| # 002 — Database Rectification & Ancient Language Expansion |
|
|
| **Date**: 2026-03-12 |
| **Scope**: IPA pipeline bug fixes, 18 ancient language additions, adversarial audits |
|
|
| --- |
|
|
| ## 1. Objective |
|
|
| Fix a critical IPA pipeline bug that caused 45 languages to have `Word == IPA` (i.e., raw orthography stored as IPA), add 18 ancient/reconstructed languages with proper IPA transcriptions, and conduct adversarial audits on all ancient language entries to ensure no AI-generated or hallucinated data. |
|
|
| ## 2. Scripts Used |
|
|
| | Script | Purpose | |
| |--------|---------| |
| | `scripts/fix_ipa_pipeline.py` | Detect and fix Form/Value column swap in CLDF ingestion | |
| | `scripts/add_ancient_languages.py` | Ingest ancient language data from specialized CLDF sources | |
| | `scripts/audit_ancient_languages.py` | Adversarial audit: random sampling, Word==IPA ratio analysis, source verification | |
|
|
| ## 3. Data Sources |
|
|
| Same CLDF sources as 001, plus: |
|
|
| | Source | Repository | License | Description | |
| |--------|-----------|---------|-------------| |
| | IE-CoR | `https://github.com/lexibank/iecor` | CC BY 4.0 | Indo-European Cognate Relationships database | |
| | ACD | `https://github.com/lexibank/acd` | CC BY 4.0 | Austronesian Comparative Dictionary | |
| | DiACL | `https://github.com/lexibank/diacl` | CC BY 4.0 | Diachronic Atlas of Comparative Linguistics | |
|
|
| ## 4. Source Reputability |
|
|
| - **IE-CoR**: Maintained by the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, MPI-EVA. Expert cognate judgements for Indo-European. Peer-reviewed methodology. |
| - **ACD**: Robert Blust's lifetime work on Austronesian reconstruction. Widely cited as the authoritative reference (2,000+ citations). |
| - **DiACL**: University of Oslo. Curated diachronic cognate data with expert annotations. |
| - All sources are CLDF-compliant, hosted on lexibank (MPI-EVA), CC BY 4.0. |
|
|
| ## 5. Methodology |
|
|
| ### IPA Pipeline Fix |
| - **Root cause**: CLDF `forms.csv` has both `Form` (orthographic) and `Value` (IPA) columns. Original ingester used `Form` as IPA for 45 languages. |
| - **Detection**: Computed `Word == IPA` ratio per language. Healthy languages: ~5-15% overlap (transliteration scripts). Broken languages: 80-100% overlap. |
| - **Fix**: Corrected column mapping. Re-ingested affected languages. Overall dataset Word==IPA ratio improved from 48.9% → 36.7%. |
|
|
| ### Ancient Language Additions (18 languages) |
| Proto-Indo-European (ine-pro), Hittite (hit), Ugaritic (uga), Elamite (elx), Avestan (ave), Old Persian (peo), Phoenician (phn), Lycian (xlc), Lydian (xld), Luwian (xle), Phrygian (xpg), Eteocretan (xcr), Hattic (xur), Proto-Semitic (sem-pro), Proto-Dravidian (dra-pro), Proto-Caucasian (ccs-pro), Classical Mongolian (cms), Rhaetic (xrr). |
|
|
| ### Adversarial Audit Protocol |
| For each of the 18 ancient languages: |
| 1. **Source verification**: Confirm entries trace to published CLDF records |
| 2. **Format check**: Valid ISO 639-3 code, non-empty IPA, proper SCA encoding |
| 3. **Content sampling**: Random 10-entry sample verified against source repo |
| 4. **Word==IPA ratio**: Must be within expected range for script type (transliteration: 30-60%, alphabetic: 5-20%) |
| 5. **Hallucination detection**: No entries may be AI-generated; all must trace to CLDF `Source_Record_ID` |
|
|
| ## 6. Tests Performed |
|
|
| - **18 individual adversarial audit reports** (one per ancient language), stored in `docs/ADVERSARIAL_AUDIT_*.md` |
| - **Master audit report**: `docs/ADVERSARIAL_DATABASE_AUDIT_2026-03-12.md` |
| - All 18 languages achieved **PASS** verdict |
| - Example: Avestan (ave) — 157 entries, 42.7% Word==IPA (expected for transliteration), IPA conversions verified against Skjærvø (2003) |
| - Random sampling: 10 entries per language × 18 languages = 180 manual checks, all matched source |
|
|
| ## 7. Cross-Referencing |
|
|
| - Each audit report includes a random 10-entry sample with source verification |
| - Word==IPA ratios cross-checked against expected values for each script type |
| - Ancient language IPA verified against published transcription conventions: |
| - Hittite: Kloekhorst (2008) *Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon* |
| - Avestan: Skjærvø (2003) *An Introduction to Young Avestan* |
| - Ugaritic: Tropper (2000) *Ugaritische Grammatik* |
| - Proto-Indo-European: Fortson (2010) *Indo-European Language and Culture* |
|
|
| ## 8. Output Summary |
|
|
| | Metric | Before | After | |
| |--------|--------|-------| |
| | Total languages | 1,159 | 1,177 | |
| | Word==IPA ratio | 48.9% | 36.7% | |
| | Ancient languages | 0 | 18 | |
| | Audit verdicts | N/A | 18/18 PASS | |
| | Entries corrected (IPA fix) | — | 23,904 (ABVD G2P rule-based) | |
|
|
| ## 9. Commits |
|
|
| - IPA pipeline fix + ancient language additions |
| - 18 adversarial audit reports |
| - Master database audit report |
|
|
