HIS 4291 Languages for Historical Inquiry
Course Description:
This course offers a basic knowledge in reading Pali, Tamil and Dutch languages in order to equip students for reading primary materials from the pre-colonial to the colonial period.
Learning Objectives:
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the language skills that they need to pursue a research career as a historian. It will give them a basic knowledge about Pali, Tamil and eighteenth century Dutch so that they can use this knowledge in their research for the fourth year dissertation. In addition, students will be encouraged to use primary sources in their research at the undergraduate level.
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course, students should be able to:
• Show a basic understanding of the languages followed.
• Use the learned language skills to understand basic historical texts in these languages.
• Provide a generally accurate translation of these basic historical texts.
Course Content:
1. Basic Dutch Grammar
2. Reading Dutch Thombos
3. Basic Pali Grammar
4. Reading sections from basic Pali texts
5. Basic Tamil Grammar
6. Reading selected historical Tamil text on history of Sri Lanka
Assessment:
Attendance 10%
Midterm Test or Assignment 30%
Final Exam 60%
Recommended Readings:
Spanns, Y. (2007) A Practical Dutch Grammar, Leiden: Primavera Press.
කන්දයියා බී, පෙරේරා සී. බී. (1998) සිංහලෙන් දෙමළ නුගේගොඩ : මොඩර්න් පොත් සමාගම
දසනායක ඒ (2001) දෙමළ ගුරුවරයා නුගේගොඩ : මොඩර්න් පොත් සමාගම
බුද්ධදත්ත ස්ථවිර පොල්වත්තේ (1982) පාලිභාෂවතරණය පළමු කොටස කොළඹ : රත්න ප්රකාශකයෝ
බුද්ධදත්ත ස්ථවිර පොල්වත්තේ (1991) පාලිභාෂවතරණය දෙවන කොටස කොළඹ : රත්න ප්රකාශකයෝ