Classics, Ancient History, Linguistics, Academia and more
I remember when I first realised that the English word "alphabet" came from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet - alpha and beta - and somehow I felt like I'd cracked a kind of etymological code. But the list of brilliant names for alphabet terms just goes on. The word "alphabet" is of... Continue Reading →
I had a very fun morning yesterday (in between marking up final page proofs), because I was able to announce the release of the Cambridge Greek Play 2013 on YouTube. Thanks to a donor, both PROMETHEUS and FROGS were filmed over several performances, and John Watts and Helen Eastman have since worked very hard to... Continue Reading →
Last week was our second "Greek in Italy" project trip to the south of Italy. Like our last trip in September 2014, I'm sure that pictures and thoughts from this trip will keep bubbling up in my blog posts and articles for quite some time. But even though we've only just got back and I've... Continue Reading →
One of the most famous Greek tragedies is called Oedipus Rex. Well, sort of. Its original Greek title is Oidípous Týrannos, but usually everyone calls it by its Latin name. Even the English title Oedipus the King is heard much more rarely. And it's not just this play that's the problem. Ancient Greek plays are... Continue Reading →
My holiday reading this year was Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, which I had been meaning to read for a while. For the first three hundred pages, it was a total escape from work - but then what should pop up in Part III but a reference to Umbrian: Alexei Alexandrovich ordered tea to be served in... Continue Reading →
pis: tiú: íív: kúrú: púiiu: baíteís: aadiieís: ahfineís: Who are you? I am a stone. Whose? Baitis Aadiis Afinis's. (Oscan inscription on stone. Altilia, Italy. c. 150-90 BC. Imagines Italicae: Saepinum 2, Sabellische Texte: Sa 31) It's not often that I'm tempted to describe an inscription as "cute", but I've always found this short Oscan... Continue Reading →
Earlier today I tweeted a quote from an article by the University Orator, Rupert Thompson, in our Faculty newsletter. The Orator gives speeches in Latin when honorary doctorates are conferred - and writing speeches in Latin to honour the work of particle physicists, Hollywood actors, and the like, is not always straightforward. It's an almost unique... Continue Reading →
Historians and linguists of the world: you should be reading Amitav Ghosh's Ibis Trilogy - Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and the recently released Flood of Fire. (For those who have already started Flood of Fire, don't worry, there are no spoilers ahead.) I'm hoping the historians don't need too much convincing. Ghosh's trilogy... Continue Reading →
Around this time of year, academics are breathing a sigh of relief that exams (and exam marking) are over. At about the same time, newspapers often invite people to send in their students' funniest "exam howlers". Rather than revealing their students' mistakes, academics on twitter have generously responded to this yearly demand for "howlers" by... Continue Reading →
This term, I've been caught between putting the very final touches to my book and getting stuck into a new project. The beginning of a new research project always seems like a good time to re-evaluate how I've been working, and to investigate what new (or not so new) digital tools are out there that might make... Continue Reading →
Katherine McDonald 