Dictionary of ancient Assyrian complete after 90 years

[wobbegong]

I'm sure your turn will come - They're probably working on a dictionary of ancient Phillistine too.

Nice jibe/thread relevance.

[OwlHoot]

Why? If it's a 'dead' language, what is the point of 90 years work to write a dictionary for it?

Who pays for this rubbish?

I'm sure your turn will come - They're probably working on a dictionary of ancient Phillistine too.

[wobbegong]

Dictionary of dead language complete after 90 years

Why? If it's a 'dead' language, what is the point of 90 years work to write a dictionary for it?

Who pays for this rubbish?

[SimonMac]

True, since the smoking ban you don't hear it spoken quite as much.

[Pondlife]

Welsh isn't a language, someone just had a phlegmy cough one day and it just carried on from there.

True, since the smoking ban you don't hear it spoken quite as much.

[SimonMac]

Any idea when they're due to start on Welsh?

Welsh isn't a language, someone just had a phlegmy cough one day and it just carried on from there.

[Pondlife]

He's feeling a little discombobulated

I'm sure he'll feel better once he's had his sausages.

[DaveB]

He's feeling a little discombobulated

Non the less, we should offer hm our sincerest contrafibularities.

[Ruprect]

Not a bad gig.

When's Dr. Johnson due to finish?

He's feeling a little discombobulated

[DaveB]

yay

Dictionary of dead language complete after 90 years



Hopefully that will encourage the compilers of the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, who started in 1894 and aren't due to finish until 2050!

The task of the institute is to produce the first comprehensive scholarly dictionary of ancient Latin from the earliest times down to AD 600. The work is based on an archive of about 10 million slips which takes account of all surviving texts. In the older texts there is a slip for each occurrence of each word; the later ones are generally covered by a selection of lexicographically relevant examples.

Working 365 days a year for 156 years they still need to process 175 references a day to get it done.


A box of dictionary slips with excerpts for the word 'non'.

[Pondlife]

Any idea when they're due to start on Welsh?

[DimPrawn]

The project began in 1894 and it is scheduled to be completed around the year 2050.

Is this another public sector contract?

[Churchill]

Not a bad gig.

When's Dr. Johnson due to finish?

[OwlHoot]

yay

Dictionary of dead language complete after 90 years

A dictionary of the extinct language of ancient Mesopotamia has been completed after 90 years of work.

Assyrian and Babylonian - dialects of the language collectively known as Akkadian - have not been spoken for almost 2,000 years.

"This is a heroic and significant moment in history," beamed Dr Irving Finkel of the British Museum's Middle East department.

As a young man in the 1970s Dr Finkel dedicated three years of his life to The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Project which is based at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

That makes him something of a spring chicken in the life story of this project, which began in 1921.

Hopefully that will encourage the compilers of the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, who started in 1894 and aren't due to finish until 2050!