Life of the Mind

U of C students speak-and read and write-in many tongues. Here are a few of the more unusual language offerings:

Elementary Akkadian I, II, III
This three-quarter sequence covers the Babylonian grammar and cuneiform writing systems. Readings of Old Babylonian texts (ca. 1900- 1600 B.C.E.) include the Laws of Hammurabi.

Introductory Bengali I
The basic grammar of Bengali is presented. By the end of the quarter, students are expected to be able to read simple graded texts and to speak at a low-intermediate level.

Introduction to Hieratic
Students are introduced to the cursive literary and administrative script of Middle Egyptian. Readings in hieratic script include literary tales, religious compositions, wisdom literature, letters, accounts, and graffiti. Knowledge of hieroglyphs is required.

Old Church Slavonic
This course provides an introduction to the language of the oldest Slavic texts. After a brief history of the relationship of Old Church Slavonic to other Slavic languages, students learn Old Church Slavonic inflectional morphology and begin reading and grammatically analyzing original texts in Cyrillic or in Cyrillic transcription of the original Glagolitic.

First-Year Norwegian
The aim of this course sequence is to provide students with a practical foundation in reading, writing, and speaking bokmål, the dominant written and spoken language of Norway, and to introduce them to present-day Norwegian and Scandinavian culture and society.