# The signs are a non-linguistic symbol system (emblems, clan or office marks, religious symbols) with…

> Disputed: The signs are a non-linguistic symbol system (emblems, clan or office marks, religious symbols) with structure but no phonetic content.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/indus-script/answers/ANS0CWY3H0R1SE5/the-signs-are-a-non-linguistic-symbol-system-emblems-clan-or  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

---

[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Indus script](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/indus-script)[Are the Indus signs a writing system for a spoken language?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/indus-script/questions/QST0CWY3ETE3XCV/are-the-indus-signs-a-writing-system-for-a-spoken-language)Answer

Answer · Indus script

# The signs are a non-linguistic symbol system (emblems, clan or office marks, religious symbols) with…

The signs are a non-linguistic symbol system (emblems, clan or office marks, religious symbols) with structure but no phonetic content.

**Disputed** Answers **1** questionPublished0

## Where it stands

**Disputed** Two pieces of evidence for, one against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- No long text is ever found; the fifty-sign prize goes unclaimed.
- Sign frequency and positional patterns resemble those of real non-linguistic systems (heraldry, kudurru emblems) as much as those of writing.
- No writing on perishable media or writing equipment is found in Indus sites.

## What would rule it out

- A text long enough to show sentence-level structure, or a bilingual, is found.

## Evidence 2 for · 1 against

[Statistical measures applied to real non-linguistic systems cannot reliably separate them from writing, so…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/indus-script/evidence/EVD0CWY3HGC6T4T/statistical-measures-applied-to-real-non-linguistic-systems)

Supported

FOR

[The texts are short, there are no long inscriptions, and a high proportion of signs occur once, which the…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/indus-script/evidence/EVD0CWY3H8J3FN7/the-texts-are-short-there-are-no-long-inscriptions-and-a)

Suggestive

FOR

[The positional structure, including terminal signs that behave like grammatical suffixes, is more easily…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/indus-script/evidence/EVD0CWY3HR64E2P/the-positional-structure-including-terminal-signs-that)

Suggestive

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[Are the Indus signs a writing system for a spoken language?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/indus-script/questions/QST0CWY3ETE3XCV/are-the-indus-signs-a-writing-system-for-a-spoken-language)

Most likelyThe signs are a logo-syllabic writing system that encodes a spoken language

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). The signs are a non-linguistic symbol system (emblems, clan or office marks, religious symbols) with… [Answer ANS0CWY3H0R1SE5]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0CWY3H0R1SE5
```

Key

**ANS** 0CWY3H0R1SE5

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Origin

Published

Version

1

Added by

[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

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/ANS0CWY3H0R1SE5)