Editing Decipherment (section)

== Categories ==
Gelb and Whiting classify the four situations of an undeciphered language and how difficult decipherment will be in each of them:<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Gelb |first1=I. J. |last2=Whiting |first2=R. M. |date=1975 |title=Methods of Decipherment |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/abs/methods-of-decipherment1/2DD45E0994C82E315715D106656E5293 |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |language=en |volume=107 |issue=2 |pages=95–104 |doi=10.1017/S0035869X00132769 |issn=2051-2066|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Braović |first1=Maja |last2=Krstinić |first2=Damir |last3=Štula |first3=Maja |last4=Ivanda |first4=Antonia |date=2024-06-01 |title=A Systematic Review of Computational Approaches to Deciphering Bronze Age Aegean and Cypriot Scripts |url=https://direct.mit.edu/coli/article/50/2/725/119990/A-Systematic-Review-of-Computational-Approaches-to |journal=Computational Linguistics |language=en |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=725–779 |doi=10.1162/coli_a_00514 |issn=0891-2017|doi-access=free }}</ref>

* Type O: known writing and known language. Although decipherment in this case is trivial, useful information can be gleaned when a known language is written in an alphabet other than the one it is commonly written in. Studying the writing of the [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] or [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] languages in the [[Greek alphabet]] allows information about pronunciation and vocalization to be gleaned that cannot be obtained when studying the expression of these languages in their normal writing system.
* Type I: unknown writing and known language. Deciphered languages in this category include [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]], [[Ugaritic]], [[Cypriot syllabary|Cypriot]], and [[Linear B]]. In this situation, [[alphabet]]ic systems are the easiest to decipher, followed by [[Syllabary|syllabic]] languages, and finally the most difficult being [[Logogram|logo-syllabic]].
* Type II: known writing and unknown language. An example is [[Linear A]]. Strictly speaking, this situation is not one of decipherment but of linguistic analysis. Decipherment in this category is considered extremely difficult to achieve on the basis of internal information only.
* Type III: unknown writing and unknown language. Examples include the Archanes script and the Archanes formula, [[Phaistos Disc|Phaistos disk]], [[Cretan hieroglyphs]], and [[Cypro-Minoan syllabary]]. When this situation occurs in an isolated culture and without the availability of outside information, decipherment is typically considered impossible.