The goals of the course are to see how the principles of historical and comparative linguistics are reflected in the history of Japanese. We will look at several important phonological and syntactic phenomena, (and at how they might be accounted for in various frameworks) both native and Western. Students will acquire a sense of the depth of the language, and an understanding of what is involved in doing historical linguistic research.

On successful completion of this course students should be able to:
1. identify varieties of Japonic based on aspects of their phonology, morphology, and syntax;
2. assess arguments pertaining to the history and development of the varieties of Japonic;
3. explain the complex attitudes people have to varieties of Japonic;
4. analyse raw linguistic data;
5. collaborate with other students in the selection and analysis of data for a project on a given variety;
6. research, present and justify the results of your collaboration with other students with respect to the projects;
7. reflect on and articulate how your own understanding of language variety and change  in the Japanese archipelago have developed over the course of the semester.

One essay (30%),

Short critical summaries (20%),

Presentations (20%)

Problem sets (10%),

Group project (20%).

Introduction to the Study of Language (LING1001), Spoken Japanese 4 (JPNS2013), Written Japanese D (JPNS2015) or permission of Program Convenor, Dr Peter Hendriks.