L000970 - NATIVE AMERICAN GLOTTOLOGY

courses

ID:

L000970

Duration (hours):

36

CFU:

SSD:

GLOTTOLOGIA E LINGUISTICA

Located in:

PESCARA

Url:

Course Details:

FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES/CORSO GENERICO Year: 1

Year:

2025

Course Catalogue:

https://unich.coursecatalogue.cineca.it/af/2025?co...

Date/time interval

Secondo Semestre (15/02/2026 - 25/05/2026)

Course Objectives

At the end of the course, students will be able to properly apply the main tools of linguistic analysis to Native American languages in both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, and will be able to interpret from a contemporary linguistic standpoint the information contained in the metalinguistic works written by missionaries. They will also have learned the main grammatical features of Nahua varieties and will be able to compare them for reconstruction purposes.

Course Prerequisites

Having already followed the course in General Linguistics and passed the exam would be preferable.

Teaching Methods

Lectures. Some lessons may be reserved for the presentation of thematic in-depth studies by students.

Assessment Methods

Oral exam. The oral exam assesses the notions acquired, the ability to link them together, competences, capacity for argumentation, relevance and completeness of answers, language property, and the correct use of the technical language of the discipline. The student is also asked to carry out a brief individual study of one of the topics covered during the course through the study of a work chosen from among those recommended (to be previously discussed with the teacher).

Texts

E. Banfi e N. Grandi (a cura di), Le lingue extraeuropee: Americhe, Australia e lingue di contatto, Roma: Carocci, 2022, only the introduction and chapters 1 (E. Banfi, Problemi di ordine generale, pp. 35-46), 2 (N. Grandi, La classificazione delle lingue del mondo, pp. 47-67) and 3 (M. Gnerre, La distribuzione delle principali famiglie linguistiche nello spazio americano, pp. 69-228). Materials available on the e-learning webpage of the course. Further readings will be communicated during the course.

The course aims to provide an overview of the linguistic situation in Native America, with a focus on the Mesoamerican area. The first lectures will be devoted to consolidating knowledge about the tools of linguistic analysis and presenting the main methods of language classification, with special reference to the American area. An overview of the sources related to the varieties of the Nahua group of the Uto-Aztecan language family will then be provided, whose main grammatical features will also be presented, and some issues of reconstruction and dialectology will be addressed, also through the reading and guided analysis of original texts.

Course Language

Italian

More information

Attendance is strongly recommended. Although the program is the same for both attending and non-attending students, non-attending students are encouraged to contact the teacher.