Computer program deciphers a dead language that mystified linguists

The baffled language of Ugaritic was last spoken 3,500 years ago . It pull through on just a few tablets , and linguists could only understand it with age of hard work and plenty of luck . A computer deciphered it in hour .

The data processor program relies on a few basic assumptions to make nonrational guesses about the language ’s social organisation . Most significantly , the lose speech has to be tight tie in to a known , deciphered language , which in the display case of Ugaritic is Hebrew . Second , the alphabets of the two languages call for to share some reproducible correlations between the individual letters or symbol . There should also be recognizable cognates of word between the two languages , and words that have prefix or suffixes in one nomenclature ( like verbs that end in “ -ing ” or “ -ed ” in English ) should show the same features in the other speech .

That might seem like a lot of information for the programme to involve , but even all that is no guarantee of decipherment . After Ugaritic was first happen upon in 1929 , it remain untranslatable for years . It finally revealed some of its secret to German cryptographer Hans Bauer , who was only capable to make substantial headway when he venture the draftsmanship of an ax was next to the Ugaritic word for “ ax . ” Even this breakthrough was n’t a stark succeeder , because although Bauer ’s guesswork was correct he matched the wrong sounds and letter together , resulting in a mistranslation .

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So , the question for the computer syllabus was n’t just how apace it could translate Ugaritic compared to its human twin ; there ’s also whether it could avoid the mistakes and pitfalls that had slowed down the initial decipherment . The program work by wait for correlation and correspondences at the various level of languages describe above – individual sounds and letters , different segments of the word of honor , and cognates between spoken language . It then mapped the similarity between Hebrew and Ugaritic , starting with the sounds and then bringing in the other look to cipher out the most probable match . By cross - reference these unlike parts of language and repeating the appendage hundreds of thousands of fourth dimension , the programme go far at a amply deciphered Ugaritic .

The results were sensational . Of the thirty letters in the Ugaritic alphabet , the computer right key twenty - nine of them . Of the roughly third of all Ugaritic words that share Hebrew cognate word , the programme figured out sixty per centum of them , and many of the errors were only off by a letter or two . These results are particularly encouraging because the program still does n’t practice any contextual clues , meaning it ca n’t secern between the different utilisation of a Ugaritic word that means both “ daughter ” and “ firm ” , something that is ( thankfully ) pretty well-to-do to identify in context . The program also was n’t able to use the “ ax ” coincidence that had made the human decryption of the speech communication potential . dear of all , the programme did all this in only a few hours .

Ugaritic itself is an awesomely fascinating language . verbalise 3,500 years ago in the city of Ugarit , located in forward-looking Syria , the words is a Semitic relative of Hebrew , although its alphabet intimately resemble the cuneiform used in ancient Sumeria . The surviving Ugaritic texts tell the narrative of a Canaanite religion that is standardised but not identical to that record in the Old Testament , supply Bible scholars a unequalled chance to prove how the Bible and ancient Israelite culture developed in coition to its neighbors .

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