Northwest Art Center lecture examines world's writing systems
It may appear that Egyptian hieroglyphs, Akkadian cuneiform, and Chinese characters have nothing in common with each other, let alone with the Roman alphabet, says Jean-François Mondon, assistant professor of foreign language at Minot State University. But, Mondon maintains, all writing systems share a common characteristic.
Mondon will discuss the commonalities of these four scripts in "What All Languages Have in Common," on the Northwest Art Center Lecture Series Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. in the Aleshire Theater, Minot State University.
"The essential kernel of these systems which make them successful at recording human speech is their link to phonetics," said Mondon.
Mondon earned a BA, MA, and PhD in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on historical linguistics and phonology, the study of how sounds are represented in the brain. He is actively engaged in the writing of pedagogical materials for ancient Indo-European languages. His textbook "Grabar: An Introduction to Classical Armenian" was recently published by Lincom Press. He is currently working on materials for Old Church Slavonic, Vedic Sanskrit and Homeric Greek.
The lecture is free and open to the public. An informal reception will follow the presentation. Parking on the MSU campus is unrestricted after 5 p.m.
The Northwest Art Center Lecture Series is funded in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.
For more information about Northwest Art Center activities, call 701-858-3264.
|
Published: 01/09/13 |