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Simple computer program decodes lost Biblical language
The new program was able to translate the 3,000-year-old language using the computing power of a laptop.
Mon, Jul 19 2010 at 7:34 PM
UGARITIC: Related to Hebrew, deciphering the Ugaritic language has been crucial to clarifying Old Testament text. (Photo: Wiki Commons/CC License)
A project led by professor Regina Barzilay of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may be the first to show how ancient, lost or unknown languages can be decoded using a computer program, according to National Geographic.
The MIT team was able to decode the "lost language" of Ugaritic, an ancient Semitic language used in Old Testament times, using no more computing power than that of a laptop. The program took no longer than a few hours to link most Ugaritic symbols to their Hebrew equivalents.
Ugaritic text was nothing more than a series of dots and wedge-shaped marks to linguists and scholars when it was first discovered on clay tablets in 1928, excavated from the rubble of the ancient city of Ugarit by French archaeologists. Even though the language is closely related to Hebrew, experts did not decipher it until 1932.
It took only hours to accomplish what took linguists years to complete, leading scholars to hope that the new computer program can be a prototype for a more powerful system to decode ancient languages that remain a mystery to scholars. In other words, it may not be long before computers become modern day versions of the Rosetta Stone.
"Traditionally, decipherment has been viewed as a sort of scholarly detective game, and computers weren't thought to be of much use," Barzilay said. "Our aim is to bring to bear the full power of modern machine learning and statistics to this problem."
But some experts remain skeptical. Richard Sproat, an Oregon Health and Science University computational linguist, notes that "in the case [of Ugaritic], you're dealing with a small and simple writing system, and there are closely related languages. It's not always going to be the case that there are closely related languages that one can use."
For example, a language like Etruscan, which was used by ancient Italians around 700 B.C., is known today from scant written examples and shares no relation to any other known language, except for a few words adopted by the Latin language (e.g., the name of the city of Rome comes from Etruscan). Deciphering Etruscan symbols could potentially give historians invaluable contextual clues about the region before Latin superseded the earlier language.
Barzilay thinks the MIT program can be upgraded to decode languages like Etruscan by scanning multiple languages at once and taking contextual information into account. At the very least, such a program could reveal new, obscure clues that scholars can use to learn more about ancient unknown languages.
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Please proof your comment before putting it online; the misspellings are ironic, indeed, considering the subject matter!
Please point out his misspellings because I cant see any...... But then again I am not the grammer police either so I better leave that kinda work to the "pro's". If you have to be a doushe at least try being somewhat relevant to the topic
I'm not the GRAMMAR police either, but you might want to actually check your spelling before saying something like that. And it's DOUCHE. Sorry, couldn't help it.
Oh, so funny! Spelling & grammar & word count are very important points when reporting and discussing "scholars" and their research concerning linguistics.
They should be able to test it on other obscure languages. Many north american indian, Inuit, etc languages are still used today, so we could see it it works on them.
I don't think this program would work with most Native American languages ... the reason being that most of the tribes never developed a written language.
Why do these articles never say the whole scoop?? What did the decoded script say??
it said it will be decoded one day by MIT folks.
When translated, the ancient hieroglyphic writing revealed clues to the daily lives of the Ugaritic people at a time before Christ. The phrase reads "U R teh gay. lol @ u"
I read a book several years ago where it made a very strong case for ancient Etruscan being related to modern Albanian. I think this was supported by further research. Maybe the article's writers should look further into this.,
Sorry for the omision - Book title was "The Etruscans Learn to Speak" - publilshed in late 1960s (?)
It looks like the book is: Zĕchariă Mayani. The Etruscans Begin to Speak. [London] : Souvenir Press, [1961]. Search for the title at WorldCat (dot) org.
Whether out of interest or Religious compulsion, understanding Ugaritic aids in understanding the Jewish Bible. Fundamental human insights are fundamental human insights - enjoyed by ancients and moderns alike (well, some...) Technology, not so much. Moderns have ancients beat hands down. We have stood on too many of those giants' shoulders.
The algorithm is a simple inversion my friend. What the wife says is the opposite of what she means, unless she is testing you with a paradoxical question like "Does this dress make me look fat?" to which there is no correct answer.
But can it translate what my wife says into what she really means?
Ancient men may have been more intelligent than many people give them credit for. However a major difference that can be measured is the access of information that modern people enjoy, that hardly anybody throughout history had, up until the past century.
C-3PO?
Elvis and god reflect the mindset of a lot of researchers. Beginning from the perspective that everyone besides the researcher is less intelligent or somehow less sophisticated.
Ancient man designed and built structures that we are still incapable of building today. Ancient man knew enough to chart the stars and understand the workings of nature...but yet he had "far less knowledge and intelligence." What short sighted drivel.
I am not sure your statment "we are still incapable of building today". I think we are most capable of building today virtually any ancient structure. What do have, in many cases, is the knowledge as to how the ancients built them in the context of their culture its technological limitations. We also don't, in many cases, know by what processes they developed their technological prowess.
All of those structure were accomplished only because everyone spoke the same language. Imagine it that were the case today. What humans could build.
I think you are over stating things. I am assuming you are refering to the tower of Babel story which only refers to the tower of Babel. Its relevence either chronologically or situationally to the construction of any other ancient marvel is questionable at best.
What are you talking about? Are you buying into the Tower of Babel myth?
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