Linear A
Linear A is an undeciphered script used in ancient Crete. Its decipherment is one of the "holy grails" of ancient scripts.
A related script, Linear B, was deciphered in the 1950s by Michael Ventris as representing an ancient form of Greek.
Though the two scripts share many of the same symbols, using the syllables associated with Linear B in Linear A writings produces words that are unrelated to any known language. This language has been dubbed Minoan or Eteocretan, and corresponds to a period in Cretan history prior to a series of invasions by Mycenean Greeks around 1400 BC.
As the Minoan language is lost to the modern day, it is hard to be certain whether or not a given decipherment is the correct decipherment, or merely gibberish being generated by an incorrect mapping of symbols to sounds. However, the simplest approach to decipherment may to be to simply presume that the values of Linear A match more or less the values given to the fully translated Linear B script, used for Mycenean Greek. A site maintained by John Younger has a comprehensive list of known texts written in Linear A at [1]. Some religious formulae have been identified, some even bearing resemblence grammatically to the Etruscan language.
Since it is undeciphered, it is difficult to ascertain specific features of this language. A connection has already been noted between the sequence (Y)A-SA-SA-RA-ME, found in an oft-repeated formula inscribed on libation tables and a West Semitic fertility goddess known as Ashtoreth Yam (or "Lady of the Sea"). A possible marker for the genitive (or possessive) case may exist: -NA or -NE.
In 2001, the journal Ugarit-Forschungen, Band 32 [2] [3] published the article "The First Inscription in Punic—Vowel Differences in Linear A and B" by Jan Best, claiming to demonstrate how and why Linear A notates an archaic form of Phoenician. This is merely the continuation of failed attempts by Cyrus Gordon in finding connections between Minoan and West Semitic languages. His methodology, usually involving parsing texts at whim in order to compare the shards of Semitic words he imagined he saw, drew widespread criticism. While, some words may indeed be of Semitic origin (such as KU-RO, suspected to mean "total", cf. Sem *[kll] "whole, all"), there is as of yet no real success made in connecting Minoan with Semitic languages.
Around the same time, M. Tsikritsis, a Greek computer scientist and a text analysis specialist used a statistical and machine comparison of Linear A and Linear B symbols to conclude that Linear A was an early aeolic dialect of Greek, and essentially a form of Linear B with a variety of archaisms. This is assuredly false because Linear A shows no detectable signs of the prototypical features recognizable from the Indo-European language group to which Greek belongs, let alone features resembling Greek itself.
References
- M. Tsikritsis, Linear A. A Contribution to the Understanding of an Aegaean Script, Vikelaia Library of Herakleion, Crete, Greece. (in Greek)
- Minoan Linear A Script. An Early Aeolic Greek Dialect? [4]
- Ugarit-Forschungen Band 32, ISBN 3934628001
- Some preliminary remarks on the decipherment of Linear A. By Jan G. P. Best, ISBN 9025606253