The dissemination of Romance languages across the world tells stories of nation-building, colonization, immigration, and assimilation, with written records that trace back to a common linguistic ancestor, Latin. Taught in English, this course introduces students to Romance linguistics through a socio-historical perspective, requiring that students understand how the evolution of Romance varieties has been shaped by European and global history. After a brief introduction to core fields in linguistics (phonetics/phonology/ morphology/syntax/pragmatics), students will apply these concepts through various analytic approaches to understanding language, including but not limited to historical, variationist, and anthropological.

- This course is taught in English. No prior linguistics knowledge is necessary for this course.

Prerequisite: Students should minimally have an intermediate knowledge or higher of one Romance Language or Latin. This is equal to completion of 2 semesters of a university course in French, Spanish, Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, Romanian, or other. Native speakers are welcome.