Annotation
This course is intended for international students as an introduction to the linguistic situations and languages of Central Europe (Czech-speaking students may attend the Czech language version of this course in autumn). This course first overviews the social statuses and the spread of Central European languages.
A subsequent overview provides information on their genealogical origins and major structural properties, including the discussion of issues such as the existence of a Central European Language Area, of membership in the Standard Average European Sprachbund, and of the level of mutual similarity within the Slavic group. The main part of the course acquaints the students more closely with selected individual languages of the region, in particular major national languages Czech, Slovak, Polish and Hungarian and traditional minority languages Burgenland Croatian and Romani.
The students not only obtain basic information about the social statuses and structures of these languages, but would also have the opportunity to try to acquire basic skills in reading and pronunciation in familiarizing themselves with these languages by means of textual and audio samples.