80-287 Language Variation and Change

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

Where does the Pittsburgh "needs washed" structure come from? Why do people in the South say "y'all", and why is it spreading to the rest of the country? Is social media changing how people speak, and if so, how are the changes similar or different from the ways that languages have always changed? How do accents and other linguistic features trace migration patterns through history? In this course, students will learn about the ways languages and dialects differ and change. We'll look at the social, cultural, geopolitical and psychological factors that cause languages to change, and find that, while the end result is the astonishing linguistic diversity we're all familiar with, the principles that explain this diversity are remarkably constant across space and time. This course has been revamped so that it requires no prerequisite, and no prior linguistic knowledge is assumed.

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Fall 2026, Fall 2025

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