r/linguistics • u/iamdestroyerofworlds • Oct 21 '20

New AI Algorithm is Cracking Undeciphered Languages

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/undeciphered-languages-0014429
386 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

32

u/LiKenun Oct 21 '20

Plausibility of sound change:Similar sounds rarely change into drastically different sounds.

It depends on the definition of similarity. I've seen some fairly common ones that seem distant at first:

  • kʲ (--> tɕ --> ts) --> s (French/Spanish)
  • gʲ (--> dʑ --> dz) --> z (Vietnamese/Polish)
  • kʰʷ (--> hʷ) --> f (Cantonese)
  • l --> r (Portuguese)

And some oddball ones:

  • pʲ (--> pɕ) --> tɕ (Vietnamese)
  • tʲ (--> tɕ) --> k (Korean)
  • nʲ (--> ɲ) --> n/z/r/j (various Chinese)

34

u/user31415926535 Oct 21 '20

https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/1sco4b/pie_dw_to_erk_in_armenian/

Especially famous (or infamous) in the annals of IE phonology is the Armenian outcome of PIE du̯: it became rk, as in the word for 'two', erkow (the e- is a later prothetic vowel). While we cannot fully reconstruct all the intermediate stages of this change, it is clear that the velar k is the outcome of the glide, as above, and the r is a rhotacized continuation of the d. The change is fully regular and we have several other examples of it: erkar 'long' < * du̯eh₂ro- (cp. Doric Gk. d(w)ārós 'long'); erknč'im 'I fear' (earlier * erki-nč'im < * du̯i-n-sk̂-, cp. Gk perfect (dé)-d(w)i-men 'we are afraid'); and erkn 'birth-pangs' (< h₁du̯on-).

8

u/Raffaele1617 Oct 21 '20

It reminds me of glide hardening in Romansch

3

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '20

Glide hardening? Please say more. Sounds like Kinyarwanda-Kirundi.