Why I consider the Linear B syllabary to be a streamlined refinement of the Linear A syllabary and not a new syllabary

Why I consider the Linear B syllabary to be a streamlined refinement of the Linear A syllabary and not a new syllabary:

Keyboard assignments Linear A:

Note that this verifies that the Linear A syllabary has at least 49 syllabograms and homophones in common with Linear B.

Keyboard assignments Linear B:

Note that this verifies that the Linear B syllabary has at least 49 syllabograms and homophones in common with Linear A. Since the Linear B table of syllabograms contains 49 syllabograms and homophones in common with Linear A out of a total of 67, the total percentage of Linear A syllabograms and homophones in common with Linear B = 49/67 or 73 %. This percentage is high enough to justify the hypothesis that the Linear B syllabary is a direct descendant of Linear A, such that for all intents and purposes, the base syllabary plus a few homophones of both is close to equivalent in both syllabaries. This is why I consider the two syllabaries actually to be one, with Linear B a refinement of Linear A. We note in particular the the syllabogram WE was added to Linear A just before that syllabary was abandoned in favour of the newer streamlined Linear B syllabary. We also note that Linear B abandoned scores of ideograms and a few numeric syllabograms in Linear A, which are themselves indecipherable, because we do not know their phonetic values. This makes them irrelevant to the Linear B syllabary.

The implications of this hypothesis for the decipherment of Linear A are highly significant.

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The Arcado-Cypriot Linear C keyboard template & the significantly revised timeline for (proto-) historic ancient Greek society

The Arcado-Cypriot Linear C keyboard template & the significantly revised timeline for (proto-) historic ancient Greek society:



This image of the Arcado-Cypriot Linear C keyboard template has been downsized to 620 pixels to fit the restrictive exigencies of Word Press image size. You may request the full-sized 1200 pixel Linear C keyboard template by contacting me at:

vallance22@zoho.com

The Arcado-Cypriot Linear C keyboard template reveals several fascinating characteristics of this extremely important and highly tenacious syllabary. These are:

1. The Arcadians and Cypriots thoroughly redesigned Linear C, almost completely abandoning the Minoan Linear A and Mycenaean Linear B syllabograms, but only in superficial appearance.
2. The only Linear C syllabograms which bear resemblance with their Mycenaean Linear B forbears are: NA SE PA & PO.
3. But almost all of the rest of the syllabograms in Linear C bear the same phonetic values as their Linear B forbears. 
4. The DA series of syllabograms in Minoan Linear A and Mycenaean Linear B has completely disappeared from Arcado-Cypriot Linear C.
5. The RA RE RI RO (RU) series of syllabograms in Minoan Linear A and Mycenaean Linear B has split into 2 discreet, separate series: LA LE LI LO LU & RA RE RI RO RU. But what was the reason for this deliberate split? Here is my hypothesis: it would appear that the Minoans and Mycenaeans were unable to distinguish between the liquids L and R, pronouncing L something along the lines the Japanese did.
6. The syllabograms XA and XE, and the syllabogram GA are non-existent in Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B.
7. Arcado-Cypriot Linear C abandoned ideograms completely. This makes for a much more -
8. streamlined syllabary.
9. The Arcado-Cypriot Linear C syllabary was diachronically extremely tenacious, lasting 7 centuries (ca. 1100 BCE – 400 BCE) co-existing in parallel with the Arcado-Cypriot alphabet.
10. philologists and linguists expert in ancient Greek are accustomed to drawing the timeline for the first appearance of written Greek from 800 BCE onward (ca. the time of Homer’s Ilad to Attic Greek, ca. 400 BCE).





But I am in fundamental disagreement with this hypothesis. Since Arcado-Cypriot Linear C came to the fore ca. 1100 BCE, a mere 100 years or approximately one century after the fall of Mycenae and the demise of the Linear B syllabary, it is surely open to doubt whether or not the so-called Greek “Dark Ages” actually lasted at least 400 years (ca. 1200 – 800 BCE). So we have to wonder whether or not that small gap of a mere century or so between the demise of  the Linear B syllabary (ca. 1200 BCE) and the sudden appearance of Arcado-Cypriot Linear C (ca. 1100 BCE) makes much of a difference at all in the actual timeline for written ancient Greek, which to my mind runs from 1600 BCE, with the advent of Mycenaean Linear B, all the way through to 400 BCE, i.e. for 12 centuries – 1 century (because of the 1 century gap between Linear B and Linear C), i.e. for 11 centuries! This makes for a huge difference between the previously held timeline of a mere 4 centuries from 800 – 400 BCE. It sets back the timeline for Greek civilization 500 years, receding back from 1100 BCE to 1600 BCE.  I also strongly object to the commonly held notion that Mycenaean and Mycenaean Minoan Greece was a prehistoric civilization. Since writing did exist in the form of the Linear B syllabary, albeit only in scribal format, I believe we can safely conclude that the Mycenaean civilization was proto-historic. And there is more: if we also take Minoan Linear A into account (which we definitely should), then the proto-historic period, if we are to include the pre-Greek substrate of Minoan society, recedes several centuries more into the distant past, to at least 2,900 BCE! Just because we cannot read the Minoan language does not mean it not also proto-historic phenomenon. 

That Arcado-Cypriot Linear C lasted for such a very long time attests to the fact that syllabaries such as Mycenaean Linear B & Arcado-Cypriot Linear C itself were much more suitable to inscribing or writing ancient Greek than most philologists or diachronic historical linguists would care to admit. I shall have plenty to say about this in the article I shall soon be posting on my academia.edu account:

Templates for the layouts of the Minoan Linear A, Mycenaean Linear B & Arcado-Cypriot Linear C fonts.

You can download the Linear C font here:




  

Standard keyboard template layout for the Mycenaean Linear B font by Curtis Clark

Standard keyboard template layout for the Mycenaean Linear B font by Curtis Clark:



NOTE: the keyboard template layout for Mycenaean Linear B as posted here is only 620 pixels wide, to conform to the narrow exigencies for images post on Word Press. The full format standard keyboard layout, which is 1200 pixels wide,  is the only one which is truly legible. You will need to request it from me here:

vallance22@zoho.com

You can download the Mycenaean Linear B font by Curtis Clark here:



The standard keyboard template layout for the Mycenaean Linear B font by Curtis Clark is beautifully laid out and very logical. The keyboard layout makes all of the following quite clear. But I repeat all of the key sequences here for your benefit.

For the vowels
A E I O U, type
q w e r t, 

and for the homophones:
tiya pte ai riyo siya, type:
Q W E R T

For the homophones:
ha nwa pu2 rai riya, type:
! @ # $ %

For the homophones:
dwe kwe, type:
+ =

For the homophones:
dwo two, type:
| \

I have made it even easier for you to use it by assigning mnemonics to several syllabogram series, as follows:

You will notice that to the immediate RIGHT of the DA DE DI DO DU series of syllabograms I have typed DA, then
to the immediate right of the TA TE TI TO TU series of syllabograms I have typed TA.
That makes it very easy to remember which series of keys you need to type for the DA series of syllabograms, and which for the TA, i.e.

A S D F G for DA
a  s  d  f  g for TA

DA + TA = DATA!

The same applies for the NA and SA series, for which the mnemonics are NASA. Thus, you type:

Z X C V B for NA +
z  x  c v  b  for SA +

Likewise, for 
MA ME MI MO MU
H J K L :
and for
PA PE PI PO PU 
h j k l ;

A few pointers:
[1] To type the syllabograms QA QE QI and QO, you type Y U I O
[2] To type the syllabograms ZE ZE ZO and the homophone DWO, you type P { } |
[3] To type the syllabograms WE WE WI WO, you type y u i o
[4] To type the syllabograms YA YE YO and the homophone TWO, you type p [ ] \

Even though it takes a little getting used to, it is all very logical.

You do not want to miss this Fantastic Twitter account, FONT design company of the highest calibre!

You do not want to miss this Fantastic Twitter account, FONT design company of the highest calibre!

I have just fortuitously come across what I consider to be the most fantastic font site or Twitter account on newly designed, mostly serif, extremely attractive fonts, some of which they offer for FREE!!!

You simply have to check them out. Click here to follow typo graphias:




Here is a composite of some of the astonishing font graphics on this amazing site!



 

Serendipitously happening on this account put a bee in my bonnet. I simply had to send you all on the fast track to downloading and installing the Minoan Linear A, Mycenaean Linear B & Arcado-Cypriot Linear C + several beautiful ancient Greek fonts, of which the most heavily used is SPIonic, used for Ionic, Attic, Hellenistic and New Testament writings and documents.  Hre are the links where you can download them, and much more besides!

Colour coded keyboard layout for the Mycenaean Linear B Syllabary:

 

includes font download sites for the SpIonic & LinearB TTFs



The first ever keyboard map for the Arcado-Cypriot Linear C TTF font!



which also includes the direct link to the only site where you can download the beautiful Arcado-Cypriot Linear B font, here:




How to download and use the Linear B font by Curtis Clark:



Easy guide to the Linear B font by Curtis Clark, keyboard layout:
 

Here is the Linear B keyboard. You must download the Linear B font as instructed below:

 

And here is the actual cursive Linear B font as it actually appears on the most famous of all Linear B tablet, Pylos Py TA 641-1952 (Ventris):

 

What’s more, you can read my full-length extremely comprehensive article, An Archaeologist’s Translation of Pylos Tablet Py TA 641-1952 (Ventris) by Rita Roberts, in Archaeology and Science (Belgrade) ISSN 1452-7448, Vol. 10 (2014), pp. 133-161, here: 



in which I introduce to the world for the first time the phenomenon of the decipherment of what I designate as the supersyllabogram, which no philologist has ever properly identified since the initial decipherment of Mycenaean Linear B by Michael Ventris in 1952. Unless we understand the significance of supersyllabograms in Linear B, parts or sometimes even all of at least 800 Linear B tablets from Knossos alone cannot be properly deciphered. This lacuna stood out like a sore thumb for 64 years, until I finally identified, categorized and deciphered all 36 (!) of them from 2013 to 2014. This is the last and most significant frontier in the complete decipherment of Mycenaean Linear B. Stay posted for my comprehensive, in-depth analysis and synopsis of The Decipherment of  Supersyllabograms in Linear B, which is to appear early in 2017 in Vol. 11 of Archaeology and  Science. This ground-breaking article, which runs from page 73 to page 108 (35 pages on a 12 inch page size or at least 50 pages on a standard North American page size)  constitutes the final and definitive decipherment of 36 supersyllabograms, accounting for fully 59 % of all Linear B syllabograms. Without a full understanding of the application of supersyllabograms on Linear B tablets, it is impossible to fully decipher at least 800 Linear B tablets from Knossos.
  

Colour-coded keyboard layout & FONT for the Mycenaean Linear B syllabary

Colour-coded keyboard layout & FONT for the Mycenaean Linear B syllabary:



I originally posted this colour-coded keyboard layout for the Mycenaean Linear B syllabary in 2014, but it bears re-posting, because it is so very helpful to people learning how to type in Mycenaean Linear B. Simply right-click on the image of the keyboard above, then SAVE AS + whatever name you wish to give it, then print it out on your printer.

NOTE that it is vital that you download the Mycenaean  Linear B FONT before you can even use the Linear B keyboard! You can download the font from here:



You can also download several ancient Greek fonts from the same site, but I highly recommend you select the SPIonic font, as it is the one which was used by the Athenians in the fifth century BCE. However, the font as downloaded appears in both upper and lower case and features all of the Greek accents. The original Athenian alphabet was in upper case only.  

Examples of the preliminary steps by our second full-time student, Thalassa Farkas (Canada) to set out on the exciting journey of learning Mycenaean Linear B

Examples of the preliminary steps by our second full-time student, Thalassa Farkas (Canada) to set out on the exciting journey of learning Mycenaean Linear B:

Here we see the first truly remarkable steps Thalassa Farkas of Canada has taken in just the first few days of her apprenticeship in learning Mycenaean Linear B:





I am particularly impressed by her keyboard template of the Mycenaean Linear B keyboard layout, which she has designed to fit right on top of the standard keyboard:





While I designed the Mycenaean Linear B keyboard layout back in 2013, it never dawned on me to cut a Linear B keyboard template to fit my own keyboard. What a clever little elf Thalassa is!

She is off to a great start. Let us all wish her the best in her exciting quest to master Linear B.  Although she doesn’t yet realized it, she will have to decipher hundreds of Linear B tablets to meet her eventual goal. And that will take at least two years. But we all know she will attain it.

PS to all our visitors, what does Thalassa, which is written as tarasa in Mycenaean Linear B, mean? Easy, if you know any Greek at all. 

The Minoan Linear A keyboard as designed by yours truly

The Minoan Linear A keyboard as designed by yours truly:

Standard Keyboard Layout for Arcado-Cypriot Linear C. This is the only place you can find it!

Standard Keyboard Layout for Arcado-Cypriot Linear C: Click to ENLARGE



The standard keyboard layout for Arcado-Cypriot Linear C is quite unlike that for Mycenaean Linear B, with very few exceptions. The only key maps which correspond are those for the vowels, a e i o u, which you type with q w e r t in both fonts + da de di do du in Linear B, which is identical ta te ti to tu in Linear C, since the latter has no D series syllabograms, substituting the T series. Linear C also lacks any means to type numbers, but since the Linear B numbering system is almost the same as the Linear C one, you can switch to the Linear B font to type numbers in Linear C, with the proviso that you watch out for any differences in the numeric systems (there are some). But since numbers are rarely used in Linear C, it is not really much of a problem. Arcado-Cypriot Linear C abandoned all logograms & ideograms, of which Mycenaean Linear B has an abundance (over 100), with the sole exception of the ideogram for talent or scale, which is the same in both syllabaries. But since there is no way to type this ideogram with the Linear C font, once again, you will have to switch to the Linear B font and type |.  The only other real problem with the Linear C font is that there is no way to type the syllabogram for ye, unless you first switch to an English font and type a period . These are minor inconveniences, which I am sure you will get used to... I did.

You must first download the Arcado-Cypriot Linear C font here:



and then install it in your Fonts before you can use it. Remember to switch to the font called Cypriot before typing in Linear C. You will also need to switch back and forth from Linear C to Linear B to your English font as required.

This keyboard layout is the only one you will find anywhere on the Internet. If you are going to use this keyboard layout, you can laminate it with clear mactac, and hang it above your computer.
 
Richard

Learn How to Type Linear B FAST! – well, at least much faster than usual: Click to ENLARGE

 

Learn How to Type Linear B FAST! - well, at least much faster than usual: Click to ENLARGE



Typically, keyboard layouts for Mycenaean Linear B are so abstruse that they actually confuse us more than they help us. I hope to remedy this messy state of affairs with this brand new keyboard layout for Mycenaean Linear B which I have just devised, with its own mnemonics and other guidelines for easy learning. Here are the keys to this keyboard layout:

KEYS:

Your first time round, you must download & install the Linear B Font by Curtis Clark, here: Click to go to the site and download the font:



Once you have installed the Linear B Font, you can then proceed to type anything you like in Linear B, by following these steps in order. 

(a) First you must change your Font from your default (Times New Roman, Georgia etc.) to Linear B
(b) Next, you should increase the size of your Linear B font 2 points up from your default font size in (a). Thus, if you default font size is 12 points, you should set the Linear B font to 14 points. You may also need to set the Linear B font to BOLD if it does not appear clearly enough to your satisfaction. This is up to you.

(c) SYLLABOGRAMS:

Syllabograms: If you start typing any linear series of 5 q w e r t y keyboard keys from the left to the right, you will be typing the entire series of a particular group of syllabograms from [consonant + a + e + i + o + u], as illustrated in the examples here:

If you type A S D F G, you will automatically get DA DE DI DO DU. Try it!
If you type a s d f g, you will automatically get TA TE TI TO TU.
If you type Z X C V B, you will automatically get NA NE NI NO NU.
If you type z x c v b, you will automatically get SA SE SI SO SU.
Etc.

NOTE the mnemonics, DATA & NASA, for the syllabogram series DATA = DA... + TA... and NASA for the syllabogram series NASA = NA... + SA... Think about it for a second or two, and you will get it. From then on in, it will be a cinch for you to  type DA... from A... & TA... from a... (DATA) + NA... from Z & SA from z... (NASA). Anyway, it is for me. If you don ’t like using mnemonics (memory reminders, the string on an elephant ’s trunk), you can just skip this part.

The only exception to this is the series: q w e r t (lower-case LC), which gives you the 5 vowels in order: a e i o u.

Some series of syllabograms are incomplete. In these cases, you do not have to type as far across the keyboard. For example:

If you type Y U I O, you will automatically get QA QE QI QO
If you type y u i o, you will automatically get WA WE WI WO

Examples of actual Linear B text (Latinized):

If you type .Vv, you get the word, KONOSO (Knossos)
If you type hef, you get the word, PAITO (Phaistos)
If you type Ep, you get thew word, AIZA (goat)
If you type qXLe[, you get the word, ANEMOIYERIYA (Priestess of the Winds)
 

(d) NUMERICS:

These are easy. Once you are in Linear B, 1 = 1, 2 = 2, 3 = 10... 5 = 100 8 = 2,000 etc. The only thing you need to remember is how many times to press each number key to write a large number in Linear B, e.g. for 43,537, type: 0 0 8 7 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1    

(e) HOMOPHONES:

Some series (some of which are also incomplete) yield only homophones. For example:

SHIFT 1 2 3 4 5 = ! @ # $ % yield the homophones: ha nwa pu2 rai riya.
[ ] \ yield the syllabograms YE & YO + the homophone -two- & when shifted to upper case (UC)
{ } | yield the syllabograms ZE & ZO + the homophone -dwo- (lower case! LC)

You will be typing homophones very rarely; so you don’t really need to learn these keys. Just refer to the chart when you need to type homophones (at a ratio of some 100 syllabograms per homophone, i.e. 100:1)

CLOSING THE LINEAR B FONT & SWTICHING BACK TO YOUR DEFAULT FONT:	

(A) You MUST follow these steps after you have finished typing text in Linear B.
(a) SAVE your document immediately in .doc or .docx format!
(b) SWITCH to your default font (e.g. Times New Roman or Georgia) and reduce your font size by 2 points (also remove BOLD if you used BOLD to type in Linear B).
(c) You may now continue typing in your default font. If Linear B still appears, and your default font does not, you have incorrectly followed this procedure. 

TO SWITCH BACK TO THE LINEAR B FONT:

(B) You MUST follow these steps to switch to the Linear B font, after you have finished typing text in your default font (Times New Roman or...)
(a) SAVE your document immediately in .doc or .docx format!
(b) SWITCH to the Linear B font and increase your font size by 2 points (also add BOLD if you want your Linear B text to stand out).
(c) You may now continue typing in Linear B. If your default font still appears, but Linear B does not, you have incorrectly followed this procedure.

Simply alternate from (A) to (B) to switch back and from your default font & Linear B. DO NOT OMIT ANY STEPS!

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO TYPE LOGOGRAMS & IDEOGRAMS USING THE LINEAR B FONT.

Oh, and don’ t forget to print out this template of the Linear B font, laminate it in plastic and pin it to the wall above your computer for quick reference!

I shall illustrate how to insert these in your Linear B text in the next post. 


Richard

 

 

 

Linear B Keyboard Layout: to date the best on the Internet! (REVISED Oct. 30 2014)

Linear B Keyboard Layout: to date the best on the Internet! (REVISED Oct. 30 2014) Click to ENLARGE:



In the first version of this new Linear B keyboard, which I posted this summer, I made an egregious error. The Linear B syllabogram produced when you type UC Y is QA, and the logogram PHU, as once bellieved. It is absolutely essential you understand this. QA is in fact a syllabogram. 

The first thing I would like to point out is that it took me no less than 4 hours (!) of meticulous work to produce this fine chart of the Latin to Linear B Keyboard, just as it takes me between 1 g and 5 (!) hours to produce all the high quality Linear B tablet & fragment translations, illustrations etc. I work very hard on our blog to make sure that all illustrations for all posts are as clear and informative as possible. Most of the illustrations of Linear B tablets and fragments, and most of the rest of Linear B varia on the Internet are frequently of poor or fair quality at best, although plenty of them are of at least good quality, or even excellent. But good is never enough for me, because I want to make certain that any and all students, translators and researchers in Linear B have access to the highest possible quality illustrations for Mycenaean Greek & Linear B. That is why I scanned well over 3,000 Linear B tablets and fragments in Scripta Minoa, sharpened them, converted them to clear B&W and blew them up so that the Linear B characters would be very easy to read. I do sincerely hope people really appreciate the work I put into illustrations and indeed the explanatory text in our posts, which often goes to great lengths to make sure that folks who visit us have the clearest possible idea of whatever topic we are dealing with.

Suggestion: Feel free to download this chart, which is in .jpg format. You can then print it out and, to be sure it does not get all messy if you happen to pour coffee, tea or worse on it, laminate it and post it on the wall right behind your computer. This will expedite the learning process for the Linear B font.

In order to use the Linear B Font, you must of course first download it. By far the best site to download SPIonic, the standard for ancient (Attic) Greek, be sure to visit Dr. Shirley’s site, Greek fonts, here:

Dr Shirleys Font List Greek




The next page features a complete explanation by Dr. Curtis Clark himself on how he came to create this fine font.

Richard

How to Install and Use the Linear B True Type Font by Curtis Clarke

How to Install and Use the Linear B True Type Font by Curtis Clarke (Click to ENLARGE):


If you want to be able to type Linear B with your keyboard, you must first download the font, which you can easily do by scrolling to the bottom of this page to: Friends & Links, to LinearBTTF Font, which will take you to the page where you can download the Linear B Font. You must then install the Font in your Windows Fonts directory. I do not know the procedure for MAC users. Typing the appropriate UC (upper case) or LC (lower case) letter, number or non-alphanumeric character will produce the Linear B syllabogram associated with that character. This takes some getting used to, but in fact, the keyboard layout for Linear B is practical and logical, if you take the time to learn this. For instance, typing q w e r t will yield the Linear B vowels, A E I O U in that order. However, typing Q W E R T yields the Linear B syllabograms, TIYA PTE AI RIYO & SIYA. So be careful!  Likewise, a s d f g gives you TA TE TI TO TU, but A S D F G yields DA DE DI DO DU.

Anyone who is truly serious about learning Linear B should definitely learn how to type it on the keyboard, as writing it can be messy and arduous. It takes some getting used to, but you will master it eventually. Best of luck.

Richard

How to download & use the Linear B Font by Curtis Clark:

How to download & use the Linear B Font by Curtis Clark:

DOWNLOAD & install the Linear B Font by Curtis Clark:

Unless you download and install the Linear B Font you will not be able to type Linear B on your keyboard, and unless you read the NOTES below, Linear B characters will look far too small when you insert them in a document.  To download:

on this Blog, scroll down to the bottom of this page to: Friends & Links & scroll down to: Linear B TTF & click on it to download.

NOTES on the usage of the Linear B font:

1. Whenever you switch from your default Latin font (Times New Roman, Georgia etc.), you will have to change your font size to 26 or 28 points BOLD, if you wish the Linear B text to appear large enough on your keyboard to be easily legible.  If you choose anything less than 26 points, some Linear B characters may not display correctly, usually with some strokes missing.
2. Once you have switched to Linear B font, you can use the keyboard guide in the previous post to type Linear B characters (vowels, syllabograms, homophones & logograms) or words, phrases and sentences.  With the guide and the Linear B Font install, you will even be able type the entire text of most extant Linear B tablets. 
3. There are exceptions, since the Linear B font by Curtis Clark cannot account for most of ideograms in Linear B, of which there are well over 100. Fortunately, these ideograms, for the most part, occur relatively rarely on the tablets.  One notable exception is Pylos Tablet 641-1952 (Ventris), the very first tablet Michael Ventris translated in June & July 1952, on which the ideograms for various types of tripods (ti-ri-po-de) frequently recur.  The Curtis Clark font (or for that matter any other Linear B/Mycenaean font) cannot account for ideograms such as these.

NOTE:
In cases such as this, you can (if you like) download charts of Linear B ideograms in image formats (e.g. jpeg or PNG), and then crop to the particular ideogram you want to use, resize it to the equivalent of 26 to 28 points, and then insert it into your document at the appropriate position in the Linear B word containing that ideogram, finally switching back to the Linear B font to complete the word.  The problem with this, of course, is that it is a time-consuming and awkward procedure.  It's up to you.  If you have the patience, do it.  If you are hosting a Linear B blog, and you want Linear B text to appear professional, you really don't have much of a choice.  I don't. 

If you wish to access the Linear B Ideograms, proceed as follows:
1. Scroll down to the bottom of this page to Friends & Links and then to UCB Linear B Ideograms, and click to see the chart of Linear B ideograms.  Click on the chart of ideograms, click again to open it in its full size, and then right click to save it to your computer.  Once you have saved the table of ideograms, you then crop down to the particular ideogram you would like to insert in your Linear B text, and save the cropped ideogram to your computer. Good luck!  You'll need it.

Here you see a little demonstration of how to crop a particular ideogram out of the UCB Linear B Ideograms table you have just downloaded.  I did it in 3 steps myself, so that I could see the results at each step, but of course, you will take your own approach to cropping down to a single ideogram, in this case, the ideogram for "woman":

 

Note that I will be explaining & illustrating the use of Linear B logograms and ideograms (annotated) at Progressive Linear B Lessons, Levels 4 & 5 in the winter & spring (of 2014).

4. When you switch back to your default Latin font to type English (or French, German, Italian etc. Etc.) you of course must downsize the font size back to its default, for instance, Times New Roman or Georgia 10-12 points regular (not BOLD).

Summary:
When you switch to the Linear B font, upsize the font size to a minimum of 26-28 points BOLD.  When you switch back to your default Latin font, downsize to 10-12 points regular (not BOLD).  Recycle this routine as required.

Richard

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