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VÉgA – Vocabulary of Ancient Egyptian
- Jun8 3y agoFor similar large scale efforts to make ancient language texts available online with translations see: * CDLI, https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/ https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/, for cuneiform (tablets, seals, and other objects) * Perseus Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/item/2004564290/ https://www.loc.gov/item/2004564290/, for ancient and classical literature (started with Ancient greek and expanded to Latin) If a small number of rich people donated a few million each, we’d have all tablets and other unread documents read in a short time (academic restrictions on access may be a problem) and they would look and knowledgeable.
- DavidNielsen 3y agoI feel like the magnificent Frank Krueger’s recent effort to use ML for the purpose of translating cuneiform are relevant in this context. https://praeclarum.org/2023/06/09/cuneiform.html https://praeclarum.org/2023/06/09/cuneiform.html
- thaumasiotes 3y ago> If a small number of rich people donated a few million each, we’d have all tablets and other unread documents read in a short time There is a really large number of unread tablets.
- rnk 3y ago100k, 10 million? Please give us a guess. How many are in known languages, how many unknown languages?
- downvotetruth 3y agoFor cuneiform see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36446876 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36446876 on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36446289 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36446289
- thaumasiotes 3y agoThe ones in known languages are more than enough to absorb hundreds of millions of dollars. People seem to have the impression that ancient writing is rare. It isn't. Two things are rare: - Paper that can survive for thousands of years without rotting. This is why classical documents are rare. - The desire to get some more ancient tablets translated. This is why translations of cuneiform tablets are rare. There is far more source material available than anyone is willing to pay for.
- jhbadger 3y agoAlso, the fact that most ancient writing is boring. Yes, like Irving Finkel, you might come across a new version of the Flood legend, or the rules to an ancient form of Backgammon, but 99% of the stuff is just receipts and tax reports, maybe useful to translate as part of a student's dissertation, but of no more interest than that.
- jheriko 3y agofascinating. the software landscape of egyptology is mostly a barren wasteland with a few superstars dotted around (Serge Rosmorduc stands out!) good to see such fine work!
- Traubenfuchs 3y agoDid you know? You can use hieroglyphs right here, right now and pretty much everywhere else: 𓂺 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Egyptian_hieroglyphs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Egyptian_hieroglyphs
- jheriko 3y agothe unicode implementation is garbage... 𓂋𓐍 see? also wikihiero is crappy. meanwhile, i don't suck at rudimentary code and banged this out quickly after self-teaching to fix it after the fact: https://github.com/semiessessi/beautiful-hieroglyphs/blob/main/README.md https://github.com/semiessessi/beautiful-hieroglyphs/blob/ma... also most other tools suck.
- demetrius 3y ago> most other tools suck. Your think they suck because they're not coloured? But black-and-white images are standard, that's how you'll be seeing them in dictionaries, textbooks and transcriptions. Also, I think some hieratic texts use different inks, like red and black, and the transcription into hieroglyphs needs to convey this difference. If you use a coloured hieroglyphic font, it would be hard to transcribe these hieratic texts.
- emmelaich 3y agoPlease add images to the README!
- jheriko 3y agoadded one. thanks for the suggestion
- canjobear 3y ago𓁏
- vkazanov 3y agoA million?
- zen_1 3y agoModern Egyptian vocabulary: A7a
- strivax 3y agoA7a fe3lan