Why is this a Question? Everything about the Origins and Oddities of Language SOLD OUT
Paul Anthony Jones Interviewed by Alison Gomm
Tuesday, 28 March 2023
4:00pm
1 hour
Bodleian: Divinity School
£7 - £12.50
Popular linguist Paul Anthony Jones explores the nuts and bolts of our language including the origins of the alphabet, writing systems, grammar and structure, and he asks questions many of us never think to ask.
Why don’t eleven and twelve end in teen? Why do letters look the way they do? Why are some letters upper case and some lower case. Why are words in a particular order. How are you understanding what these shapes and symbols mean whilst simultaneously hearing them spoken in your head? And what is the question mark doing at the end of a sentence?
Jones runs the popular @HaggardHawks Twitter feed, blog and YouTube channel, which reveals daily word facts to 90,000 followers. He is author of The Cabinet of Calm, Word Drops, The Accidental Dictionary, The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities, and Around the World in 80 Words, and is also a piano teacher and musician.
Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK
Festival cultural partner
Festival ideas partner
The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture
The Cervantes Institute, London
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