| # Ancient Inscription Text Dataset |
|
|
| Running text (word sequences preserving original word order) from academically |
| peer-reviewed, CC-BY-SA-compatible sources. Designed for phonotactic sequence |
| analysis in Phonetic Prior models. |
|
|
| ## Languages |
|
|
| | ISO | Language | Source | Entries | Date Range | Genre | |
| |-----|----------|--------|---------|------------|-------| |
| | grc | Ancient Greek | UD_Ancient_Greek-PTNK (Septuagint) | 1,576 | 4th-5th c. CE | religious | |
| | lat | Latin | UD_Latin-LLCT + UD_Latin-CIRCSE | 10,687 | 774-897 CE / 1st c. BCE-2nd c. CE | legal + literary | |
| | san | Sanskrit | UD_Sanskrit-Vedic | 27,182 | c. 1500-500 BCE | religious | |
| | ang | Old English | UD_Old_English-Cairo | 20 | c. 700-1100 CE | mixed | |
| | osc | Oscan | CEIPoM v1.3 (Zenodo) | 770 | 5th-1st c. BCE | inscription | |
| | xum | Umbrian | CEIPoM v1.3 (Zenodo) | 761 | 7th-1st c. BCE | inscription | |
| |
| **Total: ~41,000 entries across 6 languages.** |
| |
| ## TSV Schema |
| |
| | Column | Type | Description | |
| |--------|------|-------------| |
| | Inscription_ID | str | Unique identifier (source + sentence ID) | |
| | Text | str | Original text (space-separated words) | |
| | IPA | str | IPA transcription (space-separated words) | |
| | SCA | str | Sound class encoding (space-separated words) | |
| | Source | str | Source database identifier | |
| | Date_Approx | str | Approximate date of the text | |
| | Genre | str | Text genre (legal, literary, religious, inscription) | |
| | IPA_Source | str | IPA generation method | |
|
|
| ## Sources & Licenses |
|
|
| All sources are **CC BY-SA 4.0** or more permissive: |
|
|
| - **UD_Ancient_Greek-PTNK**: CC BY-SA 4.0. Pentateuch from Codex Alexandrinus (LXX). |
| https://github.com/UniversalDependencies/UD_Ancient_Greek-PTNK |
| - **UD_Latin-LLCT**: CC BY-SA 4.0. 521 Early Medieval charters from Tuscan archives. |
| https://github.com/UniversalDependencies/UD_Latin-LLCT |
| - **UD_Latin-CIRCSE**: CC BY-SA 4.0. Seneca tragedies + Tacitus Germania. |
| https://github.com/UniversalDependencies/UD_Latin-CIRCSE |
| - **UD_Sanskrit-Vedic**: CC BY-SA 4.0. Vedic Sanskrit texts (Rigveda, Atharvaveda, etc.). |
| https://github.com/UniversalDependencies/UD_Sanskrit-Vedic |
| - **UD_Old_English-Cairo**: CC BY-SA 4.0. Georgetown Old English corpus. |
| https://github.com/UniversalDependencies/UD_Old_English-Cairo |
| - **CEIPoM v1.3**: CC BY-SA 4.0. Corpus of the Epigraphy of the Italian Peninsula. |
| https://zenodo.org/records/6475427. Pitts (2022), *Journal of Open Humanities Data*. |
| |
| ## IPA Transliteration |
| |
| | Language | Method | Reference | |
| |----------|--------|-----------| |
| | grc | Greek Unicode -> strip diacritics -> transliteration map | Allen (1987) *Vox Graeca* | |
| | lat | Latin script -> transliteration map (Classical values) | Allen (1978) *Vox Latina* | |
| | san | IAST romanization -> transliteration map | Whitney (1889) *Sanskrit Grammar* | |
| | ang | Old English script -> transliteration map | Campbell (1959) *OE Grammar* | |
| | osc | CEIPoM Standard_aligned -> transliteration map | Buck (1904); Pitts (2022) | |
| | xum | CEIPoM Standard_aligned -> transliteration map | Buck (1904); Pitts (2022) | |
| |
| SCA encoding uses the system from List (2012), implemented in |
| `cognate_pipeline/src/cognate_pipeline/normalise/sound_class.py`. |
| |
| ## Limitations |
| |
| 1. **6 of 14 validation languages only**: Gothic, OCS, Old Norse, Old Irish, Avestan, |
| OHG, Old Turkic, Hebrew lack CC-BY-SA inscription corpora. |
| 2. **Late Latin bias**: LLCT is AD 774-897 Tuscan legal Latin, not Classical. |
| CIRCSE adds Classical literary texts but is smaller. |
| 3. **Old English is minimal**: Only 20 sentences from Cairo treebank. OEDT has no |
| released data yet. |
| 4. **Oscan: Greek-script inscriptions excluded**: ~240 Oscan inscriptions in Greek |
| alphabet were filtered out (need separate transliteration path). |
| 5. **IPA is approximate**: Transliteration maps apply default/canonical pronunciations. |
| Allophonic variation, sandhi, and contextual rules are not modeled. |
| |
| ## Build Instructions |
| |
| ```bash |
| # Step 1: Download sources |
| python scripts/ingest_inscriptions.py |
| |
| # Step 2: Build TSVs |
| python scripts/build_inscriptions.py |
| ``` |
| |
| ## Citation |
| |
| If using this dataset, cite the original sources listed above plus: |
| - Pitts, R.J. (2022). The Corpus of the Epigraphy of the Italian Peninsula in the |
| 1st Millennium BCE. *Journal of Open Humanities Data*, 8(7). |
| - List, J.-M. (2012). SCA: A Method for Automatic Sound Correspondence Analysis. |
| |
