> ## Content Index
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> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# A mysterious pre-Islamic script from Oman has been deciphered, while AI helps historians complete damaged Latin texts
- URL: https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-31/
- Published: 2025-08-07T17:05:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-11T11:33:47.000Z
- Description: Also this week: Does your native language affect how you feel pain? And did language evolve because of tools or baby talk? Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- Author: Daniel W. Hieber, Ph.D.
- Tags: Current Linguistics, contranyms

Welcome to this week’s edition of *Discovery Dispatch*, a weekly roundup of the latest language-related news, research in linguistics, interesting reads from the week, and newest books and other media dealing with language and linguistics!

## 🆕 New from Linguistic Discovery

*This week’s content from Linguistic Discovery.*

### What to do when someone corrects your pronunciation

A year or so ago, internet friend and fellow science communicator Ashley Christine (whose book you just learned all about in in the past several weeks) asked me what to do when someone tries to correct your pronunciation in a video. This got me to thinking, and I put together an 8-minute video with advice on the topic, including some strategies about how to educate people about linguistics!

### Linguistics in Connections 8/2

![Logo for Connections on NYT](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-0p-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9dec1d96-298e-4b11-8dde-95726905a150_250x141.png "Logo for Connections on NYT")

In the NYT Connections puzzle for 8/2, one of the categories involved a fun concept from linguistics: **contranyms**, i.e. words that mean their own opposite. Some examples include:

- *dust:* remove dust / add dust
- *fast:* without moving, fixed in place / moving quickly

You can play that day’s puzzle here:

[Connections Game NYT - Play UnlimitedPlay Connections Game with Unlimited words! Sort 16 Words into 4 Groups that share something in common. Can you find groups of four words?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/site-icon.ico)Connections Game Logo![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/logo-3.png)](https://connectionsgame.org/?game=02-08-2025&ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

## 📰 In the News

*Language and linguistics in the news.*

### New AI models help historians complete damaged Latin texts

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!byS-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff6d0bd4b-0b3b-4012-a2bf-4da9b1309ecb_1216x804.png)

Fragment of a bronze military diploma from Sardinia, issued by the emperor Trajan to a sailor on a warship. 113/14 CE (CIL XVI, 60, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain).

> Many inscriptions have been separated from their original sources or have been rendered broken and illegible through wear and tear—making it incredibly difficult to parse the 1500 new Roman inscriptions that are found annually. Now, filling in the gaps of history has just gotten easier thanks to Aeneas, a large language model (LLM) unveiled yesterday in Nature that’s designed to interpret and contextualize Roman inscriptions.

- [New AI model helps historians complete damaged Latin texts](https://www.science.org/content/article/new-ai-model-helps-historians-complete-damaged-latin-texts?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) (Science)
- Assael et al. 2025\. Contextualizing ancient texts with generative neural networks. *Nature*. DOI: [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09292-5](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09292-5?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com).

### Mysterious pre-Islamic script from Oman deciphered

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0sqK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5065c152-8513-419a-9fd1-5266a745b43c_1216x804.png)

For more than a century, researchers have puzzled over the mysterious Dhofari script, which is found on rock faces in what are now Oman and Yemen. A new study makes the case that this inscription and several others like it list out the glyphs that were used to write down an ancient pre-Islamic language indigenous to South Arabia. Michael Macdonald

> Rock faces within the caves and dried riverbeds of Oman’s Dhofar governorate bear nearly 2400-year-old writings that snake across the surface in a mysterious script. For more than a century, these inscriptions—known as the Dhofari script—had defied decipherment. Now, in a study in press at the journal *Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux*, a linguist says he has deciphered the main subtype of the Dhofari script, and has found evidence that its alphabet didn’t originate in southern Arabia.

- [Mysterious pre-Islamic script from Oman finally deciphered](https://www.science.org/content/article/mysterious-pre-islamic-script-oman-finally-deciphered?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) (Science)
- Al-Jallad. 2025\. The decipherment of the Dhofari script: Three halḥam abecedaries and the first glimpses into the corpus. *Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux* 49\. DOI: [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15853465](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15853465?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com).

## 🗞️ Current Linguistics

*Recently published research in linguistics.*

### **Does your native language affect how you feel pain?**

> One of the oldest questions in the history of psychology is about how language influences the mind. Does the language we use impact how we see the world? A new study, shows that even the most basic, least abstract mental phenomenon is affected by language: pain.

[Does Your Native Language Affect How You Feel Pain?A new study reveals the impact of linguistic context on pain perception.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/apple-touch-icon-44.png)Psychology TodayBence Nanay Ph.D.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/pexels-kindel-media-7298657.jpg)](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychology-tomorrow/202402/does-your-native-language-affect-how-you-feel-pain?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

- Gianola, Llabre, & Losin. 2024\. Does pain hurt more in Spanish? The neurobiology of pain among Spanish–English bilingual adults. *Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience* 19(1): nsad074\. DOI: [https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsad074](https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsad074?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com).

### LLMs can now conduct linguistic analysis

In a new study, Gašper Beguš and colleagues examined the ability of large language models (LLMs) to conduct linguistic analysis, such as drawing syntactic trees and positing phonological rules. They find that the newest models vastly outperform older ones.

- [Chatbots don’t just do language, they do metalinguistics](https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-linguistics?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) (IEEE Spectrum)
- Begus, Dabkowsky, & Rhodes. 2025\. Large linguistic models: Investigating LLMs’ metalinguistic abilities. *IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence*. DOI: [https://doi.org/10.1109/TAI.2025.3575745](https://doi.org/10.1109/TAI.2025.3575745?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com).

### Did language evolve because of tools?

This is recent reporting from *New Scientist* on an old 2014 study:

> Researchers tasked 24 volunteers with learning to make hand axes from an expert who either talked them through the process or merely made the tools in the volunteers’ presence while occasionally pointing to direct their attention. Surprisingly, both methods were effective, suggesting verbal language isn’t necessary for complex tool-making.

[Ancient humans only evolved language once, but why?There’s an argument rumbling about why our ancestors evolved language. And surprisingly, one of the possible explanations has nothing to do with communication![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/180x180.50b024f6-8.png)New Scientist#author.fullName}![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/SEI_255267407.jpg)](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2484046-ancient-humans-only-evolved-language-once-but-why/?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

- Putt, Woods, & Franciscus. 2014\. The role of verbal interaction during experimental bifacial stone tool manufacture. *Lithic Technology* 39(2): 96–112\. DOI: [https://doi.org/10.1179/0197726114Z.00000000036](https://doi.org/10.1179/0197726114Z.00000000036?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com).

### Or did language evolve because of baby talk?

The way that human adults talk to young children is unique among primates, a new study found. That might be one secret to our species’ grasp of language.

> The researchers discovered a stark difference between humans and apes: Young apes hardly ever heard infant-directed communication from the adult apes around them. Even among chimpanzees, which chatter to one another on a regular basis, the adults might call just once to an infant over the course of an entire day. On other days, the young chimps received no communication at all, not even from their mothers.  
>  
> Human children have a profoundly different experience with language, the researchers found. In every culture, children were spoken to by adults many times a day — every few minutes, in some cases. The rate that children heard infant-directed communication was 69 times as high as what Dr. Fryns observed among chimpanzees, and 399 times as high as what Dr. Wegdell observed among bonobos.

- Wegdell et al. 2025\. The evolution of infant-directed communication: Comparing vocal input across all great apes. *Science Advances* 11(26). DOI: [https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adt7718](https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adt7718?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com).

### AI isn’t good at detecting bullying because Gen Alpha’s slang is still so new

> Generation Alpha’s internet lingo is mutating faster than teachers, parents and AI models can keep up – potentially exposing youngsters to bullying and grooming that trusted adults and AI-based safety systems simply can’t see.

[Generation Alpha’s coded language makes online bullying hard to detectAdults and AI models fail to recognise messages with harmful intent expressed with Gen Alpha slang or memes, raising concerns about youngsters’ online safety![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/180x180.50b024f6-9.png)New Scientist#author.fullName}![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/SEI_256690189.jpg)](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2485808-generation-alphas-coded-language-makes-online-bullying-hard-to-detect/?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

- Mehta & Giunchiglia. 2025\. Understanding Gen Alpha’s digital language: Evaluation of LLM safety systems for content moderation. *FAccT ‘25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency*, pp. 2863–2873\. DOI: [https://doi.org/10.1145/3715275.3732184](https://doi.org/10.1145/3715275.3732184?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com).

## 📃 This Week’s Reads

*Interesting articles I’ve come across this week.*

[Linguistics Explains Why Some Names Capture One’s ‘Essence’Why do we have strong negative or positive associations with certain names? Sound symbolism suggests certain sounds have intrinsic meaning, making some names more memorable.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/apple-touch-icon-45.png)Psychology TodayValerie Fridland Ph.D.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/chuttersnapunsplash.jpg)](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/language-in-the-wild/202205/linguistics-explains-why-some-names-capture-ones-essence?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

[The city of 700 languagesNew York is the most linguistically diverse city on the planet. Can it stay that way?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/favicon-180x180-2.png)Culture![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/MM10221_20250227_488_16x9.jpg)](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/new-york-city-700-languages?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

  - The author of this article is Ross Perlin, author of [*Language city: The fight to preserve endangered mother tongues in New York*](https://amzn.to/49TumNj?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

[Dear Duolingo: How did writing systems evolve?Learn how writing systems around the world evolved, including which ones are related and some that were invented recently!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/duolingo-touch-icon2-1-9.png)Duolingo BlogOlivia Thayer, M.A.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/cover_enDDmailbox_darkPurple.png)](https://blog.duolingo.com/evolution-of-writing-systems/?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

[How the Industrial Revolution changed EnglishTechnology and the birth of new dialects![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/https-3A-2F-2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-2Fpublic-2Fimages-2F310d0223-9c59-42bd-a916-905ade8897a2-2Fapple-touch-icon-180x180-5.png)Dead Language SocietyColin Gorrie![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/https-3A-2F-2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-2Fpublic-2Fimages-2F97f01840-dd79-455f-9d86-2fbb9e2d370e_1600x1026.jpeg)](https://www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-the-industrial-revolution-changed?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

[How using a full stop could give away your ageWhere text message punctuation is merely good grammar for older people, Gen Z sees all kinds of hidden meanings, say linguists![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The TelegraphIndia McTaggart![](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/06/27/TELEMMGLPICT000430341611_17510471629610_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?impolicy=OG-Standard)](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/27/using-full-stop-gives-away-your-age/?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

  - (A *full stop* in British English is a *period* in American English.)

[Is being bilingual good for your brain?Perhaps. Learning languages offers other, more concrete benefits![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/icon-2.svg)The EconomistThe Economist![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/20250705_STD001-1.jpg)](https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/06/27/is-being-bilingual-good-for-your-brain?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

  - (The answer may not be a straightforward “yes”.)

[Writing Systems of the World From Incan to Japanese and More - Rosetta StoneA writing system isn’t just an alphabet. Learn how different languages are represented in writing systems that convey meaning in various ways.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/cropped-RS-logo-6.png)Rosetta StoneJennifer Gunner![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/writing-systems-feature.jpg)](https://blog.rosettastone.com/writing-systems/?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

[We’re finally understanding what animals are saying to us – and it’s not what we expected — BBC Science Focus MagazineWe’re on the verge of decoding animal communication. Here’s what we’ve learned so far – and how AI could finally help us decipher their languages![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/apple-touch-icon_v6.png)![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/AgEXQXRhQnY1b0p0UmZpNjVHNEhOVE5iVlEAMA)](https://apple.news/AtaBv5oJtRfi65G4HNTNbVQ?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

[Pop, soda or coke? The fizzy history behind America’s favorite linguistic debateAn expert in American dialects explains how a ‘health drink’ from the early 1800s spawned so many names and variations.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/web-app-logo-192x192-2d05bdd6de6328146de80245d4685946-44.png)The ConversationValerie M. Fridland![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/file-20250630-56-kq4lmf-1.jpg)](https://theconversation.com/pop-soda-or-coke-the-fizzy-history-behind-americas-favorite-linguistic-debate-259114?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

  - The author of this article is Valerie M. Fridland, author of [*Like, literally, dude: Arguing for the good in bad English*](https://amzn.to/42THdO9?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

## 🗃️ Resources

*Maps, databases, lists, etc. on language and linguistics.*

### Typological Atlas of the Languages of Daghestan

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0N2-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb906c734-345f-4fbb-a77b-4271df29f907_2048x703.png)

Daghestan

The languages of Daghestan have a long descriptive tradition. Available grammars contain a wealth of data which, however, have not been analyzed from an areal point of view. The goal of this project is to develop a tool for the visualization of information about linguistic structures characteristic of Daghestan.

TALD is a tool for the visualization of information about linguistic structures typical of Daghestan. The scope of the project currently covers all East Caucasian languages and several other languages spoken in Daghestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia and adjacent territories.

The Atlas consists of:

- Chapters describing linguistic phenomena typical of the area (some of the chapters are linked to a major topic, i.e., a more descriptive chapter to which several features are related)
- Datasets with information on particular features
- Map visualizations of how these features are distributed
- A bibliography of literature on languages of the area

In its current version the Atlas consists of 62 datasets and 5 major topics with information on linguistic features mostly in the areas of phonology, morphology, the lexicon and discourse. New topics covering the areas that have not been dealt with so far will be added in later versions.

[Typological Atlas of the Languages of Daghestan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/icon/favicon-4.png)TALD![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/thumbnail/80x15.png)](https://lingconlab.ru/tald/?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

## 👋🏼 Til next week!

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QvvM!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F69248e2d-93f0-4fb8-995b-a7150dd8397b_435x435.png)

[xkcd: Garden Path Sentence](https://xkcd.com/2793/?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

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