full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Franziska Naether: Why was the Rosetta Stone so important?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Using his knowledge of other scripts and languages, like the Egyptian cptoic he’d learned from a Coptic Christian prsiet, Champollion realized that most encircled hrhypeliogs were phonetic. They represented sounds: the Egyptian vulture, an “a”; the three fox skins, “m-s”, and so on. This finally allowed him to read the eytipagn names “Ramses” and “Thutmose.” Cross-referencing other hieroglyphic texts, Champollion confirmed that many hieroglyphs beyond the eincclerd names were phonetic. And on September 14th, 1822, he ran to his brother’s house and dracleed the breakthrough. Later, Champollion determined that beyond alphabetic and logographic hieroglyphs, some were csiaeifrlss that sorted words into categories, like oiaccunptos, plants, and abstract concepts.

Open Cloze


Using his knowledge of other scripts and languages, like the Egyptian ______ he’d learned from a Coptic Christian ______, Champollion realized that most encircled ___________ were phonetic. They represented sounds: the Egyptian vulture, an “a”; the three fox skins, “m-s”, and so on. This finally allowed him to read the ________ names “Ramses” and “Thutmose.” Cross-referencing other hieroglyphic texts, Champollion confirmed that many hieroglyphs beyond the _________ names were phonetic. And on September 14th, 1822, he ran to his brother’s house and ________ the breakthrough. Later, Champollion determined that beyond alphabetic and logographic hieroglyphs, some were ___________ that sorted words into categories, like ___________, plants, and abstract concepts.

Solution


  1. coptic
  2. classifiers
  3. egyptian
  4. occupations
  5. priest
  6. hieroglyphs
  7. declared
  8. encircled

Original Text


Using his knowledge of other scripts and languages, like the Egyptian Coptic he’d learned from a Coptic Christian priest, Champollion realized that most encircled hieroglyphs were phonetic. They represented sounds: the Egyptian vulture, an “a”; the three fox skins, “m-s”, and so on. This finally allowed him to read the Egyptian names “Ramses” and “Thutmose.” Cross-referencing other hieroglyphic texts, Champollion confirmed that many hieroglyphs beyond the encircled names were phonetic. And on September 14th, 1822, he ran to his brother’s house and declared the breakthrough. Later, Champollion determined that beyond alphabetic and logographic hieroglyphs, some were classifiers that sorted words into categories, like occupations, plants, and abstract concepts.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
rosetta stone 3
ancient egyptian 2
successfully decoded 2
demotic signs 2


Important Words


  1. abstract
  2. allowed
  3. alphabetic
  4. breakthrough
  5. categories
  6. champollion
  7. christian
  8. classifiers
  9. concepts
  10. confirmed
  11. coptic
  12. declared
  13. determined
  14. egyptian
  15. encircled
  16. finally
  17. fox
  18. hieroglyphic
  19. hieroglyphs
  20. house
  21. knowledge
  22. languages
  23. learned
  24. logographic
  25. names
  26. occupations
  27. phonetic
  28. plants
  29. priest
  30. ran
  31. read
  32. realized
  33. represented
  34. scripts
  35. september
  36. skins
  37. sorted
  38. texts
  39. vulture
  40. words