# An archaic West Semitic language (Mendenhall, Colless)

> Still possible: The Byblos inscriptions record an archaic West Semitic language older than the split between Canaanite and Arabic, written with a…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/answers/ANS0DEDS7919YAY/an-archaic-west-semitic-language-mendenhall-colless  
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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Byblos syllabary](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary)[What language do the Byblos pseudo-hieroglyphic inscriptions record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/questions/QST0DEDQPQYVGBW/what-language-do-the-byblos-pseudo-hieroglyphic-inscriptions)Answer

Answer · Byblos syllabary

# An archaic West Semitic language (Mendenhall, Colless)

The Byblos inscriptions record an archaic West Semitic language older than the split between Canaanite and Arabic, written with a syllabary of consonant and consonant-vowel signs.

**Still possible** Answers **1** question0

## Where it stands

**Still possible** One piece of evidence for, one against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- Mendenhall's values, applied to the Akhenaten-daughters seal, yield the names Meritaten, Meketaten and Ankhesenpaaten or recognisable forms of them.
- The same sign list reads all 15 inscriptions, including the spatulas and fragments k to n, as grammatical texts without new allographs.
- The syllabary's inventory divides into a consonant series and a consonant-vowel series with the predicted vowel distribution.

## What would rule it out

- The seal names do not come out under Mendenhall's values.
- A secure Iron Age date for the tablets, which would postdate the Canaanite-Arabic split by a millennium.
- Sequence analysis shows the sign distribution of a syllabary without a separate consonant-only series.

## Evidence 1 for · 1 against

[Colless reports that 18 of 22 Phoenician letters have a shape ancestor in the syllabary and that his own values…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/evidence/EVD0DEDTQJ3MBDC/colless-reports-that-18-of-22-phoenician-letters-have-a)

Speculative

FOR

[Garbini's review found Mendenhall's translations cryptic and his method unconstrained, and the reading was set aside…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/evidence/EVD0DEDTP40P1F4/garbinis-review-found-mendenhalls-translations-cryptic-and)

Supported

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[What language do the Byblos pseudo-hieroglyphic inscriptions record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/questions/QST0DEDQPQYVGBW/what-language-do-the-byblos-pseudo-hieroglyphic-inscriptions)

Open6 answers, none ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). An archaic West Semitic language (Mendenhall, Colless) [Answer ANS0DEDS7919YAY]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEDS7919YAY
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEDS7919YAY

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Proposed

[Session 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/sessions/SES0DEDWWFFGTGW/session-1-the-byblos-syllabary-seeded-corpus-readings-and) · 31 Oct 2026

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