From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I'm a historian and linguist. I edit and create Wikipedia articles as a way of building up my knowledge of topics I plan to write about: it'll usually be food history, language history, and ancient and medieval people. I am an Interwikipedian: I have so far begun Wikipedia articles in 8 languages and I have made worthwhile improvements (I think) to articles in 31 languages.
Some have asked about the languages I know (or have begun to know), so here's a kind of answer. I don't claim to be a great linguist: if I have a skill in this area, it's simply that languages don't frighten me. I was at Bristol Grammar School, where I learned some Latin, French and Greek; then at the University of Cambridge. There I studied Latin and Greek at first, afterwards Romance languages and linguistics. I got a bachelor's degree in 1970. I gained familiarity with some other languages because of my work at Cambridge University Library, where I worked with foreign serials and afterwards with South and Southeast Asian materials. To help me with this -- I didn't know any of the languages in advance -- I took classes in Cambridge again (in Sanskrit, Hindi and Pali) and in London (in Burmese and Thai). I never got far with the last two because I didn't remain in the Oriental field for long enough. I did a part-time Ph.D. in ancient history at Birkbeck College London (in 1987-93), which improved my Latin and Greek. Living in France makes me go on learning French, and Wikipedia and my writing keep me in practice with other languages.
My contributions:
If you like, or don't like, what I write, welcome to my talk page, User talk:Andrew Dalby. Welcome, also, to my home page, A Food Word Site. You can even E-mail this user if you like. Two more lists:
And here are some Wikipedia shortcuts and statistics that I find useful.
Andrew Dalby
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Is fearr leis an úsáideoir seo an ponc séiṁiṫe a úsáid in áit an litir h mar séiṁiú. |
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