Germanic Philology

The course aims at introducing the historical-comparative study of the old Germanic languages and of the cultural and textual production of the Germanic peoples. It pays particular attention to the phonological development from Indo-European to Proto-Germanic and to the medieval Germanic languages through the reading of their written sources.

Knowledge and understanding: knowledge of the fundamental questions about the linguistic, textual and historical-cultural shaping of the medieval Germanic world, analyzed from a comparative perspective; knowledge of the linguistic phenomena which led to the birth and development of the old Germanic languages, particularly from the phonological and morphological viewpoint. Applying knowledge and understanding: ability to read, translate, and analyze texts written in the principal Old Germanic languages from the grammatical and semantic point of view and within their historical and cultural background.