Languages
Languages are living relics in which great histories are entwined with the ever-changing present.
There are as many reasons why polyglots choose to learn them with such vigour as there are stars in the Hercules Cluster, reasons which range from the practical to the deeply philosophical, and I do not wish to bore you with my own any more than I have to in order to provide some context for the languages I may use in various projects on this site.
Main Languages
Good : Greek and Irish
Elementary
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2-week Gaeltacht Immersion course (2016, 2018, 2019, Coláiste na Rinne)
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Certificate of Participation in TEG A2, Module 2 online course (2020)
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1-on-1 Speaking Lessons:
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Greek - 71 .5 hours (2019/2020)
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Irish - 66 (2020)
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Better : French
Conversational
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Société Honoraire de Française (2010)
Fluent
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B.A. in German and Creative Writing (2010-2014)
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Goethe-Zertifikat C1 (2013, Goethe Institut Mainz)
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CELTA Pass (2016, British Council Athens)
Best : English and German
Primary Language Experiments:
Mutual intelligibility of Germanic languages
At what point of deviation do native English speakers perceive regional accents as unintelligible? How universally understood is Dutch to the average German speaker and Icelandic to the Norwegian? These are just some of the questions that have contributed to my casual experiments with the mutual intelligibility of Germanic languages and self-driven familiarisation with regional accents in English and German in recent years.
My main focus to date has included Old English, Middle English, Dutch and Norwegian.
Mostly, these studies consist of:
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ascertaining shared vocabulary and grammatical similarities/differences through reading,
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training my accent in the language and developing my ability to recognise regional accents,
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consuming media in the target language to strengthen pronunciation (music and film),
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and conversing with native speakers of the target language at yearly intervals (2-5 hours on average) to assess my ability to use the language to engage in meaningful practice.
Constructing a Language:Ätchgö
The language, Ätchgö /ˈetʃ.gə/, is conceptualised as the language of a nomadic Bronze Age people and has split into two main dialects since its initial creation. It is contained in a series of word lists and literary fragments of epics, epitaphs and lullabies; the digital lexicon (22 pages) is missing some terms from my handwritten notes and requires standardisation. In 2019 I began to develop the cuneiform script meant to be the 'original' written form of the language for the artifacts 'discovered' in, around and between the heltmarrjj (four waters, i.e. Black, Mediterranean, Red and Caspian Seas).
I have been casually creating my own language ever since I took Einführung in die Sprachwissenschaft (Introduction to Linguistics) and Psycholinguistics at university in Germany (2012-2013).
First lines of the pöemchkerim or traveller's epitaph.
Additional Languages:
Beginner level
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Russian: learnt to read Cyrillic (2008); lived and worked as a General English & Exams teacher in Minsk, Belarus, where I used Russian in shops, on public transport, to hire a cab, etc. (2017-2018 school year)
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Hebrew: took introductory lessons, covering how to read the script and basic sentence elements (October 2019-June 2020)
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Italian: started taking introductory lessons at the A1 level (March 2020); two periods of intensive work with Italian 2022
Current Aims: 2024
OLD ENGLISH
Learn the rules of grammar and how to transliterate source materials
MIDDLE ENGLISH
Improve ability to read texts which are not written in Chaucer's London dialect
IRISH
Continue working towards a solid B1 level and read one longer work of fiction