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Two scripts that can be pronounced and not understood, for opposite reasons.
Both occupy a state that is not the same as being undeciphered: their signs can be given sound values, so the texts can be read aloud, and the languages behind them are not understood. Linear A gets its values by assuming they match Linear B, which produces pronounceable words in no identified language. Meroitic's values were established over a century ago and its language has no known relatives. In both cases the obstacle is the language, not the script.
Both can be pronounced without being understood, a state distinct from being undeciphered.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | Linear A | Meroitic script |
|---|---|---|
| Built from | abstract and letter like | letter like and abstract |
| Linear A | Meroitic script | |
|---|---|---|
| How sound values were obtained | Assumed from the related Linear B. | Established directly, over a century ago. |
| Why it is not understood | The language is unidentified. | The language has no known relatives. |
| Status | Readable aloud, not translated. | Readable aloud, largely not translated. |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Meroitic script — Both can be pronounced without being understood, a state distinct from being undeciphered. | Commonly confused with Linear A — Both are scripts that can be pronounced without being understood, a state distinct from being undeciphered. |
The world's writing systems and their notation
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and comparable scholarly editions · retrieved 2026-08-27
Scholarly treatment of scripts not covered by a regional source already registered. Cited for the identity, structure and documented use of a script or a mark. Undeciphered and partly deciphered scripts are recorded as such, and a reading that is contested is stated as contested rather than adopted.
The ampersand is a ligature of the Latin word et, still visible in some italic forms where the e and the t can be picked out. The Tironian et is a separate mark descending from a Roman shorthand, shaped like a small seven, and it is in daily public use in Ireland as the written form of 'agus'. A reader who knows only the ampersand takes the other for a numeral, which on a bilingual road sign produces a confidently wrong place name.
Count them, and check whether any is broken. Three intact links — usually lettered F, L and T — identify a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. A chain with a link snapped through expresses a family or fellowship broken by a death. One is an identification, the other an interpretation, and mistaking the first for the second loses real information about who is buried there.
A campaign medal is issued to everyone who served in a defined operation for a defined period. A gallantry decoration is awarded to a named individual for a specific act, on a citation, usually after a recommendation and a review. The first is a record of presence, the second of conduct — and a row of campaign medals says nothing about bravery, which is worth knowing before drawing conclusions from a photograph.
Look at the palms. Praying hands are pressed flat against one another with the fingers pointing up. Clasped hands are gripped in a handshake, shown from the side. They carry different readings, and on clasped hands the carved cuffs tell you more than the gesture does — a feminine cuff clasping a masculine one conventionally marks a married couple.