# The language is unknown (Englund's agnosticism)

> Still possible: The language of the archaic scribes is unknown: the Sumerian attribution is a convention, and the first writers may have spoken a…

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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform)[What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT73JJJ1B/what-language-if-any-do-the-proto-cuneiform-texts-record)Answer

Answer · Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk

# The language is unknown (Englund's agnosticism)

The language of the archaic scribes is unknown: the Sumerian attribution is a convention, and the first writers may have spoken a language that left no other record.

**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

- No secure phonetic spelling of a Sumerian word will be found in Uruk IV.
- The archaic name corpus will differ significantly from Early Dynastic Sumerian names in structure.
- The first phonetic spellings, when they appear at Ur about 2900 BC, will coincide with the first Sumerian-pattern names.

## What would rule it out

- A secure Sumerian rebus spelling in an Uruk IV text.
- A tabulated test showing the archaic names share Sumerian structure at a rate well above chance.

## Evidence 1 for · 1 against

[Attempts to read Sumerian or Akkadian in the Uruk texts have not succeeded, and the texts' numeral-before-noun order…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDXMW830Y8/attempts-to-read-sumerian-or-akkadian-in-the-uruk-texts-have)

Supported

FOR

[The sexagesimal numeration and the unbroken continuity of signs and lists into Sumerian cuneiform are more easily…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DEDXN34DDPV/the-sexagesimal-numeration-and-the-unbroken-continuity-of)

Suggestive

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT73JJJ1B/what-language-if-any-do-the-proto-cuneiform-texts-record)

Open5 answers, none ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). The language is unknown (Englund's agnosticism) [Answer ANS0DEDW4E48QNF]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEDW4E48QNF
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEDW4E48QNF

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Proposed

[Session 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DEDZMVP66KE/session-1-proto-cuneiform-seeded-corpus-readings-and-open) · 31 Oct 2026

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