How Dead Languages Work by Coulter H. George (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: How Dead Languages Work by Coulter H. George John M. Ryan Coulter H. George. How Dead Languages Work. Oxford UP, 2020. 223p. How Dead Languages Work surveys six languages of the ancient and medieval worlds--Greek, Latin, Old English, Sanskrit, Old Irish and Biblical Hebrew--that, according to author Coulter George, possessed linguistic personalities considerably different from that of Modern English. George asserts that because of the varied and unique ways in which these languages functioned, translations of their original texts into Modern English unfortunately tend to be inadequate from a number of perspectives; only closer scrutiny of their inner linguistic workings helps us gain a better grasp of the true meaning and intentions of their ancient authors. Serving as the book’s introduction, Chapter 1 lays out the volume’s framework, methodology and roadmap. Each subsequent chapter focuses on one of the six languages and demonstrates its most distinctive linguistic features with short excerpts from actual ancient texts. George then explains what these characteristics reveal about their uniqueness and where Modern English translations have fallen short in capturing the very essence and, in many cases, the intended message behind the passages evaluated. The author reminds us that not everyone has the time to study all of these languages, nor is he making that recommendation, but his hope is that by presenting them this way, readers will have not only a closer look, but also a better understanding and appreciation of their relevance to today. George begins his cross-linguistic examination with both languages of the Greco-Roman world, dedicating Chapter 2, the largest chapter, to Ancient Greek and Chapter 3 to Latin. Chapter 2 starts with a brief review of the sounds, lexicon, and formulae employed in ancient Hellenic texts, indicating which of these are believed by linguists to be also characteristic of Indo-European, the mother of most other European languages. The author gives special attention to the verb in Ancient Greek and the power and conciseness [End Page 110] of expression it achieves with its many forms. Several texts illustrate these points: Homer’s Iliad, Thucydides’s historical accounts, and the epistles of Saint Paul to the Romans. Throughout, the assessment includes different historical translations of these same texts to show how subjective interpretations question the adequacy of translations into Modern English, due to the entirely different way that Modern English works. Chapter 3 turns to the assessment of Latin. Whereas the preceding chapter showcased the potential power and versatility of the verb as a grammatical category, Chapter 3 focuses instead on the additional flexibility and conciseness provided by the Latin noun. The loss of nominal case endings, no longer present among Latin’s modern descendants, has rendered these languages considerably less flexible in terms of word order and less concise in terms of function and meaning. Evaluations of works of Lucretius, Horace and Tacitus show how restrictions of word order in Modern English, which has also coincidentally undergone a similar loss of nominal case endings as did Latin, does not allow for the same effects of chiasmus employed by the ancients. The following chapter leaves the Greco-Roman world behind and examines another Indo-European offshoot--Old English--as representative of the Germanic family tree. Old English can serve as an intermediary between other Indo-European languages like Greek or Latin and Modern English. Old English possessed, albeit to a lesser degree, many of the traits of these other ancient languages. Following a review of sound changes like Grimm’s Law and the discussion of strong versus weak verbs (as well as the probable origin of the latter), George evaluates an excerpt from the gospel of John from the 10th century Wessex Gospels along with the opening lines of Beowulf to demonstrate the major differences between Old English and Modern English. Chapters 5 through 7 feature Sanskrit, Old Irish (and the Celtic family) and Hebrew, respectively. Since all three are much more distant in their relationship to Modern English than those treated in the first three chapters, the author suggests that especially Sanskrit and Old Irish, coincidentally of Indo-European origin but much further removed from English than Latin and Greek, are equally...