LATIN LANGUAGE: SPECIALIZED TOPICS/HISTORY OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE

Course Description

The course is an introduction to the history of the Latin language, spanning from its prehistoric basis in Indo-European till the formation of the standard language in the Classical period and the developments in late antiquity and thereafter. Among the topics to be addressed are the language situation in ancient Italy, Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages, the prevalence of Latin over the rest of Italic dialects, historical grammar of Latin. There will also be chapters on a number of socio-historical factors that contributed to the formation and development of the language, such as the influence of Greek, the appearance of Christianity and its impact on the language, written versus oral local/regional varieties of Latin, the life and social position of the speakers of the language.

Suggested handbook: James Clackson & Geoffrey Horrocks, Ιστορία της λατινικής γλώσσας (Αθήνα 2014).