Word: akkadian
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Last week Cyrus Gordon, professor of Near Eastern languages at Brandeis University, offered a solution to the mystery. Linear A, says he, does indeed use Minoan signs, but these parallel Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) syllables. Just as Ventris' discovery revealed that the Achaeans of the Greek mainland were not the illiterates that a reading of Homer suggests, but might well have been the civilized conquerors of Crete, so Gordon's thesis sheds a whole new light on the possible foundations of Greek civilization itself...
...Linear A tablets he came across the entry gaba, followed by the sign for MAN and the numerals 62. This was a striking equivalent to the Linear B formula to-so MAN 17, meaning so many men: 17. But gaba was also similar to the Akkadian word gabba, meaning all. "From that moment on," says Gordon, "I approached Linear A with Akkadian in mind...
...word Y-to-X-lo or -ro, Gordon reasoned, might mean "cumulative total," and the Akkadian word for that was kitmuru. Since the Akkadians did not distinguish between the o and u sounds, to could be tu, and lo or ro could be hi or ru. Then Y becomes ki, and X, mil, to make kitumuru...
...Language students at Columbia University this year will have their choice of three new tongue-twisters. In addition to such old favorites as Syriac (ancient Mesopotamia), Samoyed (Siberia) and Akkadian (ancient Babylon), Columbia is adding Avestan, the language of Zoroaster; Kurdish, spoken by the wandering Kurds of Turkey, Iraq and Iran; and Tagalog, a native language of the Philippines. Total languages now available: 50. ¶ After five years of experimenting, Harvard finally put its General Education "core curriculum" into practice. From now on, each student must take at least one specially designed course in the humanities and the social...