GLST 210: Languages of the World

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The course focuses on language as a critical piece of cultural diversity and of the human experience. It presents a survey of the world’s languages from three perspectives: (a) organization of sounds, words, and structures; (b) geographical and temporal spread; and (c) cultural dimensions and prestige. It presents theories of the origin of human language and methods used to reconstruct the past of languages. It also provides an overview of the world’s main language families and representative languages from each. It describes how languages are born, become fragmented and diverge, and the effect of language contact and multilingualism. It explores the role of power relations between languages as a factor in determining their fate, threats to language diversity in a globalized world, language endangerment and death. Finally, we will consider the relationship between language and its medium (oral, gestural, written), and the history of the main writing systems.
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Practical matters: this course is taught in English. It is offered Tuesdays and Thursdays between 3:55 and 5:10 pm in Heldenfels 119. We will be using this textbook. The course fulfills the IDC requirement.
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If you would like more details about the course, feel free to explore the videos below, check the tentative syllabus available here, or reach out to me at moyna@tamu.edu
Sample course topics
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Have you ever wondered...
.... how many languages there are?
.... what counts as a language, and what is just a variety of some other language?
.... what determines whether speakers of one language understand those of another or not?
... why moving from the homeland can cause a language to change?
...and how deaf communities create their languages?
... what is the relationship between languages and scripts?
The video on the right answers some of these questions, and the ones below dig a little deeper. Enjoy!
Language change and language families
Where do sign languages come from?
Why do languages die?
How can endangered languages be saved?