Furthermore, the following ‘supplementary’ syllabograms for more complex syllables can be identified (where in some cases the exact pronunciation is or used to be unknown even for Linear B, hence the use of subscript numbers):

Special signs
Character	𐘒	𐙄	𐘩	𐘰	𐘜	𐘽	𐘷	𐙆
Transcription	pi2	au	nwa	pa2	pu2	ra2 (rya)	ta2 (tya)	twe
Bennett's number	*22	*85	*48	*56	*29	*76	*66	*87

The following list contains some frequent ideograms/logograms whose meaning is known and uncontroversial and almost all of which are preserved in Linear B.^[9][10] The meaning of many others is debated. Note that some of the ideograms are also used as syllabograms; in such cases, the sound value is indicated in the table before the Bennett number.

Glyph	Code point	Bennett	Conventional Latin name	meaning
People and animals
𐙇	U+10647	*100/102	VIR vir	person, man
𐘏	U+1060F	QI *21	OVIS ovis	sheep
𐘐	U+10610	*21F	OVISf	ewe
𐘑	U+10611	*21M	OVISm	ram
𐘒	U+10612	PI2 *22	CAP capra	goat
𐘓	U+10613	*22F	CAPf	she-goat
𐘔	U+10614	*22M	CAPm	he-goat
𐙄	U+10644	AU *85	SUS sūs	pig
𐘕	U+10615	MU *23	BOS bōs	bovine
𐘖	U+10616	*23M	BOSm	ox/bull
Dry products
𐙉	U+10649	*120	GRA grānum	wheat
𐙊	U+1064A	*120B	GRA grānum	wheat
𐙋	U+1064B	*122	OLIV olīva	olives
𐘝	U+1061D	NI *30	FIC fīcus	figs
𐙗	U+10657	*303	CYP	cyperus
𐘮	U+1062E	WA *54	TELA tēla	cloth
Liquids
𐙖	U+10095	*302	OLE ŏlĕum	oil
𐙍	U+1064D	*131A	VIN vīnum	wine
𐙎	U+1064E	*131B	VIN vīnum	wine
𐙏	U+1064F	*131C	VIN vīnum	wine
Vessels
𐚠	U+106A0	*400-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚡	U+106A1	*401-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚢	U+106A2	*402-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚣	U+106A3	*403-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚤	U+106A4	*404-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚥	U+106A5	*405-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚦	U+106A6	*406-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚧	U+106A7	*407-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚨	U+106A8	*408-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚩	U+106A9	*409-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚪	U+106AA	*410-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚫	U+106AB	*411-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚬	U+106AC	*412-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚭	U+106AD	*413-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚮	U+106AE	*414-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚯	U+106AF	*415-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚰	U+106B0	*416-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚱	U+106B1	*417-VAS	VAS vās	–
𐚲	U+106B2	*418-VAS	VAS vās	–
Other
𐙔	U+10654	*191	GAL galea	helmet

There is a lack of scholarly agreement about signs, generally called klasmatograms, for Linear A fractions.^{[14][15][16][17]} In 2021 Corazza et al. proposed the following values, most of which had been previously suggested:^[18]

Proposed values of fraction glyphs^[18]

Symbol	Glyph	Value
J		1⁄2
E		1⁄4
B		1⁄5
D		1⁄6
F		1⁄8
K		1⁄10
H		1⁄16?
L2		1⁄20
A		1⁄24?
L3		1⁄30
L4		1⁄40
L6		1⁄60
W		= BB? (2⁄5)
X		= AA? (1⁄12)
Y		?
Ω		?

Other fractions are composed by addition: the common JE and DD are 3⁄4 and 1⁄3 (2⁄6), BB = 2⁄5, EF = 3⁄8, etc. (and indeed B 1⁄5 looks as though it may derive from KK 2⁄10). L, Y, and Ω are hapax legomena (only occur once) and it has been proposed that glyph L is spurious.^[18]

Several of these values are supported by Linear B. Although Linear B used a different numbering system, several of the Linear A fractions were adopted as fractional units of measurement. For example, Linear B DD and (presumably AA) are 1⁄3 and 1⁄12 of a lana, while K is 1⁄10 of the main unit for dry weight.^[18]

Almost all Linear A tablets, most in a fragmentary condition, have been found on the island of Crete, dated to the Neopalatial Period. At that time Crete was divided by mountains and other geographic features into a number of polities, each with its own urban center.^[31] These tablets have been found at Hagia Triada (147 tablets), Petras (2 tablets), Phaistos (26 tablets), Knossos (6 tablets), Archanes (7 tablets), Myrtos Pyrgos (2 tablets), Palaikastro (2 tablets), Zakros (31 tablets), Tylissos (2 tablets), Malia (6 tablets), Gournia (1 tablet), and Khania (99 tablets).^{[32][33][34][35][36]} One Linear A tablet was found on Kea in the Cyclades.^[37] Three tablet fragments were found on the island of Santorini (Thera).^[38] The handful of known Cretan Hieroglyphs tablets (with relatively few signs) were also found on Crete at Malia and Kato Symi.^[39]

Seals and clay sealings served the same role of inventory control and ownership as in the ancient Near East and Egypt. Large numbers of sealings have been found, primarily on Crete and in the Late Minoan IB period. The primary sources of sealed documents come from Haghia Triada (1103), Zakros (560), Khania (210), Knossos (125), Phaistos (35), Malia (6), and Tylissos (5).^[40][41][42] It is not clear what was commonly used to impress the sealing as only a few Linear A inscribed "seal stones" have been found. In other regions cylinder seals and stamp seals fulfilled this role.^[43]

Sealed documents are divided by archaeologists into four classes:^[33]

• Roundels – disks of clay with sealing on the edges^[44]
• Hanging nodules – sealed lumps of clay originally attached to string^[45]
• Parcel nodules – lumps of clay with sealing on back
• Noduli – clay lumps like hanging nodules but not formerly string attached

A group of Minoan finds, usually from sanctuaries, have traditionally been called libation tables. They come in full sized and miniature versions, usually of stone. Because of the findspots, at cultic sites like Mount Juktas, they are usually assumed to be religious in nature though that is not certain.^[46] So far about 1000 libation tables have been recovered at 27 different sites on Crete, of which 41 have Linear A inscriptions.^[47][48][49] These inscriptions follow a standardized "libation formula", a formula also found on a few other objects, primarily vessels.^{[50][51][52][53]}

The "libation formula" has been much studied.^[54][55] A similar construct in Cretan Hieroglyphs, the "Archanes Formula", is the main proposed link to Linear A.^[56]

While most of the recovered Linear A signs have come from tablets, sealed documents, libation tables and related ritual objects, a number of very short Linear A inscriptions have been found in the Minoan area of operation, primarily in the form of potmarks and mason's marks.^[59] A problem is that it can be difficult to tell if a single-sign (or even doubleton) is Linear A, Linear B, or Cretan Hieroglyphs because of the overlap in sign use.^[60][61] Vessel sherds were found at Traostalos, bearing three signs in total.^[62] Four vase sherds were found at Thera with signs, as well as a ostrakon with one sign.^[38] A vessel fragment was found at Miletus.^[63] Two pithoi with very fragmentary inscriptions were found at Pseira.^[64] Graffiti has been found at places like Hagia Triada.^[65] A small clay ball with three Linear A signs was found at Mikro Vouni on the island of Samothrace.^[66] A small stone tab with two signs was excavated in Ayios Stephanos, Laconia.^[67][68] A silver hair pin and a gold ring, both with fairly long Linear A inscriptions, were found at Mavro Spelio in Knossos.^[69][70][71] At Armenoi a stone amulet was found in a tholos grave from the Linear Minoan IB period inscribed with a combination of two Linear A ideograms.^[72]

A Linear A inscription was said to have been found in southeast Bulgaria.^[73] Another, somewhat more solid, find was at Tel Lachish.^[74] A Minoan graffito found at Tel Haror on a vessel fragment is either Linear A or Cretan hieroglyphs.^[75] Several tablets inscribed in signs similar to Linear A were found at Troy in northwestern Anatolia. While their status is disputed, they may be imports, as there is no evidence of Minoan presence in the Troad. Classification of these signs as a unique Trojan script (proposed by contemporary Russian linguist Nikolai Kazansky) is not accepted by other linguists.^[76][77] Two Linear A inscribed clay spindle whorls were also found at Troy.^[78]

A rescue excavation in the modern village of Knossos produced what is described as the longest known Linear A inscription. The object is a "sceptre" made out of elephant ivory with a handle and a ring. The ivory is inscribed with Linear A characters and other images. The excavators descibed it as the "first Linear A economic document coming from a cult building". Found in a number of fragments which had to be joined and some of the surfaces have been degraded by time.^[79]

One major barrier to its decipherment is the limited surviving corpus. Only around 1400 Linear A inscriptions survive, in contrast to the 6000 available for Linear B. As a result, researchers are stuck with limited sample sizes, making it difficult to reliably detect patterns.^[5][6][88] Similarly, Linear A inscriptions are often fragmentary, damaged, or otherwise hard to read. It can be difficult to individuate particular signs and to distinguish separate signs from handwriting variants.^[5][6][88] Finally, Linear A inscriptions tend to be brief and repetitive. Rather than complete sentences, many are lists where each entry consists of a toponym or personal name followed by a logogram and then a numeral. Thus, the surviving corpus contains few spelled-out words and limited evidence of the grammatical structure.^[5][6][22]

A second barrier is the scarcity of external evidence. No bilingual inscriptions have been found, preventing the script from being deciphered in the manner that Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered using the Rosetta Stone.^[5][6] The underlying language of Linear A has not been determined, and it is not clear that the same language was used for its entire period of use. The grammatical evidence that can be gleaned from the surviving corpus suggests that it was not a close relative of any known language.^[5][6]

For most of Linear A's syllabic signs, approximate sound values can be inferred based on the values of corresponding signs in Linear B. These sound values are widely accepted by current researchers, though they are not considered incontrovertible and many details remain up for debate. This does not amount to a complete decipherment, since it results in words that are uninterpretable.^{[5][6][90][87]}

These values are based on the homomorphy-homophony principle which states that in related writing systems, signs with similar forms will generally have similar phonetic values. Although this principle is not reliable across the board, there are a number of reasons why scholars have concluded that it does generally hold between Linear A and Linear B.^[91]

One reason is that it is already known to hold in many cases between Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, another script which descends from Linear A. This fact is taken as evidence that these signs were inherited by both scripts along with their Linear A phonetic values. For example, the Linear B 𐀮 and Cypriot 𐠩 both have the sound value "se", suggesting that the homomorphic Linear A sign 𐘈 had the same sound value. Similarly, since Linear B 𐀞 and Cypriot 𐠞 were both pronounced "pa", the homomorphic Linear A sign 𐘂 is likely to have had a similar pronunciation. Among the core syllabic signs, roughly 10 show clear signs of such parallels across the scripts, though additional correspondences have been proposed on the basis of less secure paleographic evidence.^[92][93]

Another reason is that many Linear B sign sequences that denote toponyms and personal names appear in Linear A documents as well. This fact would be explained if these sign sequences were pronounced similarly. For example, the Linear A toponym 𐘂𐘚𐘄 would be read as pa-i-to, corresponding to the placename Phaistos attested in Linear B as 𐀞𐀂𐀵 Pa-i-to. Similar instances have been found for Linear A toponyms such as 𐘈𐘄𐘚𐘱 (SE-TO-I-JA) and 𐘲𐘸𐘭𐘳 (SU-KI-RI-TA), and for personal names such as 𐘀𐘚𐘢𐘳 (DA-I-PI-TA) and 𐘂𐘴𐘗 (PA-RA-NE). In some cases, Linear A names appear in Linear B with Greek case endings, for instance Linear A 𐘌𐘌𐘘 (QA-QA-RU) corresponding to Linear B 𐀣𐀣𐀫 (qa-qa-ro and Linear A 𐘆𐘦𐘘 (DI-DE-RU to Linear B 𐀇𐀆𐀫 (di-de-ro). These shared words have been taken as evidence for shared sound values of the signs that appear in them.^{[94][95][5][96]}

Another reason is that Linear A words sometimes come in multiple variants whose differences would be phonologically motivated if Linear B sound values are assumed. For example, the Linear A word 𐘇𐘞𐘞𐘴𐘋 also comes in the variant 𐘱𐘞𐘞𐘴𐘋, differing only in its initial sign. The alternation between the initial signs would be explained if these signs had a systematic phonological relationship, similar to the method of Kober's Triplets, used in the decipherment of Linear B. Such a relationship would exist if the Linear A signs 𐘇 and 𐘱 were pronounced as /a/ and /ja/ respectively, just like the homomorphic Linear B signs 𐀀 and 𐘱. In this case, the words would differ only in the presence of a /j-/ prefix, while the /a/ vowel would be preserved. Similar arguments have been made based on other seemingly morphologically related pairs.^[97][55]

However, in particular cases scholars have identified reasons to expect divergence in pronunciation between Linear A and Linear B. Some scholars have argued that Minoan did not really have the vowel /o/ as a phoneme, that it may not have had the labialised velars that the /q/-signs express in Mycenaean, and that the only apparent voiced stop, /d/, was really a dental fricative in Minoan.^[98] The latter note is further supported by the principle that if a voicing contrast is used at all in a language, it normally runs right across the various categories of consonants.^[99]

The following table shows signs that are known to be syllabograms and for which provisional and approximate sound values are assumed primarily based on the known pronunciations of identical or similar signs in Linear B.^{[98][100][101]}

Syllabic signs of shape V, CV
	-a		-e		-i		-o		-u
	𐘇	a *08	𐘡	e *38	𐘚	i *28	𐘵	o *61	𐘉	u *10
d-	𐘀	da *01	𐘦	de *45	𐘆	di *07	Disputed.𐙀? ?	do -*79?	𐘬	du *51
j-	𐘱	ja *57	𐘧	je *46	–	–	Disputed.	jo	Disputed.	ju
k-	𐘾	ka *77	𐘥	ke *44	𐘸	ki *67	𐘺	ko *70	𐙂	ku *81
m-	𐙁	ma *80	𐘋	me *13	𐘻	mi *73	Disputed. 𐙗??	mo *303?	𐘕	mu *23
n-	𐘅	na *06	𐘗	ne *24	𐘝	ni *30	Disputed. ,?	no *28,28B?	𐘯	nu *55
p-	𐘂	pa *03	-	–	𐘢	pi *39	𐘊	po *11	𐘫	pu *50
q-	𐘌	qa *16	𐘿	qe *78	𐘏	qi *21	-	–	-	–
r-	𐘴	ra *60	𐘙	re *27	𐘭	ri *53	𐘁	ro *02	𐘘	ru *26
s-	𐘞	sa *31	𐘈	se *09	𐘤	si *41	Disputed.	so	𐘲	su *58
t-	𐘳	ta *59	𐘃	te *04	𐘠	ti *37	𐘄	to *05	𐘹	tu *69
w-	𐘮	wa *54	Disputed.	–	𐘣	wi *40	Disputed.	wo	-	-
z-	𐘍	za *17	𐘼	ze *74	–	–	𐘎	zo *20	Disputed. 𐙀? ?	zu *79

While many of those assumed to be syllabic signs are similar to ones in Linear B, approximately 80% of Linear A's logograms are unique;^[102][4] the difference in sound values between Linear A and Linear B signs ranges from 9% to 13%.^[103]

Linear A does not encode any known language. The placeholder term Minoan language is often used, though it is not certain that the texts are all in the same language.^[5][104]

An approximate phoneme inventory for Minoan can be inferred from the Linear A sign inventory, the phonology of the language has been subject to debate, and one scholar refers to its reconstruction as "the thirteenth Labour of Herakles".^[105] In older work, Minoan was often regarded as having a three vowel system, since Linear A shares Linear B's /i/, /u/, and /a/ series, but not all of the /o/ and /e/ signs, and those it does have occur much less frequently. However, more recent work as questioned this assumption, noting that Linear A sound values involving /o/ and /e/ are supported by comparative evidence from Cypriot and also from their occurrence in shared placenames such as Pa-i-to and Se-to-i-ja.^[106][107]

Similarly, in older work, Minoan was assumed to have a predominantly open syllable structure and few consonant clusters, reflecting the inventory of syllables available in Linear A. This view was based on the assumption that Linear A would have been developed in order to closely match Minoan phonology, and that the defectiveness of Linear B would have resulted from the process of adapting the script to write Greek. However, more recent work has questioned this assumption based on precedents from other defective scripts as well as potential evidence of partial or plene spelling in Linear A itself, such as the placename 𐘂𐘚𐘄 (PA-I-TO) which would likely have contained an unwritten /s/ sound as in its later pronunciation as "Phaistos".^[108][109]

By identifying systematic patterns of similarities and variations across inscriptions, scholars have been able to make inferences about the syntax and morphology of the Minoan language. Comparison of formulaic inscriptions on libation vessels suggests that the language had Verb Subject Object word order.^[110][111] Minoan appears to have been an agglutinative language, making copious use of prefixes and suffixes. Among these, the suffixes -RU and -RE appear to be case markers, while J- is a prefix meaning something like "from" or "of", and -JA appears to be a derivational suffix used to form adjectives.^[112]

Internal analysis of texts has been used to identify approximate meanings of certain words.^[113] Among these, the most secure is the word 𐙂𐘘 (KU-RO) meaning "total". The meaning of this word was inferred much as 𐀵𐀰/𐀵𐀭 (to-so/to-sa) was for Linear B, from the fact that it regularly occurs at the ends of tallied lists, preceding a numeral representing the sum of the tallies in the list.^{[114][115][116]} Similarly, the word stem 𐘚𐝥 (I-*301) is believed to mean "to give" or "to dedicate" based on its use across variants of the Libation Formula.^[117][118] In some cases, additional inferences can be made based on parallels between internal evidence from Linear A and loanwords in later Greek. For instance, the Linear A logogram for wool 𐛢 is a composite of the syllabic signs 𐙁 (MA) and 𐘘 (RU), a fact which on its own would suggest "maru" or "malu" as a potential Minoan word for wool. This inference is regarded as more secure because this term seems to appear as a loanword in Greek as μαλλός (mallos). Moreover, the same sign appears in Linear B, though it is sometimes written as a composite of 𐀔 ("ma") and 𐀫 ("ro") instead, seemingly reflecting an adaptation of the word to Greek phonology.^[119][120]

Given what is known about the language, Minoan does not does not appear to be a member of any recognized known language family. Some scholars have explored potential parallels with Anatolian languages such as Luwian and Lycian, as well as with Semitic languages such as Phoenician and Ugaritic. However, even if these connections are not coincidental, it would be unclear whether Minoan is related to one of these languages or if the parallels arose through language contact.^[5][121]