ANTH 3541

(Topic: Language Change)

Coming into this class, I knew nothing about linguistics, and I thought I was in for a rough ride, but it goes very gentle. Wendte is aware that a lot of people don't know the IPA and may not know a bunch of linguistic terminology, so he explains everything very clearly and gently. The textbook is also super easy to read and understand. The homeworks are all graded on "good-faith effort" - so basically if you tried your best. He grades very leniently overall, so it's easy to come out with an A, even with zero linguistics background. Homeworks took me maybe 30 minutes when they were assigned. In terms of exams, there are two midterms (online, take home, open note) and no final. Everything was very straightforward. I would say the reconstruction problem was maybe the hardest thing we had, but asking him questions made it easier. Wendte is a great guy and a great lecturer overall.

Having said all that, this class will be quite boring if you don't care at all for linguistics. This is great for someone who needs to fulfill the linguistics requirement for cog sci or the historical requirement for linguistics. (Although, maybe an easier linguistics elective like ANTH 2415 would be more suitable for the cog sci linguistics requirement imo).

This review is for ANTH 3541 Language Change (Historical Linguistics) with Professor Wendte. This class covered language change, starting with "why" and "how" languages change, then moving on to the comparative method which was the bulk of the class, and ending with various applications of the comparative method and other concepts we had learned on specific case studies of language families. Reading for the majority of the class was out of a textbook on language change, but I found it to be one of the better textbooks I've read as the author really gets to the point quickly and concisely and follows it with a plethora of specific linguistic examples, really showing you visually exactly what is being explained. Those examples then find themselves in Wendte's lectures, which usually take a broad overview mirroring the chapter assigned for the class while also involving material from Wendte's own linguistic work and are designed to make sure everyone is clear on what linguistically is going on. For me, this course started off hard as I had very little familiarity with IPA, but over time more and more clicked and eventually, I found myself making much more sense of everything. I found understanding the theoretical background of the comparative method and using it to "solve" a linguistic puzzle very different endeavors, but both were rewarding in their own way.