Month: May 2018

Latin-language Seminar on ‘Humanitas’

by Robin Meyer (University of Oxford)

The Oxford Latinitas Project promotes the fluent speaking of Classical Latin as an essential part of scholarship (and love) of the Litterae Humaniores. This week, the project will host visitors from the Accademia “Vivarium Novum”, Italy, for a seminar discussion of classic texts on the theme of ‘humanitas’, accompanied by musical settings of ancient poetry. Refreshments will be served, and thereafter those who wish may join us for dinner in the city centre.
The entire evening will be conducted in Latin. Active participation is of course encouraged, but those who simply wish to observe and listen are also most welcome! It will be an excellent opportunity to get a taste for this exciting way of approaching the classical works and the languages they were written in as living things.
In addition to the main event Friday evening, the Vivarienses will be taking over our regular weekly sessions: Lumen Litterarum, on Wedensday, 16 May, at 12:00 in Oriel, and the Familia Romana / Roma Aeterna sessions at Brasenose College, Friday, 18 May, at 12:30 PM.

Please do RSVP, indicating whether you would like to join for the seminar, dinner, or both, or if you would like to come to Lumen Litterarum; no need RSVP for FR / RA.

Bashkardi – a language by convergence?

by Agnes Korn (CNRS, Paris)

Bashkardi, spoken in Southern Iran inland from the Strait of Hormuz, is a very little known language. The dialects differ on all levels of grammar and show strong influence of Persian. This talk will present some salient features of the phonology and morphology of Bashkardi and compare them to other Iranian languages to shed light on the development of the grammatical structures. I will examine the hypothesis that Bashkardi is not a genetic entity, but a group of Iranian dialects of diverse origin which developed common traits by a process of convergence, having found themselves next to each other in a small region that remains remote even today.

This paper will be read at the Philological Society meeting in London, SOAS, Brunei Gallery building, first floor, room B104, on Friday, 11 May, 4.15pm.