Students will learn to approach historical English texts with confidence and acquire the necessary skill set to make sense of them. They will learn about the different periods in the history of English and what distinguishes the various language stages linguistically. They will learn to deal with the high degree of linguistic variation that is inherent in historical Englishes. And they will learn how to find and use reference and supplementary material including (online) dictionaries and digitized manuscripts.

This is a hybrid course with blocked in-class and online sessions. The in-class sessions will be focused on reading and discussing selected texts from historical stages of English, primarily Old and Middle English. The online sessions will feature some input by the lecturer as well as interactive analysis of textual material. Students will get the opportunity to practice and refine their skills with regular eLearning exercises. The final blocked in-class session will take the form of a 'mini conference', in which students will present a historical text they have independently worked on during the term.

The course provides a hands-on introduction to the earliest stages of the English language. Students will learn to read, translate and linguistically analyse texts composed in Old and Middle English. They will encounter dragons and other monsters, relive some of the most significant events in English history through primary sources, contemplate the solutions to Anglo-Saxon riddles, and learn about the often neglected stories of Medieval warrior queens. They will recognize age-old themes and characters that have inspired modern works of pop-cultural importance such as The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to apply linguistic knowledge and skills from their own first and second languages in order to make sense of historical varieties of English. By comparing texts from different periods and dialect areas, students will also gain an understanding of how language contact and internal developments have shaped the English language over time.

Completion of the Lecture "Development of English" is not a strict prerequisite, but strongly recommended.

Introduction to Linguistics II

Singh, Ishtla. 2005. The history of English. A student's guide. London: Hodder and Arnold.Additional material will be provided at the beginning of the course.

Continuous assessment throughout the semester. Regular attendance is mandatory. A maximum of 4 teaching hours may be missed without consequences for the grade. This is equivalent to 2 online sessions or 1 blocked in-class session. (Partial) presence is mandatory in the final blocked session, 7 Dec 2023.

Assessment will be based on: regular attendance and participation (20%)regular home exercises (20%)final oral presentation (30%)final written paper (30%)

'Sehr gut' = 90%'Gut' = 80%'Befriedigend' = 70%'Genügend' = 60%'Nicht genügend' = <60%