Editing Linear B (section)

=== Special and unknown signs ===

In addition to the grid, the first edition of ''Documents in [[Mycenaean Greek]]'' contained a number of other signs termed "homophones" because they appeared at that time to resemble the sounds of other syllables and were transcribed accordingly: ''pa<sub>2</sub>'' and ''pa<sub>3</sub>'' were presumed homophonous to ''pa''. Many of these were identified by the second edition and are shown in the "special values" below.<ref name=VC385>Ventris and Chadwick (1973), page 385.</ref> The second edition relates: "It may be taken as axiomatic that there are no true homophones." The unconfirmed identifications of ''*34'' and ''*35'' as ''ai<sub>2</sub>'' and ''ai<sub>3</sub>'' were removed. ''pa<sub>2</sub>'' became ''qa''.<ref>Ventris and Chadwick (1973), pages 391–392.</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! colspan=30| Special values
|-
! Character
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁀}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B025 A2.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁁}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B043 A3.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁂}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B085 AU.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁃}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B071 DWE.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁄}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B090 DWO.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁅}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B048 NWA.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁇}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B062 PTE.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁆}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B029 PU2.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁈}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B076 RA2.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁉}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B033 RA3.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁊}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B068 RO2.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁋}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B066 TA2.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁌}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B087 TWE.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁍}} [[File:Linear B Syllable B091 TWO.svg|class=skin-invert]]
|-
!Transcription
| ''a<sub>2</sub> (ha)''
| ''a<sub>3</sub> (ai)''
| ''au''
| ''dwe''
| ''dwo''
| ''nwa''
| ''pte''
| ''pu<sub>2</sub> (phu)''
| ''ra<sub>2</sub> (rya)''
| ''ra<sub>3</sub> (rai)''
| ''ro<sub>2</sub> (ryo)''
| ''ta<sub>2</sub> (tya)''
| ''twe''
| ''two''
|-
! Bennett's number
| ''*25''
| ''*43''
| ''*85''
| ''*71''
| ''*90''
| ''*48''
| ''*62''
| ''*29''
| ''*76''
| ''*33''
| ''*68''
| ''*66''
| ''*87''
| ''*91''
|-
|}

Other values remain unknown, mainly because of scarcity of evidence concerning them.<ref name=VC385/><ref group="note">Sign *89 is not listed in Ventris & Chadwick's (1973) tables, but it does appear in the appendix of Bennett (1964) as part of the Wingspread convention.</ref> Note that *34 and *35 are mirror images of each other, but whether this graphic relationship indicates a phonetic one remains unconfirmed.<ref>Evangelos Kyriakidis, "Phonetic attributions of undeciphered characters: The case of sign *56 in Linear B", The Cambridge Classical Journal, vol. 53, Cambridge University Press, pp. 202–28, 2007</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! colspan=30| Untranscribed and doubtful values
|-
! Character
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁐}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B018.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁑}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B019.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁒}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B022.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁓}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B034.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| 
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁔}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B047.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁕}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B049.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁖}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B056.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁗}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B063.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁘}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B064.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐀎}} <br />[[File:Linear B Syllable B065 JU.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁙}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B079.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁚}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B082.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁛}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B083.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁜}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B086.svg|class=skin-invert]]
| style="font-size: 200%;" | {{Lang|gmy-Linb|𐁝}} <br />[[File:Linear B Symbol B089.svg|class=skin-invert]]
|-
!Transcription
| ''*18''
| ''*19''
| ''*22''
| ''*34''
| ''*35''
| ''*47''
| ''*49''
| ''pa<sub>3</sub>?''
| ''*63''
| ''swi?''
| ''ju?''
| ''zu?''
| ''swa?''
| ''*83''
| ''*86''
| ''*89''
|-
! Bennett's number
| ''*18''
| ''*19''
| ''*22''
| ''*34''
| ''*35''
| ''*47''
| ''*49''
| ''*56''
| ''*63''
| ''*64''
| ''*65''
| ''*79''
| ''*82''
| ''*83''
| ''*86''
| ''*89''
|-
|}

CIPEM inherited the former authority of Bennett and the Wingspread convention in deciding what signs are "confirmed" and how to officially represent the various sign categories. In editions of Mycenaean texts, the signs whose values have not been confirmed by CIPEM are always transcribed as numbers preceded by an asterisk (e.g., ''*64''). CIPEM also allocates the numerical identifiers, and until such allocation, new signs (or obscured or mutilated signs) are transcribed as a bullet-point enclosed in square brackets: [•].