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| Minoan warriors at Akrotiri,Thera (Santorini) parading Libyan prisoners and local women cheering them. |
The simple answer is we do not know for sure the nature of the language the Minoans spoke.
Many theories mainly coming from Greeks take for granted or they rather imply that the underlying language of linear A was Greek and therefore the Minoans spoke Greek.
The fact remains, however, that linear A still keeps its secret well. Many languages have been tried on linear A, Greek, Phoenician, Egyptian, , Etruscan and many others.
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| Knossos palace ruins in Crete. |
But none of them seem to fit. Linear A has not been read to this day and its language is a mystery.
The Mycenaean Linear B script is younger than the Minoan Linear A. It has been deciphered and it is in form of archaic Greek. The characters of B seem to have evolved from A.
Since Linear B evolved from Linear A we can assume that the phonetics of LB can also be applied to LA.
But if we apply the phonetic values of the symbols of LB on the same symbols of LA then we get gibberish or a language completely unknown to us. Maybe a language isolate.
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| Bronze Age Mycenaean chariot. |
The Greek speaking Mycenaeans -a warlike horse culture captured Crete and occupied the Minoan Palaces. The Mycenaeans adopted many elements of the Minoan culture ,their script (LA) as well which they adapted to their own language that being Greek (LB).
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| A Minoan ship |
The Linear B script is a syllabary that is not well suited for the Greek language. It has many open syllables-consonant followed by a vowel and shows great difficulty with consecutive constants often found in Greek.
This is clear evidence that the predecessor of LB , LA was used for a language other than Greek.
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| Linear A symbols |
The Minoan scripts - the scripta Minoa as Evans called them are considered the Hieratic Minoan (Minoan Hieroglyphics), the writing on the Phaistos Disk and the Linear A syllabary.
Archaeological discoveries revealed that Minoan Hieratic and Linear A were used simultaneously in the palaces for some time.
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| Minoan Hieroglyphics table |
All Minoan scripts remain undeciphered to this day.
The Phaistos Disc is a unique item, one of its kind. It is assumed by some scholars that is also a syllabary citing a prayer maybe.
Some claim that it is a modern time elaborate forgery.
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| Minoan trade routes. |
Minoan Vocabulary
After studying Minoan words we can find many similarities with Indo-European languages , Semitic and Afro-Asiatic (Ancient Egyptian) as well.
Placenames
Kunisu- Knossos
Paito- Phaistos
Numbers
Kaja-1
Zadaja-2
Sanaja-3
Arapija-4
Taja-5
Vocabulary
Atade- gold
Tadaza- silver
Maru- wool ( Gr. μάλλος)
Akaru -field (Gr. αγρός)
Idamate- king
Jedi- man
Kuro- total
Potokuro - grand total
Datu- oil
Kunasa- money
Zusa- sword
Uduro- water (Gr .ύδωρ)
