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