Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: Dead languages

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John Gallagher says hello in Oscan, the language of ancient Pompeii

John Gallagher says hello in Oscan, the language of ancient Pompeii, and hears a joke in the language of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

John Gallagher discusses the latest research on the languages of the ancient world that weren't Latin and Greek. We associate places like Italy and Cyprus with those two best known ancient languages. But both were linguistically diverse. What informed people's choice of language in these places? How were alphabets developed and used? Plus, an exhibition at the British Museum explores the world opened up when Egyptian hieroglyphics were deciphered 200 years ago, and how the invention of the Cyrillic alphabet, developed in the Balkans over 1,000 years ago, still has political repercussions today. 

With Dr Katherine McDonald, Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham, Dr Mirela Ivanova,  Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Sheffield, and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker, Dr Philippa Steele is Senior Research Associate in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge, and Dr Ilona Regulski, an Egyptologist based at the British Museum. 

The British Museum exhibition Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt runs until Feb 189th 2023.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

You can find other episodes exploring language in the New Research playlist on the Free Thinking programme website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90
New Thinking: the impact of being multilingual hears from Katrin Kohl, Rajinder Dudrah and Wen-chin Ouyang https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08s6mjd
New Thinking: Shakespeare's language talks to Alison Findlay and Jonathan Culpeper, collaborators on an Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's Language https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07h2z4r
New Thinking: City Talk looks at the Manchester accents mapping project with Dr Erin Carrie and Dr Rob Drummond https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07h30hm
Free Thinking: Speech, Voice, Accents and AI brought together Sadie Ryan, Allison Koenecke and Lynda Clark https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000srbn

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