The languages of the past can tell us more about human history than we might have thought. As a specialist in the ancient languages of Italy, Katherine McDonald uses linguistic detective work to uncover what life was like over 2,000 years ago.
Katherine specialises in ‘sociolinguistics’ – understanding how different people used language in different situations, and how it may have varied across the populations.
While there may be no shortage of historical records of our modern-day languages, most of the languages that Katherine studies were written on stone or metal and survive by chance. This element of historical luck adds to the fascination for Katherine.
From these scattered pieces, she works to reconstruct patterns of multilingualism, migration and mobility across ancient Italy.
She also looks at how writers of the time used their different languages to convey messages about themselves and their communities.
Katherine’s expertise spans a range of ancient languages including Latin, Greek and lesser-known languages such as Oscan, Etruscan and Venetic.
Her first book, ‘Oscan in Southern Italy and Sicily’, exemplified her passion for bringing neglected languages into the spotlight.
By championing these lesser-known ancient languages Katherine has continued to expand what linguistics can tell us about the past.
In 2024 Katherine’s contributions to the field of ancient linguistics was recognised when she was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Classics. This was a career milestone and moment of deep personal pride.
Funded by this prize, Katherine’s next project is looking at the linguistics of slavery in the ancient world. This groundbreaking work is examining how enslaved people in the Roman world experienced forced migration, by looking at them as language learners.
Katherine’s interest in languages is lifelong. As the daughter of a French teacher, she was always interested in both learning languages and understanding differences between them.
After studying several languages at school, including Latin, Katherine was captivated by linguistics at university. She fell in love with the technical nature of the subject, its need for precision and the unique insight it could offer into the ancient world.
This combination of technical rigour and historical insight has defined Katherine’s career. She joined Durham University in 2021, drawn here by the dual appeal of working with leading academics, and being closer to family.
Katherine is now our Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes in Classics and has established herself as a leader in her field.
Through her meticulous work with forgotten languages, she continues to show that the ancient world still has stories to tell – if we know how to find them.
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