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Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian Translator Created

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-does-the-clay-tablet-say dept.

DrJackson writes "A new online translator that can translate Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian and Egyptian hieroglyphics (1 of the 3 types anyway) has been developed. This is the first time I ever saw a translator for cuneiform. Something like this would be great for translating interesting historical records like the Amarna Letters."

11 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. bo-ring by heptapod · · Score: 5, Funny

    wake me when they can do pnakotic

  2. Monty Python by JoshWurzel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can finally find out what the capital of Assyria is! I hope its not "aaaarrrrhhhh"

  3. Oh good! by Chairboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've been meaning to write a 'Hello world' Nam-shub...

  4. Re:You Idiotic American Bible-Belt Pussy! by AgentOJ · · Score: 4, Funny

    You idiotic anonymous coward!

    The Pnakotic Manuscripts were an invention of H.P. Lovecraft and factor into the Cthulhu Mythos. Besides, everyone knows the origin of Mankind lies within the information from the Elder Gods.

  5. Re:Uh...right. by Rebelgecko · · Score: 5, Funny

    As a technologist who also reads ancient Egyptian (from college) as well as Akkadian (== Assyrian & Babylonian, with slightly different scripts over the years) and Sumerian, I can fairly readily call shenanigans on this one. The sophistication of translation here is about as deep as the 'your name in hieroglyphs' stuff you find in museum stores and the horrid Dover reprints of Budge's books.

    And don't even get me started on Sumerian. Professional Sumerologists still can't render half of the agglutinative morphemes that appear in Sumerian verbs. I definitely agree with you on translating difficulties. When your last sentence was translated into English, most of it came out as gibberish!
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  6. Now I can send my Christmas cards out! by noewun · · Score: 4, Funny

    "It says, 'bird, camel, Horus, snake, bundle of reeds!' "

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    I am a believer of momentum and curves.
  7. Re:Uh...right. by SlowMovingTarget · · Score: 4, Funny

    And don't even get me started on Sumerian. Professional Sumerologists still can't render half of the agglutinative morphemes that appear in Sumerian verbs.

    Pffft. That's because they don't have DirectX 10 on Vista, which has had agglutinative morpheme rendering for like forever already.

  8. Re:I didn't think they'd cracked modern languages. by megaditto · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hardly ever get to speak English with real people.
    Welcome to slashdot. Do not worry, you'll fit right in here.
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  9. Re:I didn't think they'd cracked modern languages. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    What do you mean? I can speak fluently in several ancient languages. I happen to be an expert at COBOL.

  10. Completely useless by davidc · · Score: 4, Funny

    It doesn't even have a translation for "cheezburger", let alone "bukkit"...

  11. Re:I didn't think they'd cracked modern languages. by Nazlfrag · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bird bird eye feather snake bird squiggly, you insensitive clod!