This chapter examines the ways in which the Linear B ‘extra’ signs – syllabograms which can in certain circumstances replace the ‘core’ signs of the Linear B syllabary – are often used as evidence for the process by which this writing system was created from its parent writing system, Linear A, and thus, by extension, for reconstructing aspects of Linear A and of the ‘Minoan’ language it was used to write. It also exploree how this group
of signs can more productively be used to investigate the motivations behind the creation and use of new signs within Linear B itself.