JHA (Joan Holmes & Associates Inc.)’s Post

The Greek language is one of the oldest and most fascinating languages in human history. From the ancient ruins of the Acropolis to the bustling streets of modern Athens, Greek has evolved for over three millennia, leaving an indelible mark on world culture, philosophy, literature, and science. #greek #language #translation

Using LLMs and MT Models to Translate Ancient Greek

This article is about language and it's important complement, listening. Listen twice, speak once is a great rule to live by. It is the person who hears whom completes the communication: the utterer just makes clever noise. Give Lincoln the Gettysburg Address to recite to penguins in Antarctica and the impact is not the same. I think the practice of #datagovernance extends to the #semantic; we have decades of work in the union of the two domains (ref. Floridi). It is important that people can speak their truth and even more important that the listener can appreciate that truth. Hard to do if few people listen and the analogy extends to how people listen to each other at work. Covid forced upon us a need for better #decision structures; it's these which help ensure voice. Simple things like Robert's Rules go a long way. People feel heard by others, people hear others - the path forward will become apparent "When speakers can speak their home languages they feel seen and thus they feel more connected to the rest of society. On the other hand, not speaking the heritage or minority languages creates some form of trauma which … undermines integration."

Unraveling the Mysteries of the Nazca Lines: A Testament to Human Communication 🌍✨ At Nazca Interpreting, our name is inspired by the ancient and enigmatic Nazca Lines of Peru. Just like these intricate geoglyphs that tell a story across time and space, we believe in the power of language to connect, communicate, and create lasting impressions. 🌀 The Nazca Lines: These ancient designs etched into the desert sands of southern Peru are one of archaeology's greatest mysteries. Created by the Nazca culture between 500 BCE and 500 CE, the lines form shapes of animals, plants, and geometric patterns that are best seen from above. The purpose behind these magnificent designs remains a subject of fascination and debate among scholars. 🔍 A Language Across Time: Much like the Nazca Lines, language serves as a powerful tool for storytelling and preserving history. While the true meaning of these geoglyphs is still being uncovered, they remind us of humanity’s innate desire to communicate, share knowledge, and express creativity. 🌐 Breaking Barriers: At Nazca Interpreting, we are dedicated to breaking down linguistic barriers and fostering understanding across cultures. Just as the Nazca Lines bridge a connection between ancient civilizations and modern observers, we strive to bridge the gaps between languages and people, ensuring clear and effective communication. Let’s celebrate the power of language and the wonder of human expression. Follow us for more insights into the world of interpreting and translation, and discover how we can help you connect and communicate effectively. #NazcaInterpreting #NazcaLines #Language #Communication #CulturalExchange #TranslationServices #InterpretingServices

Does your country fall into these categories? 😎 https://hubs.ly/Q02slMfV0 #language #languages #culture #naming #languagelover #languagematters #translation #interpretation #languagelearning

“The Egyptian language is the sole representative of an autonomous branch of the Afro-Asiatic (formerly Semito-Hamitic) language family. As such, Egyptian is related to both the Semitic languages of the Levant and the various languages of northern Africa. Ancient Egyptian’s closest relatives include Semitic (such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Ethiopic) and Berber. Like the Semitic languages, Egyptian exhibits three sentence types: nominal, adverbial, and verbal, where the predicate is a noun, an adverb, or a verb, respectively.” #egypt #semiticlanguages #biblicalarchaeology

Curious about the origins of common English expressions like "will-o’-the-wisp" and "against the grain"? Discover their fascinating stories and how language evolves. #English #idioms #language #News #History #Archaeology #Ancient #traditions

My new book, PROTO: HOW ONE ANCIENT LANGUAGE WENT GLOBAL, will be published in the UK on 24 April and the US and Canada on 13 May (with versions in other languages to follow). It's available for preorder wherever books are sold: https://geni.us/proto Here's the blurb: The epic tale of how one ancient language went global, and the scientific quest to trace it back to its roots.    As the planet emerged from the last ice age, a language was born between Europe and Asia, by the Black Sea. This ancient tongue, which we call Proto-Indo-European, soon exploded out of its cradle, changing and fragmenting as it went, until its offspring were spoken from Scotland to China. Today those descendants constitute the world’s largest language family, the thread that connects disparate cultures: Dante’s Inferno to the Rig Veda, The Lord of the Rings to the love poetry of Rumi. Indo-European languages are spoken by nearly half of humanity. How did this happen? Laura Spinney set out to answer that question, retracing the Indo-European odyssey across continents and millennia. With her we travel the length of the steppe, navigating the Caucasus, the silk roads and the Hindu Kush. We follow in the footsteps of nomads and monks, Amazon warriors and lion kings – the ancient peoples who spread these languages far and wide. In the present, Spinney meets the scientists on a thrilling mission to retrieve those lost languages: the linguists, archaeologists and geneticists who have reconstructed this ancient diaspora. What they have learned has vital implications for our modern world, since people and their languages are on the move again. Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words.

"Etruscan language is a unique, non-Indo-European outlier in the ancient Greco-Roman world. There are no known parent languages to Etruscan, nor are there any modern descendants, since Latin gradually replaced it, along with other Italic languages, as the Romans gradually took control of the Italian peninsula. Roman emperor Claudius (r. 41–54 AD), however, took a great interest in Etruscan language and history. He knew how to speak and write the language, and even compiled a 24 volume history of the people that, unfortunately, no longer exists today. Etruscan did not appear in written form until 7th Century BC, after contact with Euboean Greek traders and colonists, and it is the Euboean Greek alphabet that the Etruscans adopted and adapted to fulfill the phonological and grammatical needs of their native tongue. Etruscans wrote right to left, and many of the Greek letters are reversed in orientation. Some early Greek inscriptions are also written from right to left or in a continuous string of lines running first right to left, then left to right. We have no surviving histories or literature in Etruscan, and the only extant writing that can be considered a text, as opposed to an inscription, was painted in ink on linen, preserved through the fortuitous reuse of the linen as wrappings for an Egyptian mummy now in Zagreb. The existence of such objects like an Etruscan abecedarium in the form of an inkwell, as well as artistic representations of books or scrolls, confirms a written tradition on perishable materials. Despite the lack of preserved texts, the corpus of more than 10,000 Etruscan inscriptions on local and imported goods for daily, religious, and funerary use give us insight into the importance of language in Etruscan life and afterlife. Etruscan inscriptions fulfilled a number of roles, and they often reveal the intended purposes of the objects that bore them. The writing system developed out of necessity when the Etruscans began to engage in Mediterranean trade, and inscriptions could address practical concerns, such as the price of an object, or indicate a buyer’s or seller’s mark. There is an overwhelming number of “speaking” objects, or vessels inscribed with phrases to express ownership or dedication, written as if the object itself were speaking. For example, an Italo-Corinthian alabastron in the collection is incised with the phrase “mi licinesi mulu hirsunaiesi,” or “I am the gift of Licinius Hirsunaie.” This could indicate that the vessel was intended as an offering to a deity, but it could also illustrate a gift exchange between wealthy individuals. 📷 : Cippus Perusinus, a stone tablet bearing 46 lines of incised Etruscan text, one of the longest extant Etruscan inscriptions (3rd or 2nd Century BC), discovered near Perugia in 1822, one of the longest such inscriptions known. The text is a contract between two families regarding the use of a property for a tomb.