Slavic 861

5 credits, meets TR 12:30-2:18 in Cunz 445.

Instructor: Charles E. Gribble

Office hours: TR 9-12 & by appt., Cunz 339.

This course will vary from the description in the OSU Bulletin in two ways: first, it will not emphasize Serbo-Croatian, but will attempt to treat all four modern South Slavic languages relatively equally, and second, it will treat not just the history of the languages, but also their present state and structure. There will be occasional references to Old Church Slavonic, which is clearly a South Slavic language, but it will not be treated systematically in this course, since it has a course of its own, and working on the four modern languages will take all the time available.

Courses on this topic frequently are a "Structure and History of Serbo-Croatian (or Bulgarian)" with some remarks about the other three languages. I firmly believe that a South Slavic course ought to cover all the languages, and since I have worked with all of them, I intend to do a true South Slavic course (to the extent that this can be accomplished in ten weeks). I will welcome your comments and suggestions during the course (probably most conveniently outside of class, but I am not unwilling to discuss such questions during the class if appropriate). The mention of four languages of course raises the question of the status of Serbo-Croatian as one, two, three, four (or even more) languages. We will consider this on the background of other languages, such as English, which have more than one official form.

We will start with a survey of the orthography and phonology of each of the literary languages, so that examples can be given in the standard orthography and understood. Following that we will go back to late Common Slavic and consider its breakup and the features (or lack thereof) which distinguish South Slavic from the rest of Slavic, and the features which distinguish Western South Slavic (Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian) from Eastern South Slavic (Bulgarian and Macedonian).. We will then return to the modern languages and look at their structure, primarily the inflectional morphology. Since as Slavists and linguists, the differences between the languages discussed and other Slavic languages will be apparent to you, a fair amount of language history will be introduced to explain the modern situation. Next will be the history of the literary language, a brief survey of the dialects of each language, and more information on the formal history of the language itself (primarily phonology and morphology), although much of this history will have already been covered in the discussions of previous topics. We will also read some texts in each of the standard languages and some dialect texts if time permits.

A South Slavic language bibliography is being handed out with this syllabus, and readings will be assigned. The course will have a mid-term and a final (the assigned final examination time is Thursday, June 10, 11:30-1:18 - this can be changed). There will not be a research paper, since this is a survey course with a great deal of material to cover, and the effort of writing a long research paper would take too much time away from the other material. The examinations will be based upon both the readings and the class work. The course will not be graded on a curve - this is an advanced course with small enrollment, and you can all get A or all get E or anything in between. I will expect you to prepare your assignments in a timely fashion and to attend class regularly.

This course assumes that you know enough of some Slavic language to understand basic references to such topics as cases, declension types, verbal aspect, and so forth. It does not assume an advanced knowledge of any Slavic language. It does not assume any previous work in Old Church Slavonic or any other South Slavic language. Although most of you have had one or more South Slavic languages, not all have had the same ones, and in any case some persons have not had any.

Assigned readings:

Comrie and Corbett: unless directed otherwise, assigned materials are to be read after the class in which the material is introduced. By singling out and introducing the main points in class, I hope to alleviate the problems in reading C&C which are caused by the terseness of the exposition and the amount of material included in each chapter.

Tentative Schedule: (Indicates what will be covered in class each day and readings for next time.)

March 30, Tu.: introduction, bibliography, start orthography and phonology

April 1, R: finish orthography and phonology of all four languages, South Slavic as a group.

April 6, Tu: Serbo-Croatian Part 1; read C&C pp. 306-318.

April 8, R: Serbo-Croatian Part 2; read C&C pp. 318-339.

April 13, Tu: Serbo-Croatian Part 3; read C&C pp. 382-386. S&S on SC.

April 15, R: Bulgarian Part 1; read C&C pp. 188-198.

April 20, Tu: Bulgarian Part 2; read C&C pp. 198-220.

April 22, R: Bulgarian Part 3; read C&C pp. 244-247. S&S on SC.

April 27, Tu: review

April 29, R: tentative date for examination

May 4, Tu: Slovenian, Part 1; read C&C pp. 388-398.

May 6, R: Slovenian, Part 2; read C&C pp. 398-414.

May 11, Tu: Slovenian, Part 3; read C&C pp. 414-427.

May 13, R: Slovenian, Part 4; read C&C pp. 446-449. S&S on Slovenian.

May 18, Tu: Macedonian, Part 1; read C&C pp. 249-260.

May 20, R: Macedonian, Part 2; read C&C pp. 260-281.

May 25, Tu: Macedonian, Part 3; read C&C pp. 299-303. S&S on Macedonian.

May 27, R: further reading of texts.

May 28-29-30: Pittsburgh Folk Festival, celebration of lack of cases in Bulgarian & Macedonian, dancing in the streets (and on Saturday night until the wee hours at Bulgarian Hall), all conversations to be carried on in admirative or dubitative moods, lots of South Slavic food and live music.

June 1, Tu: further reading of texts, review, wrap-up.

June 3, R: more reading, review, wrap-up.

June 10, Thursday, final exam 11:30-1:18. ☺