The race to decode a mysterious language - Susan Lupack

Reviewer: Nika Kotnik

In the early 1900s on the island of Crete,

V začetku 20. stoletja je na Kreti

British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans uncovered nearly 3,000 tablets

britanski arheolog Sir Arthur Evans odkril skoraj tri tisoč plošč,

inscribed with strange symbols.

popisanih s čudnimi simboli.

He thought these symbols represented the language spoken

Mislil je, da simboli predstavljajo jezik

by Europe’s oldest civilization.

najstarejše evropske civilizacije.

Their meaning would elude scholars for 50 years.

A njihov pravi pomen so strokovnjaki iskali 50 let.

Evans discovered these tablets amid the colorful frescoes

Evan je te plošče odkril med živopisanimi freskami

and maze-like hallways of the palace of Knossos.

ter labirintom podobnimi hodniki palače v Knososu.

He called the civilization Minoan—

Civilizacijo je poimenoval minojska,

after the mythical Cretan ruler, King Minos.

po mitološkem vladarju Krete, kralju Minosu.

He thought the script, dubbed Linear B, represented the Minoan language,

Po njegovem je ta “linearna pisava B” predstavljala minojski jezik,

and scholars all over the world came up with their own theories.

strokovnjaki z vsega sveta pa so imeli vsak svojo teorijo.

Was it the lost language of the Etruscans?

Je bil to izgubljeni jezik Etruščanov?

Or perhaps it represented an early form of Basque?

Ali pa zgodnja različica jezika Baskov?

The mystery intensified because Evans guarded the tablets closely––

Skrivnost je bila toliko večja, ker je Evans plošče skrbno skrival -

only 200 of the inscriptions were published during his lifetime––

do njegove smrti so objavili samo 200 zapisov -

but he couldn’t decipher the script.

toda ni mogel razvozlati pisave.

However, he did make two accurate observations:

Je pa ugotovil dve stvari:

the tablets were administrative records, and the script was a syllabary,

plošče so bile uradniški spisi, pisava pa je zlogovna,

where each symbol represented both a consonant and a vowel,

kjer vsak simbol predstavlja soglasnik in samoglasnik,

mixed with characters that each represented a whole word.

nekateri znaki pa predstavljajo celotno besedo.

Evans worked on Linear B for three decades before a scholar from Brooklyn, New York,

Evans je na linearni pisavi B delal trideset let,

dokler ni newyorška znanstvenica Alice Kober razvozlala njene skrivnosti.

named Alice Kober set out to solve the mystery.

Kober was a professor of Classics at Brooklyn College

Koberjeva je predavala klasiko na kolidžu v Brooklynu,

when few women held such positions.

v času, ko je bilo na takih položajih malo žensk.

To help in her quest, she taught herself many languages––

Za to nalogo se je naučila veliko jezikov,

knowledge she knew she would need to decipher Linear B.

vedoč, da jih bo potrebovala za razvozlanje linearne pisave B.

For the next two decades, she analyzed the symbols.

Dve desetletji je analizirala simbole.

Working from the few available inscriptions,

Na podlagi redkih zapisov, ki so bili na voljo,

she recorded how often each symbol appeared.

je zabeležila, kako pogosto se vsak simbol pojavi.

Then she recorded how frequently each symbol appeared next to another.

Zabeležila je tudi, kako pogosto se vsak simbol pojavi poleg drugih.

She stored her findings on scrap paper in cigarette cartons

Ugotovitve, zapisane na odpadni papir, je spravila v škatlice cigaret,

because writing supplies were scarce during the Second World War.

saj je bilo med drugo svetovno vojno na voljo malo opreme za pisanje.

By analyzing these frequencies,

Z analizo pogostosti teh pojavov

she discovered that Linear B relied on word endings

je odkrila, da linearni pisavi B

slovnico določajo končnice besed.

to give its sentences grammar.

From this she began to build a chart of the relations between the signs,

Na tej podlagi je zgradila tabelo odnosov med znaki

coming closer than anyone before to deciphering Linear B.

in se bolj kot vsi drugi približala razvozlanju linearne pisave B.

But she died, probably of cancer, in 1950 at the age of 43.

Toda leta 1950 je umrla, stara 43 let, verjetno zaradi raka.

While Kober was analyzing the Knossos tablets,

Medtem ko je Koberjeva analizirala plošče s Knososa,

an architect named Michael Ventris was also working to crack Linear B.

je linearno pisavo B skušal razvozlati tudi arhitekt Michael Ventris.

He had become obsessed with Linear B as a schoolboy after hearing Evans speak.

Pisava ga je obsedla že kot šolarja, ko je enkrat poslušal Evansovo predavanje.

He even worked on deciphering the script while serving in World War II.

Pisavo je skušal razvozlati celo kot vojak med drugo svetovno vojno.

After the war, Ventris built on Kober’s grid

Po vojni je Ventris nadgradil tabelo Koberjeve

using a newly published cache of Linear B inscriptions

s pomočjo na novo objavljenih zapisov linearne pisave B,

excavated from a different archeological site called Pylos, on mainland Greece.

ki so jih našli v Pilosu, arheološkem najdišču v celinski Grčiji.

His real breakthrough came when he compared the tablets from Pylos

A pravi preboj je dosegel, ko je primerjal plošče s Pilosa

with those from Knossos

s tistimi s Knososa.

and saw that certain words appeared on tablets from one site but not the other.

Videl je, da se določene besede pojavijo samo na ploščah z enega najdišča.

He wondered if those words represented the names of places

Zanimalo ga je, ali te besede predstavljajo imena krajev,

specific to each location.

povezanih z določeno lokacijo.

He knew that over centuries, place names tend to remain constant,

Vedel je, da imena krajev skozi stoletja ostajajo enaka,

and decided to compare Linear B

in se odločil, da bo linearno pisavo B

to an ancient syllabary from the island of Cyprus.

primerjal z antičnim silabarijem s Cipra.

The Cypriot script was used hundreds of years after Linear B,

Ciprska pisava je bila v rabi na stotine let po linearni pisavi B,

but some of the symbols were similar—

a nekateri simboli so si bili podobni.

he wondered if the sounds would be similar, too.

Zanimalo ga je, ali bi si bili tudi zvoki podobni.

When Ventris plugged some of the sounds of the Cypriot syllabary

Ko je Ventris nekatere zvoke ciprskega silabarija

into the Linear B inscriptions,

uporabil na zapisih linearne pisave B,

he came up with the word Knossos,

je našel besedo Knosos,

the name of the city where Evans had discovered his tablets.

ime mesta, kjer je Evans odkril svoje plošče.

In a domino effect, Ventris unraveled Linear B,

Sledila je verižna reakcija in Ventris je razvozlal pisavo:

with each word revealing more clearly that the language of Linear B

vsaka beseda je bolj jasno pokazala, da jezik linearne pisave B

was not Minoan, but Greek.

ni bil minojski, pač pa grški.

Ventris died in a car crash four years later, at the age of 34.

Ventris je štiri leta kasneje, pri 34 letih, umrl v prometni nesreči.

But his discovery rewrote a chapter of history.

A njegovo odkritje je na novo napisalo celotno poglavje zgodovine.

Evans had insisted that the Minoans conquered the mainland Greeks,

Evans je trdil, da so Minojci osvojili celinsko Grčijo

and that was why examples of Linear B were found on the mainland.

in da so zato na celini našli primere linearne pisave B.

But the discovery that Linear B represented Greek, and not Minoan,

A odkritje, da linearna pisava B zapisuje grščino, ne minojščine,

showed that the opposite had happened:

je dokazala ravno obratno:

mainland Greeks invaded Crete and adopted the Minoan script for their own language.

celinski Grki so zavzeli Kreto in prevzeli minojsko pisavo za svoj jezik.

But the story isn’t over yet.

Toda zgodba s tem ni končana.

The actual language of the Minoans,

Dejanski jezik Minojcev,

represented by another script called Linear A,

ki ga predstavlja linearna pisava A,

has yet to be deciphered.

bo treba šele razvozlati.

It remains a mystery— at least for now.

To ostaja skrivnost - vsaj za zdaj.