If the dead could speak, they probably would have something to say. However, it's pretty damn hard when you can only make one sound and you have lost your language.
In these unforgiving conditions, the 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy of Nesyamun should be forgiven for simply grunting 'eeeeeh'.
Scientists heard this sound when they 3D printed the mummy's vocal tract.
“The mummy, of course, cannot speak at the moment,” David Howard, a speech specialist at the University of London, told the New York Times.
'But I think it's entirely plausible to assume that one day it will be possible to form words that sound very similar.'
Howard says this vowel sound is very realistic. The transition from it to speech will obviously take a long time, but at least the process has been started.
In 2016, using computed tomography, scientists were able to recreate the voice of Ötzi, the ice mummy of the chalcolithic man, and its vowel sounds are much lower than those of Nesyamun.
This time, the researchers used a similar technique to recreate Nesyamun's vocal tract, from the lips to the larynx. By connecting a loudspeaker to a computer, the team created an artificial larynx using the computer to generate sound.
The authors explain in their article that this single result is not sufficient for speech synthesis; to do this, they will need more knowledge about the specific formulations of the vocal tract, as well as the phonetics and timing of this ancient priest's speech.
Perhaps language can help too. Although after several millennia, the mummy's vocal tract was in excellent condition, the main part of this muscle was missing.
“Give it back its language, then we can move the entire vocal tract using the knowledge of speech reconstruction,” Howard told CNN.
'It is doable, although we cannot do it at the moment.'
In ancient Egyptian culture, it was believed that 'to pronounce the name of the dead means to bring them back to life'. On the outside of the mummy's coffin is written 'Nesymun, the true voice'. Perhaps one day his voice will be able to read this inscription aloud.
The research was published in Scientific Reports.
Sources: Photo: Leeds Teaching Hospitals / Leeds Museums and Galleries
