What language does Cretan Hieroglyphic record?
Six answers, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.
Where it stands
Six answers have been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. Six are still possible.
Why it matters
No word of the script has been read and no sound value is secure, so the language is not known[1]. The hypothesis with a specialist following is that it writes the Minoan language of Linear A, with which it shared palaces, document types and many sign shapes, and Davis tested this in 2024 by comparing how the two scripts combine their shared signs[2][3]. Readings in Luwian, in a Sumerian-named proto-syllabary and in a Uralic language have been published outside the specialist literature and not taken up[4][5][6].
Answers 6
Next steps 4
1
Build an open sign-level table of the CHIC clay documents (H 1 to 122): document id, site, object type, each sign group in CHIC sign numbers with position, logograms and numerals; licence the table separately from CHIC's images. This is the prerequisite for every test below.
~40 h
—not judged
2
Build an open sign-level table of the CHIC clay documents in CHIC sign numbers.
~40 h
—not judged
3
Compare word-initial and word-final frequencies of the signs shared with Linear A in that table against SigLA/GORILA Linear A and against Linear B Greek, with a shuffled-sign null model, to test whether Cretan Hieroglyphic patterns like Linear A (H-MINOAN).
~12 h
—not judged
4
Apply the Corazza et al. 2021 Linear A fraction values to the hieroglyphic fraction signs (CHIC 301 to 309) on every clay document with a total, and report how many totals add up versus random value assignments.
~8 h
—not judged
Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes
History
- Jean-Pierre Olivier: the same administrations kept the two scripts apart for two centuries, which some read as a sign of two languages or…Against: Cretan Hieroglyphic records the same Minoan language as Linear A.
- Jean-Pierre Olivier: cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A were used at the same time in the same palaces, on the same kinds of administrative…For: Cretan Hieroglyphic records the same Minoan language as Linear A.
- Gareth Alun Owens: cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A were used at the same time in the same palaces, on the same kinds of administrative…For: Cretan Hieroglyphic records the same Minoan language as Linear A.
- Fred C. Woudhuizen: the Luwian reading has not been adopted by Aegean or Anatolian specialists, and its sign derivations from Egyptian are…Against: Cretan Hieroglyphic records Luwian, an Anatolian language, and its signs derive from Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- Ioannis K. Kenanidis: the Sumerian-derived Protolinear reading rests on resemblance of sign shapes, was published outside the Aegean…Against: Cretan Hieroglyphic is an ornamental form of a Cretan proto-syllabary whose sign names and values come from Sumerian.
- Peter Z. Revesz: the Uralic reading groups scripts by computed shape similarity, which does not establish shared sound values, and its…Against: Cretan Hieroglyphic belongs to a script family readable through a Uralic language related to Hungarian.
- Matilde Civitillo et al.: the corpus is about 1,500 signs in short texts, no sound value is secure and no bilingual exists.For: The language cannot be identified from this corpus: it is an isolate or a language with no other written record, and…
- Silvia Ferrara: the corpus is about 1,500 signs in short texts, no sound value is secure and no bilingual exists.For: The language cannot be identified from this corpus: it is an isolate or a language with no other written record, and…
- Brent Davis: davis's 2024 syllabotactic comparison finds that the shared signs combine within words in similar ways in both scripts.For: Cretan Hieroglyphic records the same Minoan language as Linear A.
- Wikipedia contributors: the corpus is about 1,500 signs in short texts, no sound value is secure and no bilingual exists.For: The language cannot be identified from this corpus: it is an isolate or a language with no other written record, and…
- Cassandra M. Donnelly: davis's 2024 syllabotactic comparison finds that the shared signs combine within words in similar ways in both scripts.For: Cretan Hieroglyphic records the same Minoan language as Linear A.
- Cassandra M. Donnelly: the Luwian reading has not been adopted by Aegean or Anatolian specialists, and its sign derivations from Egyptian are…Against: Cretan Hieroglyphic records Luwian, an Anatolian language, and its signs derive from Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- Session 1: raised the question, proposed six answers and found seven results bearing on its answers