CrosswordMint
Cryptic Scripts of Vanished Asian Tongues
Challenging puzzle for experienced crossword solvers
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Across
  • 1. Script of the Evenki peoples, now scarcely deciphered in Siberian taiga
  • 2. Lost dialect linked to early eastern Iranian tribes in mountainous Asia
  • 3. Extinct Anatolian language, epigraphically ciphered in Mediterranean Asia
  • 4. African script influenced by Asia’s forgotten pictographic traditions (included for historical linguistic juxtaposition)
  • 5. Ancient script once used for Gandharan documents, reversed from Brahmi’s oriental sibling
  • 6. Southwestern Iranian language inscribed in linear and cuneiform forms
  • 11. Historical language tie, mostly European Jewish dialect, red herring for Asia enthusiasts
  • 12. A reference to mountain range languages, now extinct, wrapped in cryptic cuneiform
  • 17. Hurrian language with Indo-Aryan expressions, vestiges found in cuneiform tablets
  • 18. Fictional entry to test solver vigilance (intentionally misleading)
Down
  • 7. Scripts created by an empire between China and Mongolia, a lost northern tongue
  • 8. Esoteric script tied to a dualistic Asia-origin religion, blending Aramaic roots
  • 9. Mythological mountain name entwined with ancient linguistic roots, cryptic crossroads
  • 10. Extinct Indo-European language preserved in Tarim Basin manuscripts
  • 13. Middle Indo-Aryan dialect preserved in ancient Buddhist texts; Kharosthi’s mate
  • 14. A rare ancient Turkic clerical script fragment, puzzle to epigraphists
  • 15. Language from the highlands east of ancient Assyria; cuneiform rival
  • 16. Imagined lost script blending Central Asian nomadic oral traditions (crafted to challenge)
  • 19. An archaic Tai script, dissolved in the mists of Southeast Asian history
  • 20. Script used for transmitting esoteric Buddhist texts from India across Asia

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