This course will introduce various aspects of studying linguistic
change. Topics to be discussed include the nature of evidence in
diachronic research, traditional classificatory approaches to
linguistic change and examples of various processes, comparative and
internal reconstruction, models of linguistic structure based on
linguistic change, and mechanisms of linguistic change. The course
will involve a range of analytic assignments dealing with specific
sets of observations, short exams, and a project collecting and
elucidating observations concerning a specific diachronic linguistic
phenomenon of the student's choice.