The first recording device was invented in the 19th century, which means that we don’t know what people sounded like in ancient times, the middle ages, or Renaissance. Also, many languages were lost in spoken variants until then, making them forever lost. Or at least we thought so.
YouTube channel Equator AI recently presented an intriguing project in which they employed artificial intelligence in order to discover how ancient languages sounded like. And it’s more impressive than you can imagine.
In the first video, the team behind Equator AI brought back to life 15 ancient languages: Old Norse, Mayan, Latin, Middle Chinese, Old English, Old Japanese, Old Church Slavonic, Proto-Celtic language, Middle Egyptian, Ryukyuan language, Ancient Greek, Phoenician language, Hittite language, Quechua, and Akkadian language.
Each language was spoken by an animated character alongside a brief description that contains more details about the language.
“Embark on a journey across time as you indulge in the melodic tones of forgotten languages, meticulously researched and masterfully voiced,” Equator AI says.
After the first video received a lot of attention, Equator AI did a follow-up that demonstrated how Proto-Indo-European language, Sabaic, Sanskrit, Aramaic, Sumerian language, Old Chinese, Ge’ez, and Gothic language sound.
