Huh - maybe I did know this in the past, but forgot or didn’t have as much of the story. The bloke who founded the Oxford English Dictionary..what a bloke!
TBH, he sounds a bit like a certain gent around these parts…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mur ... cographer)
“By this time Murray was primarily interested in languages and etymology, the origin of words.
Some idea of the depth and range of his linguistic erudition may be gained from a letter of application he wrote to Thomas Watts, Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum, in which he claimed an 'intimate acquaintance' with Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish, and Latin, and 'to a lesser degree Portuguese, Vaudois*, Provençal & various dialects'.
In addition, he was 'tolerably familiar' with Dutch, German, and Danish.
His studies of Anglo-Saxon and Mœso-Gothic had been 'much closer', he knew 'a little of the Celtic' and was at the time 'engaged with the Slavonic, having obtained a useful knowledge of the Russian'.
He had 'sufficient knowledge of Hebrew and Syriac to read and cite the Old Testament and Peshito' and to a lesser degree he knew Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic, and Phoenician.
However, he did not get the job.”
Not to mention:
“Murray was engaged to Ada Agnes Ruthven and the following year he married her.
Their best man was his friend Alexander Graham Bell, who had earlier received instruction from Murray in elementary electricity, and often referred to him as "the grandfather of the telephone".”
Seriously - we have a million Marvel Comics films & English Costume Drama series..why can’t we have a Netflix series about folks like James Murray!
*Don’t think I’ve ever seen a reference to Vaudois in anything English before…
TBH, he sounds a bit like a certain gent around these parts…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mur ... cographer)
“By this time Murray was primarily interested in languages and etymology, the origin of words.
Some idea of the depth and range of his linguistic erudition may be gained from a letter of application he wrote to Thomas Watts, Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum, in which he claimed an 'intimate acquaintance' with Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish, and Latin, and 'to a lesser degree Portuguese, Vaudois*, Provençal & various dialects'.
In addition, he was 'tolerably familiar' with Dutch, German, and Danish.
His studies of Anglo-Saxon and Mœso-Gothic had been 'much closer', he knew 'a little of the Celtic' and was at the time 'engaged with the Slavonic, having obtained a useful knowledge of the Russian'.
He had 'sufficient knowledge of Hebrew and Syriac to read and cite the Old Testament and Peshito' and to a lesser degree he knew Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic, and Phoenician.
However, he did not get the job.”
Not to mention:
“Murray was engaged to Ada Agnes Ruthven and the following year he married her.
Their best man was his friend Alexander Graham Bell, who had earlier received instruction from Murray in elementary electricity, and often referred to him as "the grandfather of the telephone".”
Seriously - we have a million Marvel Comics films & English Costume Drama series..why can’t we have a Netflix series about folks like James Murray!
*Don’t think I’ve ever seen a reference to Vaudois in anything English before…
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