Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Languages (2025 - March)
(Text as at 07/04/2025 00:15:50)
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 is that it doesn’t lead to much grammatical understanding – for this, reading and careful study is required.
- 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’ve decided to go all-out on my philosophical Thesis, and now use ‘walkies’ time to read philosophical papers on my Kindle. So, this project is now substantially in abeyance apart from Thai and Biblical Hebrew.
Summary of Progress during January - March 2025
- I spent 12 hours in 25Q1 on this Project, or related work (22.75 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2024). That's 46% of the planned effort (34.9% YTD). Overall, 1.5% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 1.5% YTD) - as against 3.2% planned (4% YTD).
- I scheduled 2 hours / week on this project in 25Q1 but only spent about half of this. I’m not especially worried – though a little surprised – by that as this project is not a priority.
- I continued with Thai daily on "Mondly - Learn Thai" and occasionally using "Juyaso (Arthit) - Read Thai in 10 Days". These really deserve more of a focus, especially now Nat and Fon are due to come over from Bankok for 10 days in September 2025.
- 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 need to restart and do the exercises in "Williamson (H.G.M.) - Annotated Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew". I did nothing last quarter.
- Further details follow:-
Languages (Total Hours = 12)
- Languages - Admin (Total Hours = 1)
- Languages - Hebrew (Classical)
- Languages - Thai (Total Hours = 10.75)
- 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.
Plans for the Near Future
- Because of focus on higher priority projects – and because of the use of dog-walking time for my Thesis reading – I’ve maintained the reduced planned time on this project at 2 hours a week for the coming Quarter (and probably for the rest of the current Academic year).
- While I’ve decided to leave the full task list below in place, little progress will be made in the near future other than on the first four groupings (General, Thai, Biblical Hebrew & Greek and Other Scripts).
- So:-
- General:
- Brief Thoughts on Language & Languages4
- Thai
- "Juyaso (Arthit) - Read Thai in 10 Days": Complete
- "Mondly - Learn Thai": Continue
- "Baidun (Alex) - Mastering Thai in Just One Month: My 155-Hour Journey": Further review in the light of the above.
- Brush up on Biblical Hebrew & Greek and learn Qur'anic Arabic:-
- "Lambdin (Thomas) - Introduction to Biblical Hebrew", and
- "Williamson (H.G.M.) - Annotated Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew"
- "Wenham (John) - The Elements of New Testament Greek", and
- "Wenham (John) - Key to the Elements of New Testament Greek", and
- "Jones (Alan), Qur'an - Arabic Through the Qur'an"
- Other Scripts: Thoroughly get to grips with:-
- Armenian: "Andonian (Hagop) - Beginner's Armenian",
- Hindi: "Snell (Rupert) - Beginner's Hindi Script",
- Khmer: "Hok (Dara) - Cambodian Alphabet"
- Korean: "Go (Billy) - Korean Made Simple: A beginner's guide to learning the Korean language: 1",
- Lao: "Lao Lessons - How to Write in Lao: Lao writing workbook"
- Persian: "Farzad (Narguess) - Complete Modern Persian",
- Urdu: "Delacy (Richard) - Read and Write Urdu Script".
- Priority 1
- French:
→ "Ling - Learn French"
- German:
→ "Tenberg (Reinhard) & Ainslie (Susan) - Deutsch Plus",
→ "Ling - Learn German"
- Greek (Modern):
→ "Matsukas (Aristarhos) - Complete Greek Course",
→ "Ling - Learn Greek"
- Italian:
→ "Freeth (Mariolina) & Checketts (Giuliana) - Contatti 1: A First Course in Italian",
→ "Ling - Learn Italian"
- Portuguese:
→ "Whitlam (John) - Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar: A Practical Guide",
→ "Ling - Learn Portuguese"
- Spanish:
→ "Gordon (Ronni L.) & Stillman (David M.) - The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice",
→ "Ling - Learn Spanish"
- Thai:
→ "Mondly - Learn Thai",
→ "Ling - Learn Thai",
→ "Becker (Benjawan Poomsan) - Thai for Beginners",
→ "Juyaso (Arthit) - Read Thai in 10 Days"
- Ukrainian:
→ "Bekh (Olena) & Dingley (James) - Complete Ukrainian Beginner to Intermediate Course",
→ "Lonely Planet, Pavlyshyn (Marko) - Lonely Planet Ukrainian Phrasebook & Dictionary",
→ "Ling - Learn Ukrainian",
→ "Wikipedia - Ukrainian Alphabet",
→ "Wikipedia - Ukrainian Language"
- Priority 2
- Arabic (Modern):
→ "Ling - Learn Arabic"
- Chinese:
→ "Ling - Learn Chinese"
- Hebrew (Modern):
→ "Raizen (Esther) - Modern Hebrew for Beginners: A Multimedia Program for Students at the Beginning and Intermediate Levels",
→ "Ling - Learn Hebrew"
- Hindi:
→ "Ling - Learn Hindi"
- Japanese:
→ "Lammers (W.P.) - Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure",
→ "Ling - Learn Japanese"
- Turkish:
→ "Celen-Pollard (Asuman) & Pollard (David) - Turkish (Teach Yourself Complete Courses)",
→ "Ling - Learn Turkish"
- Urdu:
→ "Ling - Learn Urdu"
- Priority 3
- Amharic:
→ "Halcomb (T. Michael W.) - Introducing Amharic: An Interactive Workbook",
→ "Ling - Learn Amharic"
- Armenian:
→ "Schumann (Johannes) - Armenian for beginners",
→ "Ling - Learn Armenian"
- Danish:
→ "Koefoed (H.A.) - Teach Yourself Danish",
→ "Ling - Learn Danish"
- Dutch:
→ "Shetter (William) - Introduction to Dutch - A Practical Grammar",
→ "Ling - Learn Dutch"
- Khmer:
→ "Hok (Dara) - Cambodian Alphabet"
→ "Wikipedia - Khmer Script"
→ "Wikipedia - Khmer Language"
- Korean:
→ "Ling - Learn Korean"
- Lao:
→ "Lao Lessons - How to Write in Lao: Lao writing workbook"
→ "Wikipedia - Lao Script"
→ "Wikipedia - Lao Language"
- Persian:
→ "Ling - Learn Persian"
- Polish:
→ "Ling - Learn Polish",
→ "Lonely Planet, Czajkowski (Piotr) - Lonely Planet Polish Phrasebook & Dictionary",
→ "Wikipedia - Polish language"
- Russian:
→ "West (Daphne) - Russian",
→ "Ling - Learn Russian"
- Swahili:
→ "Wood (Laurence) & Shadrack (Jaba Tumaini) - Learn Swahili Quickly and Easily: The theory made simple",
→ "Ling - Learn Swahili"
- Swedish:
→ "McClean (R.J.) - Swedish: A Grammar of the Modern Language",
→ "Ling - Learn Swedish"
- Priority 4
- Coptic:
→ "Layton (Bentley) - Coptic in 20 Lessons: Introduction to Sahidic Coptic with Exercises and Vocabularies"
- Egyptian:
→ "Collier (Mark) & Manley (Bill) - How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-step Guide to Teach Yourself Hieroglyphs"
- Latin:
→ "Duolingo - Duolingo Latin"
- Syriac:
→ "Robinson (Theodore) - Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar"
Materials for Use
These can be followed up here5. The document needs a review, but not a major update.
Table of the Previous 12 Versions of this Note: (of 72)
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, 2025