Latin
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Humble Thimbles and Thor’s Thunder
Reading time: 5-10 minutes For this month, I’d like to highlight a phonological phenomenon that should be part of the conceptual toolkit of all etymology fans. It’s something that’s happened in the history of English, and in languages that have gone on to influence English. Awareness of this change can therefore clarify and connect all… Continue reading
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Streets Ahead: When Roman Roads Met Old English
Reading time: 5 minutes (With my apologies to subscribers for the second email, following an accidental premature publication) I’m very keen to share a fun linguistic adventure that I found myself on this week, as I dug down into the history of the humble English word street. It all began with a Patreon post by… Continue reading
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The Reichenau Glossary and the Birth of French
Reading time: 10 minutes Now, I must confess, I have been somewhat preoccupied for the past two months, and so haven’t dedicated time to this site. The jump into the world of podcasting has taken a lot of effort, and yet the website hasn’t been far from my thoughts. So, for this October, I’m getting… Continue reading
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The Gaulish in English, in 10 Words
Reading time: 10-15 minutes To hear me speaking in my not-quite-best Latin, you can listen along here: IF you know a thing or two about Roman history, you will have come across the Gauls. They loom large in the story of Rome’s rise to dominance, both as their aggressor and as victims of their conquests.… Continue reading
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What did British Latin sound like?
The transition from Roman Britain to Medieval Britain is a fascinating historical, archaeological and linguistic puzzle. The fifth, sixth and seventh centuries AD in Britain are like a black box, into which we put a well-integrated region of the Roman Empire, and out of which emerges a patchwork of new kingdoms, cultures and languages. Explaining… Continue reading
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Bad Romance: An Introduction to the Appendix Probi
Reading Time: 10 minutes How exactly did we get from Latin to the many Romance languages of today? What changes happened to Latin that it should end up looking so different? These are the driving questions of Romance historical linguistics, the field of study that aims to investigate how French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian and… Continue reading
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Digging Old Irish
Reading time: 15-20 minutes Old Irish has a bit of a bad reputation. This historical form of the Irish language, dated to between c. 600 AD and c. 900 AD, is a challenge for learners, even for those who already know some Modern Irish. Its systems of spelling, sounds, word order and grammar are very… Continue reading
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The Almost Romance Languages
If you like languages, you’ve probably heard the terms Romance and the Romance family. Although it started life as a name for the language of medieval France, Romance has come to be the umbrella term for a big group of modern tongues, including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Italian and Romanian. The key criterion behind this… Continue reading
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Five Sound Changes That Make Italian Make More Sense
Reading time: 10-15 minutes As I write, it’s the 15th of September, and I have just, with a heavy heart, departed Italy. What a time, and what a place! Among its many delights, it was a particular pleasure to be reminded of how much I love the Italian language. I love to hear it, to… Continue reading
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Latin: Language, Society and Some Sociolinguistics
Reading time: 10-15 minutes A language is never monolithic! Although brief labels are useful for conversation, to say ‘I speak English’ is a complicated thing; its meaning is dependent on person, time and place. The language you use differs according to who you are and who you learned your language from, and who you are… Continue reading