Monday, 13 August 2007

Speaking in tongues

On Sunday we heard Nicholas Ostler talk about his new book on Latin. He's not quite the typical bloke you'd meet down the pub:
A scholar with a working knowledge of twenty-six languages, Nicholas Ostler has degrees from Oxford University in Greek, Latin, philosophy, and economics, and a Ph.D. in linguistics from MIT, where he studied under Noam Chomsky.
He told me that he knew "around eighteen" languages. I suppose it gets a bit confusing after the first three or four. Later on I saw Mr Ostler lurking in the Scottish history section of the bookshop. Does he speak Gaelic? Probably by the end of visit to Scotland.

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

dearieme
"degrees from Oxford University in Greek, Latin, philosophy, and economics": I'll bet he doesn't.

13 August 2007, 22:20:26 GMT+01:00