The development of this course has been funded by the Curriculum Resource Center (“CRC”) at the Central European University (“CEU”), whose programs are partially funded by the Higher Education Support Program (“HESP”). The opinions expressed herein are the author’s own and do not necessarily express the views of CEU.
Introduction
Locating the content of the course within the discipline
At philological faculties of universities general linguistics, as a discipline, has its stable status. Within the scope of linguistics students study dialectology, typology of languages, socio-linguistics, etc. as independent courses. Linguistic geography occupies a place following dialectology and is interrelated with the courses on typology of languages and socio-linguistics.
Locating the course within the curriculum
Within the program of the Faculty of Philology, the course on linguistic geography can be located in accordance with the curriculum of the first academic year when "Introduction to Linguistics" is taught, and in the first semester of the third academic year, when there is a course on "General
Linguistics". My course can be also placed within the curriculum of the second academic year in conjunction with "Comparative Linguistics", especially on the subject of the Indo-European language family. In the curriculum of the third and fourth academic years, courses on dialectology and sociolinguistics are presented.
We incorporated this course into the second semester of the third academic year (34 academic hours -
22 hours lectures, 12 hours seminars). The present course is rather innovative in the Armenian educational system. It has both theoretical and practical importance. In fact, by realizing the course, the teaching of modern linguistics has been summarized, in synthesizing interrelations between the courses on dialectology, the typology of languages, socio-linguistics and comparative linguistics.
Student's assumed knowledge basis for course participation
Students are supposed to have a basic knowledge on general linguistics, dialectology, comparative linguistics, typology of languages and socio-linguistics before participating in the course. They should have an overview about applied and quantitative statistical methods in phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicology, since in the course there is a great emphasis on the application of modern quantitative methods of linguistic geography (methods by J. Nichols, R. Austerlicz).
Objectives of the course
Academic Aims (within the discipline)
1.
To acquaint students (future philologists) with the main theories and methods of linguistic geography (from a diachronic point of view, from the mid-19 th to the 20 th centuries) by means of comprehending both the concept of linguistic geography and skills in linguistic maps producing.
2.
To acquire a basic knowledge about the language situation in the Caucasus, with special attention to producing linguistic maps of the South Caucasus area.
3. To give students an opportunity to learn to codify dialectological data, and to classify phoneticphonological as well as lexical and grammatical data.
1

4. To acquaint students with the necessary arsenal of methods for producing linguistic maps and developing linguistic atlases, and to learn their interpretation in order to use these skills in any linguistic discipline.
Learning Outcomes
Students-philologists will learn:
1. To distinguish and analyze all kinds of linguistic atlases.
2. To explain the essentials of the primary phonetic, phonological, lexical and grammatical characteristics of the main languages in the South Caucasian area.
3. To reveal the cardinal parameters of linguistic habitat, and to determine the genetic density of the South Caucasian area using the concept of linguistic geography (the methods of J. Nichols, R.
Austerlicz).
4. To put concepts connected with producing the linguistic atlas of Armenian dialects into practice.
5. To understand and to give an exact evaluation of the language changes of the region.
III Course Detail
Lecture Synopsis
A paragraph outlining the aims and content of each lecture
Week 1
Lecture 1
1.1.01. The Subject of Linguistic Geography. Goals and Methods.
Students examine the key points of the linguistic geography discipline, including the huge body of work having been carried out in this area, especially in European and American scientific centers, universities, institutes of higher education, and colleges. The basic linguistic geography concepts. The importance of the South Caucasus natural habitat from the point of view of the theoretical and practical application of linguistic geography principles.
1.1.02. The basic issues of linguistic geography in the South Caucasus area.
The peculiar nature of the area: all its three interacting literary languages (Armenian, Azeri and
Georgian) belong to different genealogical language families. Along with these three languages there is a diversity of languages without written formula and literature.
1.1.03. The objectives of linguistic geography in the South Caucasus area. Interlinguistic relations.
The necessity of interaction between different nations, more precisely, the interosculation of languages, and a description of the general evolution trends of the regional languages.
Lecture 2
1.1.04. The lecture investigates the main problems and objectives of linguistic geography. The distinction of the linguistic geography concept is illustrated from the point of view of cognate and non-cognate languages. The role of the geographic environment in language processes.
1.1.05. The interpretation of the socio-linguistic phenomena in the regional languages; particularly the influence of the Armenian language on Georgian and on spoken Azeri languages; the influence of
Azeri on Armenian and Georgian; the influence of Georgian on Armenian and Azeri, and the influence of Georgian on the Armenian language used by the Armenian diaspora in Georgia.
1.1.06. The research results of the Georgian and Azeri linguists.
Week 2
Lecture 3
2

1.2.01. The relation of linguistic geography to a number of bordering disciplines. The common objectives of linguistic geography and Indo-European linguistics (including the comparative linguistics of Turkish and Ibero-Caucasian language families).
1.2.02.
The concept of the linguistic area. In demonstrating the concept of the dialectal area, the emphasis is put on the so-called spread and residual zones of the territorial types, as determined by the American linguist J. Nichols.
1.2.03. We introduce the theory by R. Austerlicz on the genetic density of an area.
Lecture 4
1.2.04. The close relation of linguistic geography with linguistic typology. The concept of language union as described by N. Trubetckoy.
1.2.05. The effect of languages upon social structures of different geographic areas. A general picture of the Balkan language union, and processes leading to the creation of linguistic unions. The South
Caucasian convergence zone concept and the convergence phenomenon. The linguistic understanding of the diffusion concept.
1.2.06. The common features quality, appearing in the development process of non-cognate languages using the example of the South Caucasus area.
Week 5
Lecture 5
1.2.07. The connection between linguistic geography and socio-linguistics. The mechanism of interlingual influences and mutual relations in the indicated area.
1.2.08. The degree of geographic dispersion.
Lecture 6
1.3.01. The connection between linguistic geography and archaeology, genealogy and a series of other bordering disciplines. The application of a number of diachronic methods in linguistic geography and genealogy.
1.3.02. The way Homo Sapiens spread in different parts of the world.
1.3.03. The application problems of linguistic geography, and differences between linguistic geography, dialectology and linguistic map producing.
Week 6
Lecture 7
1.3.04. The principles and methods used in computational linguistics. The potential of computers in the process of data collection in linguistic geography, in processing and applying quantitative methods.
1.3.05. The effectiveness of computers as a tool in processing and analyzing linguistic geography data and in producing linguistic maps for the multi-characteristic classification of dialects by G. Jahukian.
Lecture 8
1.3.06. The concept of the linguistic atlas, and methods of presenting the linguistic phenomena by the aid of maps. Steps preceding the development of linguistic maps, the ways of selecting dialectal areas, and the concepts of dialectal core and periphery.
1.3.07. The dialectal landscape core concept.
Week 9
3

Lecture 9
1.3.08. Methods of data collection for a linguistic atlas. A historical summary of atlas development methods by G. Venker and F. Vred, and the methods used today.
1.3.09. Systems of linguistic designations on maps of linguistic geography.
1.3.10. The principles of linguistic map development for English, Russian, French and German languages.
Lecture 10
1.3.11. The lexical, phonetic, morphological, syntactic isoglosses and methods of their separation; the peculiarities of regional atlases; the principles of dialectological and linguistic geography maps and atlases for the South Caucasus area.
1.3.12. A major scientific method is described for each language level (T. Milevski, J. Greenberg,
Swodesh, etc.).
Week 10
Lecture 11
1.4.01. The periods of the Armenian dialects research: the preliminary description of dialects and various attempts of regional classification (15 th – 18 th centuries), and descriptions by foreign specialists in Armenian philology.
1.4.02. The period of regional classification and a more precise definition of the genealogical principles of Armenian dialects (19
1.4.03. The period of the domination of morphological principles in the classification of Armenian dialects (from the early 20 th th century).
century to the 1940’s).
Lecture 12
1.4.04. The current state of dialectology in the South Caucasus area.
1.4.05. The multi-characteristic method of dialect classification by G. Jahukian. The principles of the new scientific direction of the statistic dialectology.
Week 11
Lecture 13
1.4.06. The method of lexical statistics. The concept of dialectal centers and the peculiarities of the migration of the Armenian and Azeri-language population. The principles of separation of Armenian dialectal regions and the characteristics which may be used in the investigation.
Lecture 14
1.5.01. The methods of isoglosses selection and their designation on linguistic maps. The peculiarities of the synchronic and diachronic approaches. The principle of “time neutrality”, and comparison methods for the separation of dialectal features.
1.5.02. The application of the area method and its peculiarities with regard to linguistic geography data, in connection with the 40 dialects of Armenian language.
Week 12
Lecture 15
4

2.1.01. Methods of investigating the phonetic structure of languages based on linguistic geography.
The differences of phonetic parameters in the interrelation of the three literary languages of the South
Caucasian area and their dialects.
2.1.02. Early research on the dialectal differences by N. Trubetckoy and W. Winter.
2.1.03. The basic principle of 19 th century traditional linguistics: “the rules of language does not allow exceptions”, and its inadmissibility for linguistic geography.
Lecture 16
2.1.04. A description of different theories on the origins of dialects. The phenomenon of vocalism in the Armenian, Georgian, Azeri languages and the isoglosses on the phonetic level in the South
Caucasian languages.
2.1.05.
The peculiarities of the phonetic structures of South Caucasian dialects, from the point of view of their influence on spoken and literary languages.
Week 14
Lecture 17
2.2.01
The lexical isoglosses. The application of the Swodesh method for 120 Armenian words by the Georgian linguist I. Abuladze and the Armenian linguist A. Sargsian.
2.2.01.
The method of statistic multi-characteristic classification by G. Jahukian as an intermediate model.
Lecture 18
2.2.03. An overview of the typological peculiarities of morphological structures of dialectal units and centers, and isoglosses in the morphological structures of the South Caucasian languages.
2.2.04. The morphological method of J. Greenberg as applied for the South Caucasus area languages.
A precise definition of the classification parameters by J. Greenberg. The language and dialectal peculiarities of 11 languages. Results explained by the means of corresponding tables.
Week 15
Lecture 19
2.3.01.The method of basic word orders by J. Greenberg as applied to the syntactic structure of South
Caucasian languages, and their isoglosses.
2.3.02. The method, when applied to the Armenian language, gives interesting results. These are important from a linguistic geography point of view, as they clearly show a valid structure of interaction of non-cognate languages, especially in the South Caucasian area.
Lecture 20
2.4.01. The peculiarities of syntactic structures of dialects.
2.4.02. Basic development tendencies the in the case of non-cognate languages. A description of analytic and synthetic languages. The absence of pure analytic or pure synthetic languages.
Week 17
Lecture 21
2.4.03. The linguistic state in the South Caucasus area based on the genetic density method by R.
Austerlicz and J. Nichols.
2.4.04. Divergent and convergent developments of Armenian and Azeri dialects.
Lecture 22
2.5.01. A detailed linguistic overview of the South Caucasus. The overall linguistic situation of the area at present.
5

2.5.02. The “specific gravity” of neologisms as a result of linguistic contacts. The unsolved problems of the linguistic geography discipline.
2.5.03. The details of the linguistic substance of the idea to create a Common House in the Caucasus.
A paragraph outlining the aims and content of each seminar/tutorial. You should include the set questions which will serve as the basis of each seminar discussion.
The course includes 6 seminars (12 academic hours). Each seminar lasts for 2 academic hours, allowing enough time to estimate the knowledge of a considerable number of students.
Week 3
Seminar 1
The aims and problems of linguistic geography
1) What range of questions does linguistic geography cover? Explain the goals and problems of the discipline. Pay special attention to explaining the differences and the common features of linguistic geography and dialectology.
2) What are the differences in the concept of linguistic geography regarding cognate and noncognate languages? Explain how does the notion of non-cognate languages coincide with the area of linguistics.
3) List at least 3 features why the South Caucasus area is of interest for general linguistics and especially for linguistic geography.
4) Explain the role of the geographic factors in the development process of linguistic variants and dialects.
5) Referring to the previous question, explain why the Armenian language has many dialects?
Explain why the borders of Armenian dialects correspond to the borders of the disconnected feudal provinces. Tell about the connection of geographic relief to linguistic variants.
6) The genealogical basis of the basic languages in the South Caucasus area. The boundary contacts and the convergence of Armenian, Azeri and Georgian languages.
Week 4
Seminar 2
The relationship between linguistic geography and bordering disciplines.
1) What are the mutual problems of linguistic geography and historical comparative linguistics? List at least 3 differences between these disciplines.
2) Explain the concept of area. Interpret the concepts of “spread” and “residual” zones as suggested by J. Nichols, considering the characteristics of the South Caucasian area.
3) What contribution does the investigation of the South Caucasian linguistic area have to the genetic density method by R. Austerlitcz? Can you define what value this parameter has for the South
Caucasus area?
4) The mutual problems of linguistic geography and linguistic typology. In what way does linguistic typology influence the further development of linguistic geography? Describe the characteristic properties of these disciplines excluding common features.
5) Explain the concept of “linguistic union”. As an example, show the common features of the
Balkan “linguistic union”. How would you explain the idea of the South Caucasus linguistic union? If you consider this idea acceptable, what common features do you assume as basic? If you do not consider this idea acceptable, what common features do you think are missing?
5) The phenomenon of linguistic diffusion in the South Caucasian area.
Week 7
Seminar 3
The connection between linguistic geography and archaeology, genealogy and other bordering disciplines
6

1) List the common features of linguistic geography and Archaeology and Genealogy.
2) Explain the directions Homo Sapiens spread. How do you explain the hypothesis of delayed settlement in the Americas? Please add your own arguments.
3) The contacting points of socio-linguistics and linguistic geography. List at least 3 problems, which equally concern both socio-linguistics and linguistic geography.
4) Examine the phenomena of divergence and convergence using the example of the South
Caucasus area.
5) The hypothesis of Gamkrelidze - Ivanov concerning the Indo-European forehome and an examination of the Caucasian linguistic situation.
6)What do you think of the concept of linguistic stability? How do you explain the existence of convergentional transferences in spoken languages of South Caucasian from this point of view?
Week 8
Seminar 4
Linguistic atlases: types, peculiarities and problems.
1) What is a linguistic atlas? How are these atlases developed and what is their purpose? List at least 4 reasons.
2) What are isoglottic lines and isoglosses? What isoglosses do you know of? Indicate at least 3 isoglosses.
3) How and when were the first linguistic maps developed?
4) Is it possible to apply the same methods without any modifications to the South Caucasian area, with special emphasis on Armenian dialects? If yes, how do you explain the influence of permanent migrations and deportations on the linguistic situation? If not, what modifications would be necessary to make to the method developed for European languages?
5) The concepts of dialectal core and periphery. How are they distinguished?
6) The methods of data collection for linguistic atlases. Describe the following three methods: direct method, indirect poll (questioning) method and mixed method.
Week 13
Seminar 5
Linguistic geography and the problems of the South Caucasus area.
1) The peculiarities of atlases developed based on the data of non-cognate languages. The idea of the Common House in the South Caucasus and a consideration of the linguistic situation by means of precise quantitative methods.
2) The statistic classification method of the Armenian dialects by G. Jahukian. The possibilities of applying this method for Georgian and Azeri geolinguistic data.
3) Why is more importance given to the morphological structure when classifying Caucasian dialects?
4) The ways of the selecting dialectal features.
6) The phonetic differences in dialects from the synchronic and diachronic points of view.
Linguistic geography and phonetics (T. Milevski, N. Hajieva, Ed. Aghaian, etc.). The principal comprehension of the Moscow and Leningrad phonetic schools of thought, and the phonetic structure of South Caucasian languages.
Week 16
Seminar 6
Linguistic geography and language vocabulary - the morphological structure
1) Three experiments on applying the Swodesh method regarding Armenian dialectal vocabulary data (I. Abuladze, G. Jahukian, A. Sargsian). How do you explain the differences in the results?
2) The application of the statistic method by J. Greenberg on the morphological structure.
7

3) The application of the quantitative method of J. Greenberg on the basis of the word-formative structure.
4) The investigation of J. Greenberg on basic word order, and the application of this method on the data of the Armenian language (dialects and the two literary languages).
5) The degree of nearness regarding dialects and literary languages. By what parameters are patois, dialect and literary language separated?
6) Does the direction of development of the series of inflexional-agglutinative and analyticalsynthetic languages serve as an argument for the same direction in the development of some groups of languages? Explain the basic tendencies in language development in the South Caucasian area.
NB: In your Course Detail remember to show a logical week-by-week development of the course. Each set of aims, content and seminar questions should show that you are building on the aims, content and questions raised previously.
IV Assessment
Outline of Student Assessment
Assessment should be 1) valid and formative (we intend to tell students how they are doing and how they can improve), 2) incremental (diverse and continuous), 3) demanding. Students receive formative marks and after completing the course take examination.
VI. Teaching Methodology
The main objective in teaching the course is active learning. The preference is given to the importance of analysis and critical thinking. The inclusion of excessive content is to be avoided. In the teaching strategy, lectures occupy an important place because they are: 1) a means of overcoming lack of reading material in Armenian and 2) the quickest way to impart a body of knowledge to a group of participants.
Students are recommended to do the reading in other languages as well. Reading is an “extra” element required for producing assessment. Seminars are designed to encourage debate and analysis.
During seminars the class is divided into smaller groups at various stages of the teaching process.
Other methods, such as project work in small groups (pairs or individually), are also applied.
Individual consultations have an important role, too (one-to-one sessions). The integrated teaching approaches are extensively used.
8