linguistics
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Oh You Medieval Scribes!
The letter swap responsible for worried wolves, lovely honey, and some monkeys. One of the many skills that Yorkshire folk have over southerners like me is that they can rhyme something with wolf. In my accent, wolf is a lone word, with no partners in rhyme. In northern England, by contrast, the flavours of English… Continue reading
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A Linguist Abroad: Arm in Arm with Armenian
Yours truly has been far from home again, this time strutting the streets and trekking the trails of the Republic of Armenia. I travel for history; I travel for food and drink; and, most importantly and on-brand-ly, I travel for language. Just as you might savour the aroma of an outlandish vintage or cuisine, I… Continue reading
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Homer’s ABCs
Or: Why don’t people in the Iliad and Odyssey write anything down? Sing, goddess, of how Homer is all the rage right now. My timelines have become streams of Nolan-inspired analyses, hot takes and fun facts. While there are many wrathful (and often untenable) criticisms and some complaints of Homeric fatigue to wade through, I… Continue reading
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Did the Philistines Speak Greek?
It’s often nice to spot familiar faces where you don’t expect them, like an unforeseen run-in with a friend while on holiday. Joy in unexpected encounters is possible in the intellectual realm too; during my wanderings through the linguistic past, I’ve delighted in meeting languages and their humans whom I already know from elsewhere. One… Continue reading
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What the Isle of Man Teaches Us About Spelling
In the sea between Britain and Ireland, there lies a much smaller island that is geographically and politically separate from the two landmasses on either side. This land is nominally subject to its own Lord, passes laws in a Tynwald, and is called home by 84,000 humans, a population of tail-less cats, an internationally famous… Continue reading
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Ex- a Weird Old Word Order -ploring
Once, in my halcyon days of doctoral studies, I gave an informal presentation that ended not with the typical slide “any questions?”, but rather “any answers?”. The talk’s topic fitted into my overall research into the word order of ancient Indo-European languages. My task was to acquire, present, evaluate and compare the available evidence, upon… Continue reading
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The Inglish Language
It seems all too appropriate that a language infamous for its quirks of spelling should display a quirk of spelling in its very name. The word English would reasonably guide total newcomers to pronounce it with a short E, like the one typically to be heard in pen. Instead, their ears are due to be… Continue reading
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Meet English’s Newest Consonant
As stable as they may seem, every sound of every spoken language, at some point in the past, didn’t exist. The incessant shifting of speech involves the innovation of sounds, when either new ones are born or old ones transform. Consequently, within the sounds that a particular spoken language (such as Modern English) makes use… Continue reading
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The Armenian Who Learned Greek in Ancient Egypt
Or: Why my (probably) favourite historical document is a unique Armenian text without a word of Armenian. Centuries before the translation apps and pocketable phrasebooks of today, people who found themselves far from home made do with ink and papyrus. For reasons of pure linguistico-historical nerdery and joy, I’d like to introduce you to a… Continue reading
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Vltava, Sázava, Mumlava: A Mumble of Voices Almost Lost
Local rivers, specifically just one bit of them, have had me reflecting on lost language and the flow of time again. No one will be surprised by this. I recently descended from the heights of an enjoyable weekend in Krkonoše, a very hilly national park in the Czech Republic. Tucked up between two angles of… Continue reading