Decoding Linear X
Here is a list of words in Linear X written in
a fictional language called Pataka:
00 02 01 20
00 02 12 02
00 02 20 22
10 20 00 02
10 20 11 22
10 20 22 20
21 21 02 22
21 21 10 20
21 21 21 02
An old man on a bicycle has given us one more
piece of data. The Pataka word for 'tobacco'
was pronounced 'kopate' and the Linear X encoding
of it was:
01 00 02
Your job is to find the phonetic values
for all the symbols of Linear X. Be sure
to review the idea of a bridging syllable.
- Assume three consonants and three vowels,
giving Pataka the simplest phonological
system known. You have a 3 by 3 table to fill out. There are
exactly 9 symbols to chart. But careful.
There are in principle 81 ways to fill the chart.
Only one of these is correct.
- Every symbol stands for a CV syllable.
- If two distinct symbols share a consonant,
they must differ in vowels.
- If two distinct symbols share a vowel, they
must differ in consonants.
- All stems are of the form CVCVC
- All suffixes are of the form VCV.
You may assume that suffixes of sharing
their final syllable are the same suffix.