BUZZFEED: The 10 Coolest Dead Languages. Via Christopher Rollston on Facebook.
Now Jessica Misener has produced a nice list and there is nothing wrong with the dead languages in it. I myself read (or at least have at one time been able to read) six of the ten. But as commenters on Chris's post point out, many worthy ancient languages are omitted. What about Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Sumerian, not to speak of Syriac, Hittite, Linear B, and Avestan? And those are just well deciphered ones. Etruscan, Proto-Elamite, Linear A, and Olmec are cool too, even if we don't really know what they say. There is much coolness here, and I would be hard pressed to pick a top ten myself. But points to Ms. Misener for trying.
