26 Feb
2007
26 Feb
'07
11:28 a.m.
On 26 Feb 2007 at 12:51, der Mouse wrote:
But see also The Decipherment Of Linear B; we
don't _always_ need a
Rosetta Stone to suss out a lost language - while admittedly that case
was a known language in an unfamiliar writing system, it was mostly
deciphered before this was realized.
...and it took a very long time to get to that point--about 50 years,
I think. But some alien civilization not even familiar with any of
our languages would be at a distinct disadvantage. At least the
decipherers of Linear B determined it was Greek (Mycenaean) a known
language. One wonders, for example, what an ancient Greek would
make of a modern Korean engineering text.
Cheers,
Chuck