Easy Guide to the Keyboard Layout for the Linear B Font by Curtis Clark

Easy Guide to the Keyboard Layout for the Linear B Font by Curtis Clark (Click to ENLARGE):

NOTES on the Easy Guide to the Keyboard Layout for the Linear B Font by Curtis Clark:

Once you have downloaded the Linear B Font by Curtis Clark (See the next post for instructions), and have had your first look at it, you will probably be wondering how to make any sense of the keyboard layout. Which alphanumeric keys correspond to which Linear B syllabograms? It all looks like a complete mess. Not to worry. I have taken the trouble and plenty of time to figure it all out for you. You will be hugely relieved to discover that there is a method to the apparent madness of the keyboard layout. The rationale behind the design of the Linear B keyboard is in fact perfectly sound, and (mostly) logical in its own quirky way.

Right away, we note that the lowercase (LC) alphanumeric key sequence q w e r t yields the Linear B vowels A E I O U when you have reset your Font to Linear B.

Likewise, each standard sequence of Linear B syllabograms, e.g. DA DE DI DO DU, RA RE RI RO RU (and any other Linear B syllabogram sequence) is produced by a corresponding sequence of uppercase (UC) or lowercase (LC) alphanumeric characters.

For instance, A S D F G produce DA DE DI DO DU while a s d f g produce TA TE TI TO TU & Z X C V B produce NA NE NI NO NU while z x c v b yield SA SE SI SO SU.

Exception: The sequence of alphanumeric characters Y U I O does not produce a complete sequence of Linear B syllaobgrams. Y yields homophone PA2 (Y) while U I O give us QE QI QO. This makes sense, since there are only 3 syllabograms in the Q+ series. Curtis Clark has therefore assigned to the alphanumeric key Y the homophone PA2 (See the keyboard table above for the actual homophone).

All of the other alphanumeric key sequences, however short (3 sequential keys), except one, yield corresponding complete series of syllabograms .  2 uppercase (UC) of 5 alphanumeric key sequences yield homophones. These are:

(UC) Q E R T which produces the homophones TIYA AI RIYO SIYA, except for W which gives us the syllabogram PTE. So the complete UC series Q W E R T = TIYA PTE AI RIYO SIYA.
NOTE: (UC) ! @ # $ % produce homophones only: HA NWA P2 RAI RIYA.

1 lowercase LC) of 4 alphanumeric key sequences yields its corresponding series of 4 syllabograms: y u i o = WE WE WI WO

2 sequences of 3 alphanumeric key sequences yield respectively:
(LC) p [ ] = YA YE YO while (UC) P { } = ZA ZE ZO each of which consists of only 3 syllabograms anyway.

2 sets of homophones are represented by LC & UC of the same key: LC = KWE UC + DWE & LC \ TWO UC | DWO (DUO= Linear B 2)

Master these guidelines and you have mastered the Linear B keyboard.

If you intend to repost this Guide on your site, on any picture board, on Facebook, Twitter or any other Internet services or site, please respect my copyright, since it took me at least 8 hours to produce it along with these helpful notes.

Thank you

Richard

 

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