>From: Damien Broderick <d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au>
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>To: extropians@extropy.org
>Subject: Re: Immortalism: The Epic of Gilgamesh
>Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 11:42:43 +1100
>
>
> >2) How do you know the correct pronunciation? Do you have a 4000-year-old
> >recording?
>
>Buddy, I was there.
>
>Damien Broderick [how else do you think I know about the crocodile?]
Linguists tell how an ancient word was spoken when it is used in a poem.
They can tell which other words it rhymes with and what the stresses are, by
the general cadence of the poem.
It's easy to see how they could figure this out for an unknown word or two,
when the rest is largely known, but I'm not sure how they build that base
with something so old that nothing in it is pronounced out loud anymore.
---------------------------------------------------
Zeb Haradon (zebharadon@hotmail.com)
My personal webpage:
http://www.inconnect.com/~zharadon/ubunix
A movie I'm directing:
http://www.elevatormovie.com
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