George Meszoly

Tuesdays, February 7 - March 27 10:00 a.m. - 12noon 8 sessions
Church of the Advent - please enter on Mt. Vernon Street

Mr Callahan: “O’Neill, what do you know about French syntax?”

O’Neill: “I didn’t know they had to pay for it, sir.”

—Apocrypha of the Boston Latin School

While almost all of us speak at least one language, we seldom stop to think what an incredible instrument language is; phonology, vocabulary, inflection, syntax and meaning, all individually complex enough, unite in one even greater complexity which we all daily navigate with complete fluency and hardly any conscious thought. In this course, we will learn how to lift the lamp of consciousness over this unlit terrain.

We will explore, and bring to consciousness, how we produce and understand language in all its glories: structure, history and descent, interactions between languages, etymology (without the bugs), as well as writing systems, and take side trips into how language helps us elucidate events in history and provide glimpses into social systems and human behavior. Perhaps by the end, you will be able to stop yourself occasionally, and say “How did I say that?”.

And, as a special added bonus, by the end of this course, everyone will at least know what a bilabial fricative is, and how to produce one (shipping and handling extra).

George Meszoly

George Meszoly is a graduate of Harvard College in linguistics and Far Eastern languages and of Columbia University in linguistics and Uralic languages.