Language Interests

I’m a multilingually talented boy! Read on...

English

I switch in and out of a rural Minnesota accent (even though I’m from Minneapolis, go figure). It tends to come out when discussing gardening, fishing, car repair, the weather, that sort of thing.

Italian

I speak natively, and taught it for 2 years at the University of Minnesota. I’ve worked a lot on stress and geminates (if you do Italian, that’s where the action is).

Romagnolo

Passively fluent. When I would visit Italy as a boy (in the 1980’s), Romagnolo (not Italian) was still the dominant language in daily social interaction, both in the home and in shops, pubs, etc. This is unfortunately no longer the case. I am able to speak it, though for some reason this elicits hysterical laughter (probably something about the pitch accents). But it’s dear to my heart, so I hope to go back to northern Italy sometime soon, both to visit my family, and to get my fluency back up to par.

French

Fluent. Useful for watching costume dramas, that’s pretty much it.

German

Intermediate.

Latin

I spent two summers in Rome, studying Latin with father Reginald Foster, in his Aestiva Romae Latinitas program, which (if you haven’t heard) is taught in Latin (well, mostly). At one point I was fluent enough that I could rattle off counterfactual statements in casual conversation—with the right sequence of tenses! I seem to have lost this ability...schmoo. I can still read though. And write emails in Latin. Close enough.

Ancient Greek

Intermediate.

Sanskrit

Took 5 years, and I even went to Mattur, a Sanskrit-speaking village in Karnataka province, South India. I was totally immersed in Sanskrit, and I was just starting to get fluent before I had to leave. I really hope to go back some day; I love South India.

Tamil

I did a year of Tamil in my field methods class at the University of Minnesota. I wrote a paper on the morphophonemics of gemination, though I haven’t done much with that in the past couple years. Yet another reason to go back to South India someday.

Northern Athabaskan

This is where I’ve been focusing most of my attention recently. Especially Dogrib, where I’ve been doing syntax, morphology, phonology, and syntax. See theoretical interests page.