How many distinct signs does proto-cuneiform have, and which of the ZATU and CDLI entries are variants or compounds of one sign?
One answer, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.
Where it stands
One answer has been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. One is still possible. Of the one narrower question under it, none is answered yet.
Why it matters
ZATU numbered about 800 signs in 1987; Englund's CDLI list distinguishes 2,095 signs and 280 variants, 640 of them compounds, and about 530 signs occur only once[1][2][3]. The difference is a difference of convention about variants and compounds, and it changes every frequency table built on the corpus[4]. Born and colleagues have begun learning the inventory from sign images instead of from the transliterations[5].
Answers 1
Next steps 1
1
Compare Englund's CDLI sign list against ZATU entry by entry and record which ZATU numbers were split, merged or added, as a table.
~10 h
—not judged
Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes
History
- Damerow & Englund: assigning the numerical signs to sexagesimal, bisexagesimal, grain-capacity, area and time systems makes the totals on…For: The numerical systems are read
- Hans J. Nissen et al.: assigning the numerical signs to sexagesimal, bisexagesimal, grain-capacity, area and time systems makes the totals on…For: The numerical systems are read
- David L. Nathan: assigning the numerical signs to sexagesimal, bisexagesimal, grain-capacity, area and time systems makes the totals on…For: The numerical systems are read
- Session 1: raised the question, proposed one answer, found one result bearing on its answers and worked on one of its sub-questions