Zompist Bboard Again

I was doing a search for the numbers in Linear B script, when I came across this: https://youtu.be/c0-vYYIZRdc?si=AWOMoRngQe15Wiew, which is a reaction to & reading of an article claiming to have made a huge breakthrough in cracking and deciphering Linear A.
(yes, there are a few typos and missing words in the article)

Parts of it make sense to me -- like the need to make a sign list/chart, like was done with Egyptian Hieroglyphs.

Part of it raises alarm bells in my brain -- like the assumption that, if a sign has a specific meaning in Linear B, then any match or near-match in Linear A will have the same meaning...even if, as the author of the article says, we have no idea what language family Linear A belongs to. (as soon as that line was read, I immediately remembered learning about the Turkish <g> that sounds more like <w> than like any <g> I've ever heard.

What do you think? Or has this already been debunked? (if it has, i apologize)

https://greekreporter.com/2023/08/20/mi ... -linear-b/

I am not aware of any recent major breakthrough, but Linear B is assumed to descend from Linear A, and apparently, one can make reasonable guesses at the syllabic values of at least some Linear A characters. But we are far from understanding Linear A inscriptions, which appear to be in a language with unknown affiliation. It is also uncertain (but probably likely) that Eteocretan, which we do not understand either, is a descendant of Minoan, the language of the Linear A inscriptions.

Another relationship candidate is the Pre-Greek substratum language that was spoken in mainland Greece before Indo-European spread there and became Greek. What we know of that language are a few hundred loanwords in Greek - words that do not have reasonable IE etymologies, including terms for Mediterranean landscape, flora and fauna, and quite a few cultural terms - the Indo-Europeans entered a country that was more civilized than their steppe homeland.

The researcher sounds pretty level-headed to me; she's not claiming to be able to read the script. (The bit about '“Linear A” may finally be deciphered' is obviously the journalist's hype, not the scholar's.)

I'd be dubious too about the claim that the symbols had the same phonetic realization, except that the time gap is (according to the article) just 50 years. That's likely to mean a pretty close adaptation, though of course I'd expect changes in detail to accommodate the phonological system of Greek. The fact that she found what looks like a place name (pa-i-to, later Phaistos) suggests she's on the right track. (It's not proof, but it's not the sort of absurd quackery you see in 'decipherments' of the Voynich manuscript.)

thank you both for your thoughts on the matter.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2024 4:53 pm But we are far from understanding Linear A inscriptions, which appear to be in a language with unknown affiliation.

*nods*

It is also uncertain (but probably likely) that Eteocretan, which we do not understand either, is a descendant of Minoan, the language of the Linear A inscriptions.

thank you for the link.

zompist wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2024 6:39 pm The researcher sounds pretty level-headed to me; she's not claiming to be able to read the script. (The bit about '“Linear A” may finally be deciphered' is obviously the journalist's hype, not the scholar's.)

ah, okay.

I'd be dubious too about the claim that the symbols had the same phonetic realization, except that the time gap is (according to the article) just 50 years.

The fact that she found what looks like a place name (pa-i-to, later Phaistos) suggests she's on the right track.

I was skeptical mostly because, pre-Kober, lots of people thought they found matches between Linear B and {insert pet theory language here}, and it seemed very like that.

...and the article sounded like the script was mostly the same, while the underlying language - and language family - was what has changed.

keenir wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2024 9:31 pm ...and the article sounded like the script was mostly the same, while the underlying language - and language family - was what has changed.

Yes.