|
 |
Software decodes dead language | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5670 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 2 04 July 2010 at 10:21am | IP Logged |
|
Researchers have used computer software to decode the Ugartic language, which was last spoken 3,500 years ago.
There is a very brief overview and also a detailed technical paper (in pdf) describing how it was done. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 2 04 July 2010 at 7:38pm | IP Logged |
|
An interesting text (the pdf one). I vaguely remember some of the mathematical terms (Bayesian model= making predictions where you take known facts into account), while some others just have been reduced to names (Dirichlet process), so I can't be sure that I have understood anything right. But is appears that this method does the same as a human who knows one language and tries to understand a text in another language with an unknown writing system, - just with mathemathics instead of endless notes on paper, lucky guesses and 'hunches'. You identify the endings and affixes of the language, assume that there are some typical parallels in the endings and other recognizable thing between the unknown language and something you know, and then you start looking for words that ressemble known words, applying the conversion rules you find along the way. The authors acknowledge that the methods doesn't apply syntactical rules, but things like the order of words from different morphological 'clusters' (morphologically defined word classes) could probably be integrated in it without too much fuss. The Achilles heel of this method is that you need a wellknown related language to make headway, so it probably can't help us to read things like Etruscan. And it is unclear how you identify word meanings if they aren't obvious after the 'transcription'. But within its limits it seams to be a promising addition to the arsenal of dechiphering techniques.
Edited by Iversen on 04 July 2010 at 7:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
