Oriental languages and civilizations

Study of the grammar of classical Sanskrit and its literature from V century B.C.E. to our times. The course aims at highlighting the morpho-semantic structures of Sanskrit and including them in the Indoeuropean context through referring both to the extremely rich Indian grammatical tradition and modern historical linguistics. The socio-linguistic situation of Sanskrit with respect to the other languages of South Asia will also be examined. At the end of the course the student, within the limits of his/her still basic preparation, should be able to use Sanskrit sources for his/her specific studies (historical, literary, philosophical-religious, art-historical, linguistic, indoeuropeistic, epigraphical, etc.).