10 courses · self study & live online
From the very first human words to the languages of ancient Greece, Rome, India and Scandinavia — every course Nigel teaches is part of one extraordinary narrative. Choose how you want to learn.
Origins trilogy — self study + live
These three courses tell one connected story — from the first human words to modern English. Available as self-paced digital courses and as live online classes.
What first sparked human language — the African savannah two million years ago, or the moment humans began expressing themselves…
Discover how English, Sanskrit, Latin and Greek all descend from one ancient ancestor — and what that tells us about…
Why is English spelling so wildly out of step with how the language is actually pronounced? How did its grammar…
Classical languages — live online
Greek, Latin and Sanskrit — the three great classical languages of the Indo-European family.
Ancient Greek gave Europe its earliest great literature — from Homer's epics to the lyric poetry of Sappho and Pindar,…
Latin sits at the root of Western civilisation. Long after the Roman empire fell, it remained medieval Europe's language of…
Sanskrit captivated Western scholars from the eighteenth century onward, when its deep kinship with Latin, Greek and English first came…
Ancient civilisations — live online
Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sumerian cuneiform, Viking Old Norse — the languages of the civilisations that shaped human history.
Egyptian hieroglyphs are as striking visually as they are intriguing linguistically. This course is a first step toward reading them…
Sumerian may be the oldest language to survive from antiquity, with clay tablets dating as far back as 3200BC. It…
Old Norse — the language of the Vikings, the sagas, and the parent of the modern Scandinavian languages. Many English…
Survey course — live online
For those who want to explore the full breadth of ancient European languages in one course.
Most people know Ancient Greek and Latin — but the ancient European world held many more languages, each with its…
Personal 1-on-1 tuition is available in all languages — bespoke to your goals, your pace, and your schedule.