Linear B syllable qe

It stands for one syllable, conventionally read qe.

The qe spelling is a scholarly label for a sound usually reconstructed as a k made at the back of the mouth with rounded lips, followed by e; some readings allow a voiced g sound or a related value. It is not another character to add beside 𐀤.

It belongs to Linear B's q-series, a group of syllable signs sharing that rounded, back-of-mouth consonant. Scribes used signs like it to spell Mycenaean Greek in palace records; read the surrounding signs to get the word.

How did 𐀤 enter Linear B?

It belongs to an older Aegean writing tradition.

An early Linear B archive at Knossos belongs to the Late Bronze Age, close to the older Linear A tradition. Linear B was adapted to record Mycenaean Greek for palace administration, and its q-series is commonly connected with Linear A signs for rounded, back-of-mouth consonants.

A palaeographic comparison pairs qe with Linear A sign AB078 𐘿. One hypothesis treats that older sign as a picture of a round object and derives its sound from the object's name; that proposal is not a settled meaning for either sign. The later Greek alphabet did not carry this syllable sign forward.

How should I read qe in a transcription?

The signs around qe determine the whole word's reading.

In e-qe-ta, qe is one syllable in a Mycenaean title that the Pylos coast-guard list translates as an officer. That meaning belongs to the whole spelling, not to 𐀤 by itself.

At the end of me-ta-qe, the same sign contributes a connective rendered “and with them” in that Pylos entry. Its position changes its role from part of a title to part of a linking expression.