Indo-European Studies Overview

You're now viewing the 2021-22 Catalog

Interdepartmental Program
College of Letters and Science

100 Dodd Hall
Box 951417
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1417

Indo-European Studies
310-825-4171

Brent H. Vine, PhD, Chair

 

The primary focus of the interdisciplinary Indo-European Studies program is the study of the ancient Indo-European languages and of their reconstructed ancestor, Proto-Indo-European, based on methods drawn from comparative-historical, theoretical, and computational linguistics. Goals of this study include the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language, elucidating its subsequent development into the historical Indo-European languages, and showing how data from the archaic Indo-European languages contribute to a theory of language. There is also attention to other aspects of the nonmaterial culture of the speakers of Proto-Indo-European (such as social structure, religious beliefs, mythology, and poetics), and how these are reflected in the textual traditions of the ancient Indo-European languages.