Dictionary of dead language complete after 90 years (2011) | Hacker News Reader

Dictionary of dead language complete after 90 years (2011)

bbc.com

71 pointssmollett9 comments

A couple of minor quibbles from an interested amateur:

"The cuneiform script - used to write both Assyrian and Babylonian, and first used for the Sumerian language - is, according to Dr Finkel, the oldest script in the world, and was an inspiration for its far more famous cousin, hieroglyphics."

Uh, yeah. Certainly, there would be cross pollination, but "inspiration" sounds a bit to strong. I'd like to hear what evidence is behind that statement.

"This produced a very durable product, but it was very hard to write, and from about 600BC, Aramaic - which is spoken by modern-day Assyrians in the region - began to gain prominence, simply because it was easier to put into written form, researchers believe."

My understanding is that Aramaic speaking nomads settled in the region about the end of the bronze age, ca. 1000-1200 BCE. Aramaic is a Semitic language, related to both Akkadian and Hebrew and Arabic as opposed to Sumerian for which cuneiform was created. Aramaic became the trade language by the 600 BCE date.

Aramaic was written using the Phoenician alphabet (the source of the "easier" comment?) rather than the syllabary of cuneiform or hieroglyphics.

With respect to your first comment: I think you're right, hieroglyphs being inspired by cuneiform is quote improbable. One reason for this is pointed out in [1]:

"Unlike early Chinese and Egyptian writing, there is only sporadic evidence for phonetic complementation, which is used more frequently in later phases of the writing system" (p35).

An interesting possible explanation of why cuneiform started with less phonetic symbols and evolved to have more is given in [2]:

"...cuneiform writing apparently developed in two stages. In the first stage, writing was fairly in- dependent of phonetic coding, but its application was restricted to narrowly defined contexts and its signs and sign combinations did not yet represent universally applicable words but rather specific entities and activities in the context of administration. In the second stage, phonetic coding made a new type of application possible, the written representation of information in the same way as it was previously transmitted orally.""

[1] The World's Writing Systems, OED, 1996. This is a fantastic book to have if you're interested in the topic btw.

[2] http://cdli.ucla.edu/files/publications/cdlj2006_001.pdf

Thanks for the pointer!

For historical context: these dictionary projects were what multi-site and international collaborations between scientists looked like 100 years ago. Theodor Mommsen even made that argument when he applied for funding for the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae from the Prussian Government: "Big Science needs funding, just as Big Industry does."

Mark Twain's story about Mommsen made him sound like a very interesting man:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Mommsen#Mark_Twain

In case you want to hear it: https://youtu.be/Aj3b8DH5Xps

They still do not know what some words mean, and because new discoveries are being made all the time, it is - and always will - remain a work in progress.

What? The study of something finite and forever unchanging can't possibly remain forever a work in progress. Unless you hit some impassable stumbling block and refuse to quit. (But that then stretches the meaning of "work" and "in progress").

New discoveries can't keep being made forever.

Name one thing that we know everything about.

USA National Electrical Code from 1994.

Perfect game strategy for Tic-Tac-Toe.

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