Figuring out a Language

I don’t often let someone else do my work, but that’s basically what this post is. I haven’t (yet) seen the movie Arrival, though several people have recommended it to me because it’s about a linguist figuring out an unknown language. The link below is to an article about hos the linguist did it. It’s kind of a spoiler for me, because it turns out the technique is about exactly how you learn Greek. Look for phoneme patterns. We’d say things like “oi is the sign of the optative,” and “a nasal infix goes with the present tense.”

The first part of the article describes things I (and you other students of inflected languages) already know. Then the article applies it to the language in the movie, which the movie only touches on, apparently, but at least it’s there. Gratifying and interesting even if I now know how the movie works.

Here’s the link:

http://stephanhurtubise.tumblr.com/post/154076072369/how-louise-solved-heptapod-b