Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Computers to translate world's 'lost' languages after program deciphers ancient text
www.dailymail.co.uk ^ | 7/20/2010 | Niall Firth

Posted on 07/21/2010 12:27:41 PM PDT by Red Badger

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-52 last
To: WKUHilltopper

Yeah, well my cleverly coded algorithm came up with:

You may already be a winner in the Scroll Writer's Clearinghouse 100,000 dracma Sweepstakes!

41 posted on 07/21/2010 7:36:28 PM PDT by uglybiker (BACON!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Beowulf9; Henchster

Etruscan is actually kinda readable in a limited sense—the majority of inscriptions are formulaic funerary dedications, and we’re able to understand those fairly well. Through ancient glosses and educated guesswork we’ve pieced together 200 or so words and a few tentative bits of grammar. The longer texts are the real sticking point.

This program might not crack Etruscan though. It sounds like it relies on comparative linguistic techniques and needs a better-known related language to work. We don’t have that for Etruscan.

Incidentally, Claudius’s wife Urgulanilla was Etruscan. And the last known mention of the language being used was when Rome fell in the mid-400s and Etruscan priests were called on to offer sacrifices. It was probably just a liturgical language at that point though.

We do have one scroll that was used to wrap a mummy. It’s the longest extant Etruscan text:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liber_Linteus


42 posted on 07/21/2010 8:17:34 PM PDT by Claud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: uglybiker

LOL...good one


43 posted on 07/21/2010 8:22:29 PM PDT by WKUHilltopper (Fix bayonets!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

44 posted on 07/22/2010 9:39:38 AM PDT by colorado tanker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Claud

Thank you for that excellent info.


45 posted on 07/22/2010 9:52:02 AM PDT by Henchster (Free Republic - the BEST site on the web!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Claud
Barić displayed the mummy at his home in Vienna, standing it upright in the corner of his sitting room

Oh my!

(The writings look like a teletype, the letter are so uniform.)

46 posted on 07/22/2010 11:17:45 AM PDT by BenLurkin (Will must be the harder, courage the bolder, spirit must be the more, as our might lessens.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]


The Rohonc Codex:
47 posted on 05/28/2012 6:22:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FReepathon 2Q time -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

Rohonc Codex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohonczi_Codex#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohonczi_Codex#Systematic_attempts


48 posted on 05/28/2012 6:22:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FReepathon 2Q time -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

Uncracked Ancient Codes
(Lost Languages reviewed)
by William C. West
[snip] As longtime literary editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement in London, Andrew Robinson is well able to interpret the arcana of scientific discoveries for the general public. In Lost Languages, he explains the principles of three famous decipherments and applies the insights gained to an understanding of several undeciphered scripts -- Linear A, the Etruscan alphabet, the Phaistos disc, and the Meroitic, Proto-Elamite, rongorongo, Zapotec, Isthmian and Indus scripts. [/snip]
Lost Languages: The Enigma Of The Worlds Undeciphered Scripts Lost Languages:
The Enigma Of The World's
Undeciphered Scripts

by Andrew Robinson

49 posted on 05/28/2012 6:29:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FReepathon 2Q time -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


50 posted on 05/28/2012 6:29:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FReepathon 2Q time -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

Syria: Scholar Composes Music from Archaeological Ugaritic Cuneiform Tablet
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2549691/posts


51 posted on 05/28/2012 6:30:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FReepathon 2Q time -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

Ugaritic cuneiform
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ugaritic.htm
Ugaritic, a Semitic language closely related to Phoenician which was spoken in the city state of Ugarit in northern Syria.


52 posted on 05/28/2012 6:32:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FReepathon 2Q time -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-52 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson