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Michael Ventris | ||
Tags: Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6074 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 1 of 2 11 November 2007 at 2:59am | IP Logged |
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The man who deciphered Linear B, showing it to be early Greek, was an impressive linguist, though an architect by profession. He knew a wide range of European languages (during wartime training in Canada, he commented on hearing Polish and Ukrainian being spoken in the streets of Canadian cities) and before his death in a car crash in 1956, he was able to talk to Linear B symposium participants in their own languages.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6074 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 2 of 2 15 May 2008 at 9:32am | IP Logged |
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He went with a couple of other English architects to Sweden and his companions were amazed to see him chatting in fairly fluent Swedish with a customs official. Apparently Ventris started teaching himself Swedish from books a few weeks before travelling there.
He had some of the neatest writing I have ever seen - he wrote out his tables by hand when deciphering Linear B, but the Greek words in particular are so well formed they almost look like they were mechanically printed. Edited by William Camden on 26 May 2008 at 9:48am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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