From: mccoy@communities.com (Jim McCoy)
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 18:26:48 +0800
To: Paul_Koning/US/3Com%3COM@smtp1.isd.3com.com
Subject: Re: Navajo code-talkers
Message-ID: <v02140b01ad88b56fd647@[205.162.51.35]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 11:22 AM 4/3/96, Paul_Koning is rumored to have typed:

> >From: grafolog @ netcom.com (Jonathon Blake) @ UGATE
> > << It's one of the status languages to study, if you are
> > a new ager --- along with Ancient Mayan, linear B and
> > Egyptian Hieroglyphics.  >>
>
> Well, hieroglyphics and linear b are writing systems, not languages.
> And Linear B is Greek (though it takes effort to read it even if
> you know your Homer...)

Linear B is Minoan, and knowing Greek helps in understanding what things
decipher to, but it predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries so
even if you knew Homer personally you would have had trouble reading it.

ObCrypto:  Unlike Egyptian hieroglyphics, we have yet to find a Rosetta
Stone equivalent for Linear B (or Linear A, it's predecessor, although I
seem to remember Linear A being more akin to ideograms)  Most of what is
known about Linear B was inferred using a sort of linguistic cryptanalysis,
in fact there was a paper in one of the Crypto proceedings from the mid-80s
which described some of the methods employed.

ObMoreDeadLanguages: Does anyone know if there are Unicode character sets
for Sanskrit or hieroglyphics?  How exactly does one get a proposed
character set approved/ratified if not?

jim