# The published measures do not reliably separate writing from non-linguistic systems; better measures exist…

> Most likely: The published measures do not reliably separate writing from non-linguistic systems; better measures exist and classify the Pictish symbols…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/answers/ANS0CQHAKZ6712B/the-published-measures-do-not-reliably-separate-writing-from  
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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Pictish symbol stones](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols)[Can corpus statistics tell whether a small symbol corpus like the Pictish one is language?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/questions/QST0CQHAGA07V40/can-corpus-statistics-tell-whether-a-small-symbol-corpus)Answer

Answer · Pictish symbol stones

# The published measures do not reliably separate writing from non-linguistic systems; better measures exist…

The published measures do not reliably separate writing from non-linguistic systems; better measures exist and classify the Pictish symbols as non-linguistic.

**Most likely** Answers **1** questionPublished0

## Where it stands

**Most likely** Its tests partly supported it: two pieces of evidence for, none against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- On a larger comparison set, the 2010 cut-offs misclassify several non-linguistic systems.

## What would rule it out

- The 2010 method with its published cut-offs classifies a large independent comparison set correctly.

## Evidence 2 for · none against

[Linearising carvings into strings and archaic-script features may bias such tests.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/evidence/EVD0CQHAMET3VHX/linearising-carvings-into-strings-and-archaic-script)

Suggestive

FOR

[None of the previously proposed methods were useful as published on the larger comparison set.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/evidence/EVD0CQHAM702T47/none-of-the-previously-proposed-methods-were-useful-as)

Supported

FOR

## The questions it answers

[Can corpus statistics tell whether a small symbol corpus like the Pictish one is language?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/questions/QST0CQHAGA07V40/can-corpus-statistics-tell-whether-a-small-symbol-corpus)

Part of [Are the Pictish symbols a writing system?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/questions/QST0CQHAG263DNY/are-the-pictish-symbols-a-writing-system)

Most likelyThe published measures do not reliably separate writing from non-linguistic systems; better measures exist…

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). The published measures do not reliably separate writing from non-linguistic systems; better measures exist… [Answer ANS0CQHAKZ6712B]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0CQHAKZ6712B
```

Key

**ANS** 0CQHAKZ6712B

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Origin

Published

Version

1

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