ConceptsLogographic script
Concept · linguistics · in 7 mysteries
Logographic script
A writing system whose signs stand for words or morphemes.
A script in which a sign is a word or a unit of meaning, so the sign count runs into the hundreds or thousands. Most real scripts mix logograms with sound signs. The Indus script's four hundred or so signs are too many for a syllabary and too few for a purely logographic one, which is part of the argument over whether it is writing at all.
Where it comes up
Indus script
The signs are proto-writing, a system that records names, titles and commodities by logograms without full phonetic encoding of speech.
Cretan Hieroglyphic
The clay documents come from administrative deposits and combine sign groups with logograms and decimal numerals, the layout of accounts.
Linear A
The commodity logograms are mostly recognisable from their Linear B counterparts.
Byblos syllabary
A set of that size cannot be an alphabet and is unlikely to be purely logographic, so the script is taken to be a syllabary, probably of open consonant-vowel syllables, with some logograms; Garbini noted that a Semitic…
Eteocretan and Eteocypriot
In both cases the Linear B parallel sets the standard: Ventris's values were accepted because they produced Greek words that fitted the tablets' logograms and place names, a check from outside the system .
Cite it
Mysteries Department. (2026). Logographic script [Concept CPT0DECW02H879M]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/CPT0DECW02H879M
@misc{mysteriesdept_cpt0decw02h879m,
title = {Logographic script},
author = {{Mysteries Department}},
year = {2026},
note = {Concept, catalog key CPT0DECW02H879M},
url = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/CPT0DECW02H879M}
}