Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Languages (2026 - September)
(Text as at 15/10/2026 21:53:17)
Rationale for this Project
- I don’t claim to have any linguistic ability, and am usually too shy to utter anything in public in a language other than English – partly because of an obsession with accuracy, but also because of a lack of interest in the use of language for basic communication, leading to a lack of command of everyday speech.
- I’m interested in how languages function, and in particular how languages in related or unrelated groups compare as far as their grammar and vocabulary are concerned.
- I’m also interested in nativist theses about the innate hard-wiring of human brains for the acquisition of natural languages at critical phases of psychological development (see my BA Philosophy dissertation “Poverty of Stimulus Arguments for Innate Grammar1”).
- Anyway, at various times of my life I have made forays into various languages by formal or informal study.
- This used to involve listening on my iPod while walking to and from the station, when exercising down the gym, or in the car to and from music lessons. Now these opportunities have gone. I discovered the opportunity of using Ling Language Learning on my iPhone when walking Henry the dog, which has been quite transformative. Unfortunately, Henry had to be put down at the end of September 2022 and there was an intermission until April 2023 by which time our new puppy Bertie was old enough not to require constant attention.
- A problem with this approach – learning while walking the dog – is that it doesn’t lead to much grammatical understanding. For this, reading and careful study is required for which, sadly, I have little time.
- Other reasons for bothering with languages are that Classical Greek, Hebrew and maybe Syriac, Arabic and Latin should be of use in my theological studies, and Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish and Thai are important with family-members as native speakers.
- I took an on-line course – "van Oostendorp (Marc) - Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics" – mid-2016, which was interesting and deserves following up.
- This project has varied in priority over recent years. However, now Nat has arranged to work remotely in Thailand and has married Fon – his Thai girlfriend – learning Thai has some relevance.
- Having said all the above, as of mid-23Q3 I decided to go all-out (well, nearly all-out) on my philosophical Thesis and now use ‘walkies’ time to read philosophical papers on my Kindle or Kobo eReader. So, this project is now substantially in abeyance apart from Biblical Greek and Hebrew.
Summary of Progress during July - September 2026
- I spent 2.5 hours in 26Q3 on this Project, or related work (26.25 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2025). That's 9.6% of the planned effort (22.4% YTD). Overall, 0.4% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 0.9% YTD) - as against 3.3% planned (3.6% YTD).
- I scheduled 2 hours / week on this project in 26Q3 but spent about 10% of this, less than 25% YTD. I’m not especially worried as this project is not a priority.
- In July 2024 I restarted reading through the NT, OT and LXX in the original Greek and Hebrew, time being booked to my Philosophy of Religion2 Project.
- However, I decided to brush up on my Hebrew grammar, and read most of "Lambdin (Thomas) - Introduction to Biblical Hebrew" which had been recommended by Heythrop but which I’d ignored hitherto because of the tiny Hebrew print which makes it difficult to read the vowel pointing. I had been making good progress but stopped when I got to Lesson 44. I have restarted with a view to doing the exercises and checking in "Williamson (H.G.M.) - Annotated Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew". I’ve ignored English to Hebrew exercises for now but have been making good progress on a second reading of the book – doing only the Hebrew to English exercises.
- I’ve now decided to run through "Wenham (John) - The Elements of New Testament Greek" at the same time and have made a good start. I’m adopting the same approach to the exercises as for Hebrew, using "Wenham (John) - Key to the Elements of New Testament Greek".
- So, in the quarter just ended, that’s all I did … just much less of it than I’d planned.
- Further details follow:-
Languages (Total Hours = 2.5)
- Languages - Admin
- Languages - Greek (Classical)
- Languages - Hebrew (Classical)
- Progress (if any) in the current quarter can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List3, and YTD in the current & future “automatic” editions of this report.
Summary of Progress during 25Q4-26Q3 (on-going) (YTD Activity4)
- Languages (Total Hours = 26.25)
- Languages - Admin (Total Hours = 3.75)
- 25Q3 Status Reports: Languages (1.5 hours)
- 25Q4 Status Reports: Languages (1 hour)
- 26Q1 Status Reports: Languages (0.5 hours)
- 26Q2 Status Reports: Languages (0.75 hours)
→ See "Admin - Languages - Admin" (3.75 hours)
- Languages - Chinese
- Languages - French
- Languages - Greek (Classical)
- Languages - Hebrew (Classical)
- Languages - Italian
- Languages - Japanese
- Languages - Portuguese
- Languages - Spanish
- Languages - Thai
- As can be seen above, nothing much in the last year.
Plans for the Near Future Materials for Use
These can be followed up here5. The document needs a review, but not a major update.
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 4:
- As this project is substantially inactive, I don’t usually update the text quarterly as for the active projects, but only at the end of the academic year.
- YTD figures and tasks are somewhat redundant at the end of the first Quarter, but it saves remembering to update the report in future quarters.
- However, while the Quarterly figures appear against that plan and are “as at” the end of the last Quarter, the YTD figures and tasks are as at the date of production of the report.
- The YTD Activity-list is to make the end-year task easier, and to give a clearer idea of what – if anything – has been going on in the interim.
Table of the Previous 12 Versions of this Note: (of 78)
Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note
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Summary of Notes Citing This Note
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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note
| Author |
Title |
Medium |
Extra Links |
Read? |
| Todman (Theo) |
Brief Thoughts on Language & Languages |
Paper  |
|
Yes |
Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026