# Bilingual text · Concept > The same text in two scripts or languages, the standard key to an unread one. Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW026HWD1/bilingual-text Publisher: Mysteries Department Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page) --- [Concepts](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts)Bilingual text Concept · linguistics · in 11 mysteries # Bilingual text The same text in two scripts or languages, the standard key to an unread one. [Hattic, Kassite and the half-read languages of the cuneiform archives](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hattic-kassite-lost-languages)[Hurrian songs of Ugarit](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hurrian-songs)[Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform) A text written twice, once in a script that can be read and once in one that cannot, so the known half gives the unknown its sounds and meanings. The Rosetta Stone is the famous one. None of the unread scripts on this site has one, which is much of why they are unread; the search for a bilingual is a next step on several of their key questions. ## Where it comes up **[Hattic, Kassite and the half-read languages of the cuneiform archives](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hattic-kassite-lost-languages)** Hattic is an isolate for the present corpus: no relationship can be demonstrated from about a hundred secure words, and progress must come from the bilinguals. [Q: How much of the Hattic corpus can be read, and how far can the bilinguals and quasi-bilinguals be extended?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hattic-kassite-lost-languages/questions/QST0DEDWK15WAZY/how-much-of-the-hattic-corpus-can-be-read-and-how-far-can)[Hattic is an isolate for the present corpus: no relationship can be demonstrated from about a hundred secure words…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hattic-kassite-lost-languages/answers/ANS0DEDY8X06GF7/hattic-is-an-isolate-for-the-present-corpus-no-relationship)[New Hattic word meanings keep coming from bilinguals and quasi-bilinguals, not from external comparison.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hattic-kassite-lost-languages/evidence/EVD0DEE9VFJNN9Y/new-hattic-word-meanings-keep-coming-from-bilinguals-and)[The Amorite bilinguals of 2022 show that an unrecognised lexical tablet can change a names-only language overnight.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hattic-kassite-lost-languages/evidence/EVD0DEEB51ANMFP/the-amorite-bilinguals-of-2022-show-that-an-unrecognised)[In the bilinguals both an- and zero occur with intransitive verbs, and Goedegebuure ties the choice to whether the…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hattic-kassite-lost-languages/evidence/EVD0DEEB8JANVD5/in-the-bilinguals-both-an-and-zero-occur-with-intransitive) **[Hurrian songs of Ugarit](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hurrian-songs)** For the Hurrian words, progress depends on the Boğazköy bilinguals and on new Hurrian texts, not on the song itself . [Q: What does the Hurrian text of h.6 say?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hurrian-songs/questions/QST0DEDVBRHDPTT/what-does-the-hurrian-text-of-h-6-say) **[Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform)** [Q: Do the Sumerian readings of the later copies of the lexical lists carry back to the archaic Uruk III exemplars?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT7V0PZBW/do-the-sumerian-readings-of-the-later-copies-of-the-lexical) **[Etruscan: the readable language that cannot be fully translated](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/etruscan-language)** Every Etruscan meaning accepted today, from the numerals to the kinship terms and magistracies, was reached by internal comparison, bilinguals and glosses, and none by etymology. [Q: Why did the Pyrgi tablets not work as a Rosetta Stone for Etruscan?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/etruscan-language/questions/QST0DEDYXE88KXH/why-did-the-pyrgi-tablets-not-work-as-a-rosetta-stone-for)[Every Etruscan meaning accepted today, from the numerals to the kinship terms and magistracies, was reached by…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/etruscan-language/evidence/EVD0DEECM29EG3G/every-etruscan-meaning-accepted-today-from-the-numerals-to) **[Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)** [Q: Does Sumerian have any demonstrable relative or substratum, or is it an isolate?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT86CFAB2/does-sumerian-have-any-demonstrable-relative-or-substratum) **[Proto-Elamite and Linear Elamite](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-elamite)** The values read the royal name Puzur-Inshushinak and the god Inshushinak in the Susa bilinguals, where the Akkadian gives the names. [The values read the royal name Puzur-Inshushinak and the god Inshushinak in the Susa bilinguals, where the…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-elamite/evidence/EVD0D1P93E22YC6/the-values-read-the-royal-name-puzur-inshushinak-and-the-god) **[Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)** [Q: What do the Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol inscriptions say?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/questions/QST0DEDW6M9X8F5/what-do-the-proto-sinaitic-and-wadi-el-hol-inscriptions-say) **[Eteocretan and Eteocypriot](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eteocretan-eteocypriot)** The bilinguals establish personal names, the Eteocypriot patronymic ending and probably one Eteocretan verb form (inai, "it was decided"), and confirm that the scripts carry their Greek values; they do not establish… [Q: What do the Dreros and Amathus bilinguals actually establish about the two languages?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eteocretan-eteocypriot/questions/QST0DEDZ94QPQR8/what-do-the-dreros-and-amathus-bilinguals-actually-establish)[The bilinguals fix names, one ending and perhaps one verb, not a grammar](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eteocretan-eteocypriot/answers/ANS0DEEEBFYX9RH/the-bilinguals-fix-names-one-ending-and-perhaps-one-verb-not) **[Byblos syllabary](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary)** [Q: Can any sound values be fixed from external evidence, such as the Akhenaten-daughters seal or the Egyptian parent signs?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/questions/QST0DEDQQKMXR41/can-any-sound-values-be-fixed-from-external-evidence-such-as) **[Iberian language and Palaeohispanic scripts](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/iberian-language)** It is not Indo-European, it has no well-understood close relative, and bilingual inscriptions are few and short . **[Linear A](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/linear-a)** The small size of the corpus, the lack of a bilingual text and the uncertainty about whether Linear B values apply are the three constraints that every attempt has to work within. ## Artifacts 1 [The Pyrgi gold tablets (ET Cr 4.4 and 4.5, Phoenician KAI 277)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/etruscan-language/artifacts/ART0DEDWBH90E9F/the-pyrgi-gold-tablets-et-cr-4-4-and-4-5-phoenician-kai-277) Document ART ## Cite it ``` Mysteries Department. (2026). Bilingual text [Concept CPT0DECW026HWD1]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/CPT0DECW026HWD1 ``` Key **CPT** 0DECW026HWD1 Record Concept Field Linguistics Related [Decipherment](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW01ZWFP5/decipherment) Version 2 Added by [apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo) **How this page is made.** The definition is the site's, in its own words. “Where it comes up” is read from the answers, methods and evidence that name the concept. Related concepts [Decipherment](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW01ZWFP5/decipherment) The record Every record is open data. Take this one as JSON, with its links and its history. [JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/api/v1/records/CPT0DECW026HWD1)