Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Introduction to linguistic diversity of world and to such core areas of linguistics as study of sound production and patterning (phonetics and phonology), word formation (morphology), and sentence formation (syntax). Structural characteristics of world languages and methods of classifying languages into families and types. Detailed discussion of representative languages with audiovisual illustrations to acquaint students with distinctive features of several key language families. Discussion of such linguistic concepts as pidgins and creoles, unaffiliated languages, language contact, and language endangerment, together with related sociopolitical issues. P/NP or letter grading.

Units: 5.0