Linguistic signs are not arbitrary. There is sufficient evidence that words are most often iconic representations of visual forms. If something is arbitrary or erroneous in linguistic signs, this is the phonetic transcription of words.
The theory of ichnography provides no mathematical formula for interpreting ancient words. Intuition and hard work are still needed. Longer sequences of words in a text and longer sequences of letters in a word, alike, are more specific and easier to interpret. Particular help is found by identifying semantically stable digraphs or longer stems and syllables. After all, Greek and English appear to be syllabic, agglutinative languages, like Linear B is thought to be. However, their syllables, morphology, properties, and evolution must be re-defined on a graphic rather than phonetic basis.
In no instance did
any existing phonetic etymologies help interpret the examined
ancient words. This is no surprise. Phonocentric historical linguistics seems
to develop to support one or another theory about human population origins
and migrations rather than better understanding words. Etymologies need to
be revised. Linear A and B scripts are probably also ichnographic rather than
phonetic scripts, and they should be revisited as such. Phonetics remains an invaluable field of research in the domain of spoken language.
The theme of water
collection and management appears to be a significant source of inspiration for all three poets. Also prevalent are the economy and market laws. Words used by
all three poets are likely pre-existing and known to all three. One such
example is the word Atlas with its derivatives. Words used by only one of the
poets are probably de novo creations. There is no religion or metaphysics in
the first Greek poems and myths. Demystification will highlight the beauty of
this literature restoring its original shine.
Perhaps the most
important prediction of this theory is that written language precedes the
spoken one. Pronunciation is an attempt to reproduce the meanings of the
letters using mouth topology. If S means protrusion, its pronunciation consists
in showing the teeth.