This course studies the historical development of language through time and space, examining the internal mechanisms and external influences involved in language change. Change will be examined at all levels: orthographic, phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and lexical. The course will also to investigate a variety of topics related to the phenomenon of language change; language classification; comparative linguistics; the reconstruction of linguistic systems; the social context of language change. Through study of these issues, students will gain insights into historical language varieties and writing systems; relationships among the world's languages; and the origins of the sounds, words, and structures of the languages we speak today.