29 Aug
2011
29 Aug
'11
12:44 p.m.
From: Fred Cisin
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2011 7:26 PM
admittedly, it took a millenium to forget entirely how
to read Egyption
hieroglyphics, saved only by a chance discovery of a multilingual
proclamation. Someday, the directions to the loo in Montreal will
provide what's needed to recreate English and/or French.
ITYM "to remember". IIRC, the last Egyptian scribe who could read and
write the script died in the 3rd Century CE; Champollion did his work
on the Rosetta stone in the very late 18th and early 19th, so at least
1500 years--and it took another century to get some of the readings right.
The language itself was written in a variant of the Greek alphabet all
along, changing as languages do over time, so that Coptic was available
for him to work with (although it was dead as a spoken language by his
time).
(Wearing my historical linguist hat today.)
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Server Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org
http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/