The signs of Linear B and Linear A
Linear B’s syllable signs fill a grid: one row for each consonant, one column for each vowel. Tap any sign for its number, its value and words that use it. Below are the special signs, the signs no one has read, the logograms and the numbers, and the Linear A signs that match.
Look up a sign
The syllabic grid
The first row holds the five vowels alone. In the other rows, each sign is a consonant plus a vowel. A dot marks a place with no sign; ju? is a sign whose value is not certain. Read r as r or l, p as p, b or ph, k as k, g or kh, and q as the old Greek kʷ sounds.
Logograms
Word signs stand before a number and say what is counted. Scholars write them with Latin abbreviations: VIR for man, OVIS for sheep. Small marks show male (m) and female (f) animals.
Numbers and measures
Both scripts count with the same marks: upright strokes for ones, level strokes for tens, circles for hundreds, circles with rays for thousands. You add the marks up.
Linear A signs
Conventional values. These are the Linear A signs that look like Linear B signs, shown with the Linear B values. Reading them this way is a convention, a likely guess about sounds; it is not proof that Minoan used the same sounds.