General information

The BA Ancient Languages and Cultures - Historical-Comparative Linguistics (ASuK HVS) is a joint programme offered by the Institute of Linguistics - Department HVS and the Institute of Classical Studies - Department Classical Philology.

The subject of Historical Comparative Linguistics are the Indo-European languages in their historical development from the reconstructed Indo-European basic language to the historically documented individual languages and their further linguistic history on the basis of philological studies. The BA ASuK HVS focuses in particular on the Greek and Latin languages, whereby a close connection to literary studies and history as well as to cultural and extra-linguistic-historical contexts is sought with the aim of providing students with a comprehensive and systematic picture of the position and significance of these languages within their ancient environment in addition to linguistic processes. The course of study is therefore supplemented by selected studies from other fields involved in the study of Ancient Languages and Cultures, especially Greek and Latin Philology. Since the reconstruction of the basic Indo-European language is an important component of Historical Comparative Linguistics, some other ancient Indo-Germanic languages are taught in their main features in addition to Greek and Latin.

The aim of the study programme is on the one hand to become familiar with the basic principles of Historical-Comparative Linguistics, in particular with Greek and Latin linguistic history, and to gain exemplary familiarity with ancient literature, and on the other hand to be able to place the acquired linguistic and literary knowledge in its historical and cultural context.

Course contents:

• Professional training in the field of Greek and Latin language history
• Focus on language comparison, dialectology and poetic language