Linear B sign B028 I

It marks the vowel sound in “machine.”

Linear B spells words in syllables: a sign can stand for a vowel alone or for a consonant followed by a vowel. Here, 𐀂 supplies the vowel in one syllable; other signs complete the written word.

Linear B developed from Linear A, an earlier Cretan script, and was used to write Mycenaean Greek, an early form of Greek. Palace scribes recorded people, goods, and accounts on clay. The earliest chronology is disputed: finds at Knossos are placed around 1400 BCE, while some Linear B tablets from Pylos have been proposed as older. Cretan Hieroglyphic is another earlier Cretan writing tradition; the Cypriot syllabaries show contact across the wider Aegean. Linear B was deciphered in 1952, revealing this sign’s conventional value.

Is 𐀂 an alphabet letter?

No. It is a syllable sign, not an alphabet letter.

The Latin-letter i is scholars’ transliteration of its sound, not the character’s identity. It is not Greek iota or Latin i.

Why does 𐀂 appear as a box?

Your font may not include a Linear B glyph.

A font without the character can display a box or replacement mark. The encoded sign is unchanged; another font with the glyph can render it.