QuestionsPictish symbol stonesCan corpus statistics tell whether a small symbol corpus like the Pictish one is language?Answer
Answer · Pictish symbol stones
At this corpus size no statistic can decide the question; only external evidence can.
At this corpus size no statistic can decide the question; only external evidence can.
Where it stands
No evidence yetIts tests haven't settled it: no evidence yet.
What it predicts
- Bootstrapped confidence intervals for any discriminating measure span both classes at Pictish corpus size.
What would rule it out
- A measure separates the classes with narrow intervals at corpus sizes below a thousand symbols.
The questions it answers
Most likelyThe published measures do not reliably separate writing from non-linguistic systems; better measures exist…
Cite it
Mysteries Department. (2026). At this corpus size no statistic can decide the question; only external evidence can. [Answer ANS0CQHAMPM6CKX]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0CQHAMPM6CKX
@misc{mysteriesdept_ans0cqhampm6ckx,
title = {At this corpus size no statistic can decide the question; only external evidence can.},
author = {{Mysteries Department}},
year = {2026},
note = {Answer, catalog key ANS0CQHAMPM6CKX},
url = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0CQHAMPM6CKX}
}