Jonathan Walls

MPhil student in Linguistics

Background

Jonathan Walls studied Russian (BA), French (BA), and Italian (BA) during his undergraduate studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. During his studies, he was senior staff at the University of Oklahoma’s Language Learning Center specialising in digital media conversion. As a part of his studies, he spent an academic year in St. Petersburg, Russia, studying Russian language and culture at the St. Petersburg Politechnic University. Additionally, he spent an intensive summer course at the Université Grenoble Alpes studying French language.

Previous Research/Teaching

Before arriving at Oxford, his research focused on the Pamir languages found in Central Asia, a small subgroup of the Indo-Iranian language family. His undergraduate thesis for his Russian studies was a translation of Tatyana Pakhalina’s foundational descriptive work on these languages from the original Russian into English. He was the lead language tutor for the University of Oklahoma and taught Russian, French, Italian, and Spanish in small group sessions for undergraduates. Independently, he has also taught Biblical Hebrew for adults on a volunteer basis for various organisations, and has recently produced an interlinear translation of the book of Exodus designed for liturgical reading in a synagogue, available for download at glottophilos.com.

Current Research Interests

Jonathan’s current research interests are focused on the Anatolian and Celtic languages, with an emphasis on historical linguistics. His current coursework includes studying the hieroglyphic variant of the ancient Luwian language, under the direction of his advisor, Dr Michele Bianconi.