The writing on a recently-discovered tablet has linguists baffled, and GPT passes the Turing Test
Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
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Have scholars finally deciphered the mysterious writing of Teotihuacan?
Also this week: How technological advances in language modeling have allowed researchers to develop speech recognition technology even for small, endangered languages
We’re finally starting to read the scrolls burnt in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
Also this week: How playing a musical instrument helps children learn to read + Why AI is not like humans
Mom’s voice boosts language-center development in preemies’ brains
Also this week: Smart dogs have a humanlike knack for naming new objects + Birds all over the world use the same sound to warn of threats + The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia
China lays claim to Austronesian languages
Also this week: The Linguistics of a Showgirl: How Taylor Swift’s accent has changed over time + We will soon be able to talk with other species—but which one will be first?