3 ms·

I also recommend Thoth's Pill, an amazing historical overview of writing systems that breaks new ground in animated video production... as they are describing a

I also recommend Thoth's Pill, an amazing historical overview of writing systems that breaks new ground in animated video production... as they are describing alphabet systems and letter figures they are drawn in real time and presented on a clear crisp background. Where most documentaries we've seen over the years show glimpses of photographs of ancient writing samples, often dimly lit or weathered and faded, tending to make it more about documents than language -- these folk are writing script and glyphs on computer, presenting detailed traces or brushing the characters and building alphabets, explaining down to the character/sound. For children this is precious. If I had seen something like this when I was young, it would have sucked me in and maybe changed the course of my life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdO3IP0Pro8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdO3IP0Pro8

tasogare 7y ago
> For children this is precious. If I had seen something like this when I was young, it would have sucked me in and maybe changed the course of my life. I’m fascinated by writing systems since childhood. It was only at the end of high-school that I could start teaching myself about Chinese script with Wikipedia. A decade later I was finally able to start Sumerian. This is incredibly niche and hard to find classes for before college level. Internet helped a lot. Also it drove me to East-Asian languages which, like you suppose it, indeed totally changed the course of my life, for the best.
- jelliclesfarm 7y ago
  Fascinating. May I ask how one would go about learning Sumerian. Any resources/online classes would be much appreciated. I am currently reading Enuma Elish and Epic of Gilgamesh translated. It’s a rabbit hole. My wish list for the rest of my life is significantly longer now.. some of them possible..learning Sumerian/Akkadian and going to Pamir Hwy and silk route.. Checking out where Oxus flowed and ancient civilizations lived seems like a 2020 thing to do.
  - tasogare 7y ago
    Do you read French? If yes, there is this remote diploma of Sumerian offered by the University of Strasbourg (costs around 400€/year, formation of two years): https://histoire.unistra.fr/offre-de-formation/diplome-duniversite-de-langues-anciennes https://histoire.unistra.fr/offre-de-formation/diplome-duniv.... This is the path I took. The Louvre Museum also has epigraphy courses, but nothing remote. Then there are the free resources such as ePSD (dictionary), materials put online by CDLI, le manuel d'épigraphie akkadienne de René Labat (https://archive.org/details/LabatR.ManuelDEpigraphieAkkadienne5Ed1976 https://archive.org/details/LabatR.ManuelDEpigraphieAkkadien...) that also contains Sumerian reading of symbols, Jagersma thesis. Those are necessary to got further, but as the language is really grammatical, it not something that can really be learnt without class in my opinion.
jelliclesfarm 7y ago
Thank you! I can’t stop watching that channel.

tasogare 7y ago

> For children this is precious. If I had seen something like this when I was young, it would have sucked me in and maybe changed the course of my life. I’m fascinated by writing systems since childhood. It was only at the end of high-school that I could start teaching myself about Chinese script with Wikipedia. A decade later I was finally able to start Sumerian. This is incredibly niche and hard to find classes for before college level. Internet helped a lot. Also it drove me to East-Asian languages which, like you suppose it, indeed totally changed the course of my life, for the best.

jelliclesfarm 7y ago
Fascinating. May I ask how one would go about learning Sumerian. Any resources/online classes would be much appreciated. I am currently reading Enuma Elish and Epic of Gilgamesh translated. It’s a rabbit hole. My wish list for the rest of my life is significantly longer now.. some of them possible..learning Sumerian/Akkadian and going to Pamir Hwy and silk route.. Checking out where Oxus flowed and ancient civilizations lived seems like a 2020 thing to do.
- tasogare 7y ago
  Do you read French? If yes, there is this remote diploma of Sumerian offered by the University of Strasbourg (costs around 400€/year, formation of two years): https://histoire.unistra.fr/offre-de-formation/diplome-duniversite-de-langues-anciennes https://histoire.unistra.fr/offre-de-formation/diplome-duniv.... This is the path I took. The Louvre Museum also has epigraphy courses, but nothing remote. Then there are the free resources such as ePSD (dictionary), materials put online by CDLI, le manuel d'épigraphie akkadienne de René Labat (https://archive.org/details/LabatR.ManuelDEpigraphieAkkadienne5Ed1976 https://archive.org/details/LabatR.ManuelDEpigraphieAkkadien...) that also contains Sumerian reading of symbols, Jagersma thesis. Those are necessary to got further, but as the language is really grammatical, it not something that can really be learnt without class in my opinion.

jelliclesfarm 7y ago

Thank you! I can’t stop watching that channel.