Startwords

Issue 4

PALIMPSESTS

This issue explores palimpsests of sound, script, and place in the language and history of medieval China. The two projects featured here work through layers of time with the goal of reconstructing now-lost literary soundscapes and urban landscapes. view this issue

A distinctive set of challenges arises when training machines to process a historical language, especially one that was last spoken two millennia ago.

Of Sonorous Medieval Chinese Texts and NLP Model Training

EN
  • Nick Budak
  • Gian Rominger
10.5281/zenodo.8380841

Chang’an is one of the most renowned cities in Chinese history. It was the capital of the Western Han (202 BCE—8 CE) and the Tang (618—907) dynasties: the twin peaks of imperial power in premodern China.

Toward a Deep Map of Chang’an: Some Reflections of a (Beginning) Practitioner

EN
  • Xin Wen 文欣
10.5281/zenodo.8380878

snippets

On the Institutional Landscape in East Asian Studies DH
  • Anna M. Shields
    EN
    startword, n.
    (computer science) A string of letters that identifies the beginning of a valid sequence in a specified language.
    (literature) The first appearance of a genre in print.