New online Sumerian and other cuneiform translator

The Translator can be found here

www.virtualsecrets.com...

And the story here

www.marketwire.com...

TEMPE, AZ--(Marketwire - August 23, 2007) - University of Advancing Technology (UAT) instructor and senior web developer Joe McCormack has completed work on a web-based application that translates English words into cuneiform script from the Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian and the hieroglyphic script of Egyptian. The tool may be seen at his website, virtualsecrets.com.

The translator works by converting cuneiform and hieroglyphs, both used in the earliest forms of writing, into English words. For example, typing "I am a father" into the Ancient Egyptian translator yields hieroglyphs that roughly translate to "I am" and "father." The translator has been featured on several museum websites around the world and websites specializing in resources for the ancient world.

McCormack, a UAT web developer by trade, worked more than 1,000 hours on researching the cuneiform and hieroglyphic and building the tool and its accompanying website. Inspiration for the project stemmed from his fascination with the science fiction television series "Stargate SG-1," which featured ancient Egyptian mythology and symbols as plot points. These caught McCormack's eye and lead to his research.

The website translator engine took approximately an hour to create, with the language database occupying two hundred hours to line up cuneiforms and hieroglyphics with text descriptors and make a hierarchy to prioritize the information.

"One of the reasons something as big as what I've done hasn't been done before is that there are thousands and thousands of symbols," said McCormack.

McCormack is talking with museums and institutions to garner further exposure. In particular, the Egyptian translator has been a hit; more than half of the 1,100 daily hits stem from the Egyptian hieroglyphic alone. More than 30 countries in six continents are using the website for translations.

About UAT: The University of Advancing Technology is a unique, private college that serves its student body by fostering knowledge creation and academic excellence in an environment that embraces the young technophiles of the world. With three centers of research and a suite of technology-centered undergraduate and graduate degrees, the University is a recognized leader in technology education.

Sitchin is really going to hate this! LOL

For more information, please visit:

www.uat.edu...

Nice. I was hoping it was a Sumerian to English translator, instead of the other way around.

This will do nicely though.



[edit on 8/30/07 by makeitso]

That is pretty brilliant!

Originally posted by makeitso
Nice. I was hoping it was a Sumarian to english translator, instead of the other way around.

This will do nicely though.

Your mission then - to go to College, learn Sumerian and provide the Sumerian to English translator - they already exist but in book form and I believe a crude version is at one of the Sumerian Literature sites.

Well, I havn't found the translator yet.

Anybody have a direct link?

Can't put Sitchin to shame without it.

Or did I just overlook the link?

reply to post by Hanslune


My college mission ended 20 years ago, (Not that I was interested in anything beyond booze and blonds back then). They didn't have much in the way of Sumerian that I remember.

Heck, I only vaguely remember things like Business Law, Business Math, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, etc.

No, I leave it to you younger whippersnappers, while I enjoy my semi-retirement from business.



But I will play with this translator if someone can provide a link.



[edit on 8/30/07 by makeitso]

I have to tell you that this belongs in the "just for fun" category.


Egyptian heiroglyphs are an extremely complicated system; there is no "alphabet" like the Latin one. There are about 300 total glyphs, some of them can serve as phonetic "letters," but many of them are logograms (a picture of the thing it stands for), 2 and 3 letter consonant groups, alliteratives, and determinitive endings that show the class of word indicated.

In other words, this "translator" is like going to the mall and getting a pendant with "your name in Egyptian heiroglyphs." Fun, but no ancient egyptian would recognize it as having meaning.


Even more true for the cuneiform translator. Cuneiform was a script used for about a dozen different languages and dialects; not only of sumerian and babylonian official documents (semitic), but even some Indo-European languages (Such as Akkadian).

Wikipedia lists the following languages written in different cuneiforms: Sumerian, Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hurrian, Hattic, Urartian

Some of them used cuneiform as a pictographic system, as it was originally used. But very quickly some pictographs became used as aliteratives (this would be like using the symbol of and "eye" to mean "I" in English.) Several dialects made up new signs, or used cuneiform to represent symbols, or as determinitives, like Egyptian Hieroglyphs.


Basically, two very complex systems that cannot be reduced to the 26 letter Latin alphabet, without them losing some integrity along the way.

Another example of the truth that other languages are not merely English in code.


Fun though. My wife wears a pendant I got for her with "her name in Mayan Heiroglyphs." She still wears it.

.

A more direct link just to the Sumerian

www.virtualsecrets.com...

I know this is an old thread, but that translator is completely rubbish, and most certainly can't be used as a debunking tool...

I agree with Dr Strangecraft, that it belongs in the 'just for fun' category.