Talking about Talking
By Br John Bernard Church, O.P | In the second episode of our series on Dominicans and their peculiar pursuits, we speak with Fr Richard Ounsworth OP, a scripture scholar, about his love of all things linguistic.
Dominican life has always encouraged a healthy eclecticism and a zeal for the peculiar; a living out of St Paul’s maxim to “take every thought captive” for Christ. Not just Theologians is a new series in which we will explore some of these peculiar pursuits and passions of the friars, to see where a mind in pursuit of truth might be led.
In this second episode, we speak with Fr Richard Ounsworth OP, who teaches scripture and New Testament Greek at Blackfriars, Oxford, about his love of all things linguistic. We cover the evolution of language, linguistic instincts among children, and enjoying what makes you joyful.
The observant among you might notice a small error that crept into our conversation – it was in fact Nicaraguan sign-language invented spontaneously by children, not American sign-language.
There’s also some bonus material:
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A Website Visitor
Fascinating. Fr Richard mentions Cantonese. A language, like all the Chinese languages [dialects as the written language is the same?], which is tonal so the tone of a word can alter the meaning. Being tone deaf made it hard to learn and I was told I spoke it with a strong Pakistani accent! Go figure. I have friends who can switch from Cantonese to English in mid sentence also but often don’t realise they are doing it.
A Website Visitor
Very much enjoyed this very interesting discussion on linguistics. Thank you. MC