Leuven: Peeters, pp. 49-61.
Pp. 55-83. Witte, E. & H. Van Velthoven (1999). Language and politics. The Belgian case study in a historical perspective. Brussels: VUB-Press.
Vandenbussche, W., J. De Groof, E. Vanhecke, & R. Willemyns (2004). “Historical sociolinguistics in Flanders. Rediscovering the 19th century.” In: Christen, H. (ed.), Dialekt, Regiolekt und Standardsprache im sozialen und zeitlichen Raum, Wien: Edition Praesens Verlag, pp. 49-80.
Additional reading:
Vandenbussche, W. (2009). “Historical language planning in nineteenth-century Flanders. Standardisation as a means of language survival.” In: Omdal, H. & R. Røsstad (eds.), Språknormering. I tide og utide?, Oslo: Novus Forlag, pp. 255-68.
Nelde, P. (1997). “Language conflict.” In: Coulmas, F. (ed.), The handbook of sociolinguistics, Malden (MA): Blackwell, pp. 285-300.
Language history from below
4/2
Required reading:
Chapter 1 (pp. 3-20), Elspaß, S. (2005). Sprachgeschichte von unten. Untersuchungen zum geschriebenen Alltagsdeutsch im 19. Jahrhundert. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Fairman, T. (2005). “’Lower-order’ letters, schooling and the English language, 1795 to 1834.” In: Elspaß, S., N. Langer, J. Scharloth, & W. Vandenbussche (eds.), Germanic Language Histories ‘from Below’ (1700–2000), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, pp. 31-43.
Vandenbussche, W. (2002). “Dutch orthography in lower, middle and upper class documents in 19th-century Flanders.” In: Linn, A. R. & N. Mclelland (eds.), Standardization. Studies from the Germanic Languages., Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 27-42.
Van der Wal, M., G. Rutten, & T. Simons (2012, forthcoming). “Letters as loot. Confiscated letters filling major gaps in the history of Dutch.” In: Dossena, M. & G. D. L. Camiciotti (eds.), Letter Writing in Late Modern Europe, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 139-61.
Additional reading:
Chapter 2 (pp. 23-53), Elspaß, S. (2005). Sprachgeschichte von unten. Untersuchungen zum geschriebenen Alltagsdeutsch im 19. Jahrhundert. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Vandenbussche, W. (2006). “A rough guide to German research on ‘Arbeitersprache’during the 19th century.” In: Andrásová, H., E. Ernst, & L. Spácilová (eds.), Germanistik genießen. Gedenkschrift für Doc. Dr. phil. Hildegard Boková, Wien: Edition Praesens, pp. 439-58.
Rutten, G. & M. Van der Wal (2011). “Local dialects, supralocal writing systems. The degree of orality of Dutch private letters from the seventeenth century”. Written Language & Literacy 14 (2): 251-74.
Elaboration: purism, local dialects and diverging norms