An interesting course offering a wide knowledge of PIE and indo european languages. Dr Pronk's presentations in particular are very good. However, unless I am wrong, reporting an issue under the course material seems not to work perfectly. I reported a number of inaccuracies in presentations of Greek grammar and never received a reply, see for example in Week 3, the video on Greek cases. Furthermore some ancient Greek words indicated in the course seemed sometimes quite incomprehensible to me, I would have liked to discuss them with teaching staff, but unfortunately I didn't know how.

This was a very fun course! I loved being able to go through and reconstruct words in PIE based on what we learned in the videos and readings. I have a background in linguistics, though less on the comparative side of things, and think this course works well for beginners as well as those with a more formal background.

My one complaint is that in order to finish the course you need to take the graded exam, but you can't take the graded exam unless you pay for a certificate...so there's no way to finish the course unless you pay to do so. Also, one of the exercises in Week 6 will be marked as complete on the desktop but not the phone so Week 6 always registers as 'incomplete' (this does not affect your ability to finish the course, though).

The course contents are interesting and educational. However, more time should be given to examples to assure better comprehension, at least in some areas. Finally, one should not have to pay/upgrade in order to take the final quiz!

I thuroughly enjoyed this course. My only critique is that some of the exercises required a copy an paste from the answers given because the expected answer contained a character that is not on a standard keyboard. These are common issues known to people using systems like Excel when you copy from certain sources into Excel, for example. A curved single quote vs '. Other problems I found were things like the question asked for the first reconstructed sound but then the question continued to give an example of reconstructing the entire root in such detail that it was confusing what exactly was expected as the answer. But the contents of the interviews and the difficulty of the questions in the quizes really made this course a lot of fun. I had casually read on this topic in the past and I have watched a number of lectures on YouTube by some of the professors who were interviewed but I had never gone into this much detail on topics like the larengyls and their reflexes int he daughter languages. If you are interested in PIE and the IEs, this course is essential.

I found the course, and its content to be very stimulating, and a successful endeavor. I especially enjoyed learning about the sanskrit roots of indo-, and proto-indo european languages. Professor Tijmens Pronk has arranged the course in such a way, as to provide enough learning materials, along with the scope, and pace of the course, to make it an interesting, and rewarding experience. If you've already taken courses on coursera.org, from Leiden University on linguistics, and phonology, then this course is something, which you would enjoy as well.

Wanted to know something about how Proto-Indo-European language was reconstructed for quite sometime already. And the course was just 100% hit! Thanks!

Very well-organized and taught course with super interesting material. Although learning all the sound laws that affected indo-european languages is essential to understand their evolution, quizzes were often hard.

A fascinating introduction to historical linguistics! I appreciated a lot the simple and comprehensible way the information was presented. Everything was explained in a way to make it easy for everybody to understand and gain an overall knowledge of the field. I also liked the fact that the laryngeal theory was incorporated as an inseparable part of the PIE phonology and I had the chance to see in practice how the theory works. Even when I was studying staff I knew of I had the feeling that the way it was explained I got a better understanding of them. What I enjoyed the most were the quizzes, especially the ones in which I had to reconstruct the original PIE types. They were a creative way to see what I had learnt and how to use the knowledge I had gained. The discussion forum also gave me an opportunity to express my ideas and expand my learning beyond what was taught to me in each lesson. Although I much appreciated the course I would also like to report some drawbacks.More specifacally, I felt as if the information about them was mostly cultural and less linguistic or as if the linguistic information was provided only for the reconstruction of PIE (e.g. in an interview it was stated that the insular Celtic languages have a completely different verbal system from that of the rest IE languages but we didn't have the chance to learn more about it). Of course I understand that this was merely an introductory course and not everything could be included here. In addition, the Indo-Hittite and Italo-Celtic theories remain debated. During the course I felt as if they were taken a bit for granted. I find it positive that these theories where presented but I would also like to see the argument of the opposite side. In any case, I believe that these issues are of minor importance and that is why I decided to add all five stars. Overall I believe that it was a great course, a complete introduction to Indo-European Linguistics and I would recommend it to anybody who is interested in linguistics, ancient languages and archaeology.

The course is extremely well-planned and beautifully structured, as it includes a blend of reading material, videos, discussion prompts and practice assignments. The course offers an introduction to Indo-European culture and a brief about the specific branch before delving into sound laws and other specificities. The material is truly engaging and I am grateful to the course creators for providing access to a wonderful subject which, I believe, is not very well-known!

Such an amazing, quality and rigorous course. Learning a lot. Thanks to coursera, the univeristy and the instructors for creating such a technical yet engaging discourse. I learnt lot of practical linguistic skills. I am fluent in Latin and Sanskrit which I self learnt and am now learning Ancient Greek. This course is enabling me to appreciate all these languages at a deep linguistic level.

This was the most interesting course I have ever done! The content is intriguing and the exercises are bringing everything together perfectly. I was impressed that by the end of the course I was reconstructing Proto Indo-European words so easily. I would wholeheartedly recommend this course to anyone interested in languages and linguistics, or to anyone who loves solving puzzles!

As much as I didn't properly contribute to the discussion prompts after a certain week, i enjoyed learning things during this course, i learnt about how English and the various languages became like so, and also learnt alot about linguistic concepts in general, although my knowledge on it might not be super stable and I might need to work on it.

Great teachers, wonderful method of studying by using gradual excercises, Important Guests from the academic field. I've absolutely loved this course and hope to find something to the same level! Sad it is not possible to get a degree in University of Leiden by remote. You have all of my compliments!

A great course for people interested in Indo-European Linguistics. You will learn and practice a lot. A real challenge. Don't miss it! The educators are also great communicators and they really know what they are talking about. I very gladly recommend this course. 5 stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

It is a great course for an introduction to Proto-Indo-European Linguistics! It would be even better if the topics of epic poetry and the textual traditions of the ancient indo-european languages were more detailed in the lessons.

A very in-dept introduction into how languages of the indo-european family are compared and related. Materials are well-prepared and exercises are truly challenging. I've learned a lot from this course!

Great course on a apparently minor topic in the education of, for instance, a Manager/Director, albeit it's very important for a variety of reasons on a variety of fields. So thank you Leiden University

An exccellent course, very well designed to betterget a basic knowledge of the Indo-European linguistics and culture. Really engaging and fascinating course. Congratiulations!

The course reached my interest about the subject. It is not an easy theme, but it was very well teached.

Thanks to the team! I look forward for a continuation.

The course was well done and very engaging. There was a wealth of information, the presenters were great, and overall I found the topic fascinating.