Ancient Languages

A team of scholars have finished a dictionary of the long dead language Assyrian language, which hasn't been spoken for more than 2,000 years, after 90-years of painstaking work. The work began at the University of Chicago in 1921, and it was based on words recorded on clay or stone tablets unearthed in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Researchers studying clay balls from Mesopotamia have discovered clues to a lost code that was used for record-keeping about 200 years before writing was invented. The clay balls may represent the world's "very first data storage system," at least the first that scientists know of, said Christopher Woods, a professor at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, in a lecture at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, where he presented initial findings.

Why have some languages become so endangered, what is it that threatens them and most importantly what can be done to save them? As mentioned in our last blog, a world with only one language is becoming an ever-increasing prospect for the future.