The D-Sign, Geometric Semantics, and the Origins of Word Formation: A Hypothesis Concerning Vinča Symbolism and Albanian Lexical Structure
Linguistic Glob
Abstract
The relationship between graphic symbols, spoken language, and the emergence of writing remains one of the unresolved questions in the study of human communication. This article proposes a hypothesis concerning the historical and conceptual relationship between the geometric form conventionally represented as D, the semantic notions of division and separation, and a group of Albanian lexical forms including dal/del ‘go out, exit’, dalje ‘exit, way out’, der ‘door’, da ‘divide/separate’, and dy ‘two’.
The argument begins with the Neolithic sign repertoire associated with the Vinča cultural complex of southeastern Europe, conventionally dated to the sixth–fifth millennia BCE. Although the Vinča signs cannot presently be demonstrated to constitute a fully deciphered writing system, their recurrence, standardization, and occasional combinations make them important evidence for the development of structured graphic communication. Earlier scholarship has described the material as “pre-writing,” while other researchers have proposed more ambitious interpretations of its communicative function.
The article then examines the historical development of the later dalet–delta–D sequence and asks whether the conventional history of the alphabet necessarily exhausts the conceptual history of the sign. The principal hypothesis is that certain early graphic forms may have functioned not merely as phonetic signs but as semantic or semasiographic units, in which geometric configuration contributed to conceptual meaning. Within this framework, the semicircular form conventionally represented by Latin D can be interpreted geometrically as one half of a circle, while the angular form associated with dalet and delta may be interpreted as representing an opening, separation, or passage.
The proposed relationship between these graphic forms and Albanian vocabulary is presented not as an established historical derivation but as a hypothesis requiring systematic testing. The article argues that Albanian deserves particular attention in such research because it preserves a distinctive Indo-European branch with a complex Palaeo-Balkan history and a vocabulary containing forms whose semantic structures invite investigation from the perspective of prehistoric conceptual symbolism.
The broader proposal is that the emergence of writing should not necessarily be understood as a sudden transition from meaningless marks to phonetic alphabets. A more gradual model may be possible, in which geometric signs, concepts, actions, and sounds interacted in the development of increasingly complex systems of symbolic communication.
Keywords: Vinča culture; Vinča signs; Neolithic symbolism; pre-writing; D; dalet; delta; Albanian; dal; del; der; da; dy; geometric semantics; semasiography; word formation; writing origins.
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1. Introduction
One of the most fundamental questions in linguistic history is also one of the most difficult to answer:
How did human beings create their first words?
A related question is equally important:
How did graphic symbols become associated with sounds, concepts, and eventually words?
The archaeological record provides evidence of symbolic behavior long before the emergence of historically documented writing systems. Upper Palaeolithic societies produced non-figurative signs tens of thousands of years ago, demonstrating that humans were capable of using graphic forms in systematic ways long before the appearance of known alphabets.
The Neolithic evidence from southeastern Europe is especially significant. The Vinča cultural complex produced a substantial corpus of recurring signs on pottery and other objects. Some researchers have interpreted these signs as an early writing system, while others have classified them as a form of pre-writing or symbolic communication. The disagreement itself demonstrates an important methodological point: the existence of repeated symbols does not automatically establish that those symbols encoded spoken language.
This article does not assume that the Vinča signs constitute a deciphered alphabet. Instead, it asks a narrower and potentially testable question:
> **Could some Neolithic graphic signs have combined geometric form, conceptual meaning, and linguistic value before the emergence of alphabetic writing?**
The question is approached through a particular case: the graphic form conventionally represented by D.
The modern reader sees D primarily as a letter associated with a sound. Yet its visual structure is strikingly simple: a vertical element combined with a curved element. In another historical form, dalet/delta, the sign appears as an angular figure traditionally associated with the word ‘door’.
The possibility explored here is that these forms may preserve more than a sequence of arbitrary alphabetic transformations. They may reflect an older relationship between shape and concept.
The Albanian language provides an intriguing linguistic dataset for examining this possibility.
Albanian has:
dal/del — ‘to go out, exit’;
dalje — ‘exit, way out’;
derë — ‘door’;
da — ‘to divide, separate’;
dy — ‘two’.
The similarity among these forms and the concepts of exit, opening, separation, division, and two-part structure raises a question that deserves systematic examination.
Could some of these semantic relationships reflect a much older conceptual system in which geometric forms were themselves meaningful?
The present article develops that possibility as a research hypothesis.
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2. Writing, Pre-Writing, and Symbolic Communication
The conventional history of writing often begins with recognizable writing systems in the ancient Near East. However, writing did not emerge in an intellectual vacuum.
Human symbolic communication is considerably older.
Archaeological research has documented repeated non-figurative signs in European Upper Palaeolithic contexts dating to tens of thousands of years ago. The precise meanings of many of these signs remain unknown, but their recurrence demonstrates that prehistoric communities used graphic conventions that cannot simply be reduced to accidental decoration.
The Neolithic period provides additional evidence for increasingly structured symbolic systems.
The Vinča cultural complex is particularly important because its pottery and other artifacts contain recurring graphic signs. Shan Winn's influential study classified approximately 200 sign types and documented numerous occurrences of multiple signs appearing together. Later scholarship has continued to debate whether these marks constitute writing, pre-writing, religious symbolism, or another form of structured communication.
This distinction is crucial.
A writing system normally encodes linguistic information in a systematic and conventional manner.
A semasiographic system, by contrast, can communicate meanings without necessarily encoding a particular spoken language.
A symbolic system may occupy an intermediate position.
The existence of such intermediate systems has become increasingly important in current research on the origins of writing. Recent work on Neolithic symbolic communication has emphasized that graphic codes may have consisted of standardized visual forms whose meanings were structured through combinations and cultural conventions without yet constituting a fully developed writing system.
Consequently, the question need not be:
> “Was Vinča writing?”
A more productive question is:
> **What stage in the evolution of symbolic communication is represented by the Vinča signs?**
This formulation allows the possibility that Neolithic communities developed graphic units with stable conceptual associations before those units became phonographic signs.
That possibility is central to the hypothesis developed here.
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3. The Historical D: From Dalet to Delta and Latin D
The conventional history of the alphabet connects Latin D with earlier Mediterranean alphabetic traditions, particularly through Etruscan and Greek intermediaries.
The Phoenician sign conventionally called dalet is traditionally associated with the word ‘door’. The Greek alphabet subsequently incorporated a related sign under the name delta.
The important observation is not simply that these signs resemble one another.
The more significant question is:
> **Why was a particular shape associated with the concept of a door?**
If the answer is merely conventional, the relationship between shape and meaning could have been arbitrary.
If, however, the graphic form originally represented an opening, passage, or division, then the sign may have possessed an iconic or conceptual dimension before becoming primarily phonetic.
The distinction between these possibilities is fundamental.
The traditional alphabetic model emphasizes the transformation:
object → picture → word → phonetic sign
The hypothesis proposed here allows an alternative or complementary pathway:
geometric perception → conceptual sign → semantic unit → phonetic association → alphabetic sign
These models are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
A graphic sign could begin with a recognizable visual concept and later acquire a conventional phonetic value.
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4. The Geometric Structure of D
The modern Latin capital D has an exceptionally simple geometric structure.
It can be described as:
a vertical diameter-like line + a semicircular curve
or, more abstractly:
one half of a circular form.
If an O is divided vertically through its center, two approximately semicircular forms are produced.
This elementary geometric relationship creates an interesting conceptual chain:
O → division → two halves → D-like forms → two
The present article does not claim that this is the historically established origin of Latin D.
Rather, it proposes that such a geometric relationship could have served as a conceptual association in an early symbolic system.
The distinction is essential.
The hypothesis concerns the possible relationship between graphic geometry and conceptual categorization, not merely the genealogical descent of alphabetic letter shapes.
This distinction also opens the possibility of examining whether prehistoric symbols functioned simultaneously at multiple levels:
as visual objects;
as conceptual signs;
as mnemonic devices;
as conventional symbols;
eventually as phonetic signs.
Such multifunctionality is not impossible in the history of writing. Modern scholarship increasingly recognizes that early graphic communication cannot always be neatly divided into “picture” versus “writing.”
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5. The Angular D: Door, Opening, and Exit
The second form examined here is the angular sign associated historically with dalet and Greek delta.
The traditional interpretation of dalet connects the name with ‘door’.
The Albanian vocabulary presents an intriguing semantic constellation:
dal/del — to go out
dalje — exit, way out
derë — door
A door is not simply an object.
Conceptually, a door is:
an opening;
a boundary;
a transition;
an exit;
an entrance;
a passage between two spaces.
The semantic relationship between door and exit is therefore conceptually natural.
A person does not merely encounter a door as an isolated object. A door creates the possibility of movement from one bounded space to another.
This raises the possibility that a prehistoric graphic representation of a doorway might have been interpreted conceptually as:
opening → passage → exit → movement outward
If such a semantic development existed, the relationship between the graphic sign and later lexical forms could potentially be investigated.
However, similarity alone cannot establish historical descent.
The fact that Albanian dal means ‘go out’ and that dalet is traditionally associated with ‘door’ is therefore not, by itself, proof that one derives historically from the other.
What it provides is a research hypothesis.
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6. Albanian dal, del, der, and dalje
Albanian is particularly interesting for this investigation because its historical position is unusual.
Modern scholarship recognizes Albanian as a separate branch of the Indo-European language family. Its internal history and its relationships with other ancient Balkan languages remain subjects of continuing investigation. Current scholarship places Albanian within a broader Palaeo-Balkan context while emphasizing that its exact ancient linguistic affiliations cannot be reconstructed with certainty.
The language is first documented in surviving written sources much later than the Neolithic period: the earliest surviving written evidence is the 1462 baptismal formula, followed by Gjon Buzuku's Meshari of 1555.
This chronological gap creates a major methodological problem.
We cannot simply assume that a modern Albanian word existed in its present form thousands of years ago.
The appropriate question is instead:
> **Can historical linguistic reconstruction establish whether the relevant lexical roots have sufficient antiquity and semantic continuity to make comparison with prehistoric symbols meaningful?**
For dal, there is a substantial tradition of Albanian etymological investigation. Vladimir Orel's Albanian Etymological Dictionary remains one of the major reference works for the historical study of Albanian vocabulary.
The present hypothesis therefore requires comparison with established Albanian etymological analyses rather than replacing them with visual analogy.
The relevant lexical group should be examined individually:
Albanian form Basic meaning Conceptual domain
dal/del go out, exit movement outward
dalje exit, way out passage/opening
derë door boundary/opening
da divide/separate separation
dy two numerical duality
The concentration of these meanings around movement, separation, boundary, opening, and two-part division is the basis of the present hypothesis.
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7. Door and Exit: Object and Action
One of the most interesting aspects of the proposed relationship is the distinction between an object and an action.
Consider:
door → exit
A door is an object.
To exit is an action.
Yet the two concepts are functionally inseparable in many situations. The door provides the physical mechanism through which exit occurs.
This raises a broader question about the earliest formation of vocabulary.
Did human beings first name objects?
Or did they first name actions and relationships?
For example, before the abstract noun ‘door’ existed, a human community could have recognized:
> **“go out there.”**
The action could therefore conceptually precede the object label.
Under this hypothesis, a word associated with movement through an opening could later become associated with the physical structure producing that movement.
Such semantic developments are common in language generally, although demonstrating that a particular Albanian pair developed in this manner requires historical evidence.
The relationship between dal and derë should therefore be treated as an investigable semantic hypothesis, not as established etymology.
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8. Division and the Semicircle
The second major component of the hypothesis concerns Albanian da ‘divide’.
The conceptual relationship is geometrically straightforward.
Take a circle:
O
Divide it through its center:
O → two halves
Each half has the geometry of a semicircle.
The Latin letter D, viewed purely as a geometric object, resembles one such half.
This observation produces a conceptual sequence:
circle → division → half → two
The important question is whether prehistoric symbolic systems ever used geometric decomposition in this way.
Current research on Neolithic symbolic systems suggests that visual communication could involve combinations of standardized forms and meanings rather than simple one-to-one representations.
Thus the hypothesis can be formulated more cautiously:
> **Some geometric signs may have functioned as conceptual operators, representing not only objects but relationships such as division, separation, enclosure, direction, and movement.**
If so, a semicircular sign could theoretically have been associated with concepts involving:
half;
separation;
division;
two;
boundary;
opening.
The fact that such concepts are also represented by related Albanian lexical forms makes the Albanian data worthy of comparative investigation.
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9. D and the Concept of Two
The Albanian word dy means ‘two’.
The number two represents the most elementary consequence of division.
One becomes two through separation.
This produces a conceptual sequence:
one → division → two
A circular object divided through its center similarly produces two parts.
The proposal here is not that the Albanian word dy is historically derived from the graphic shape D. Such a conclusion would require evidence that does not presently exist.
Rather, the proposal is that graphic division and numerical duality may have been conceptually connected in early symbolic thought.
This distinction matters because similar conceptual associations can arise independently in different cultures.
Therefore, a valid test of the hypothesis would require demonstrating more than resemblance.
It would require evidence of:
chronological continuity;
geographical continuity;
stable graphic forms;
stable semantic associations;
plausible phonological correspondences;
transmission pathways.
Without these criteria, the argument remains speculative.
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10. From Graphic Concept to Phonetic Sign
The most important theoretical proposal of this article is that the development of writing may have involved an intermediate stage between pictorial representation and phonetic alphabetic writing.
A simplified conventional model is:
picture → word → sound → letter
The present model proposes:
visual form → concept → semantic sign → spoken association → phonetic sign
Under such a model, a sign could initially communicate a concept without representing a specific word.
For example, a graphic form representing an opening could communicate:
opening / passage / exit
Different speakers could potentially express the concept using different spoken words.
Over time, however, a particular linguistic community could associate the sign with one particular lexical item.
The sign would then acquire phonetic value.
This model is compatible with the broader possibility of semasiographic communication, in which graphic signs communicate meaning without directly encoding a spoken sentence or word. Recent scholarship on early symbolic systems has emphasized precisely this distinction.
If such a process occurred in prehistoric Europe, then later alphabetic forms might preserve only the final stage of a much longer history.
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11. The Vinča Question
The Vinča corpus is central to this hypothesis because of its antiquity.
The Vinča cultural complex flourished in southeastern Europe during the Neolithic, and its artifacts contain numerous recurring signs. The signs include geometric forms, crosses, lines, angular figures, curves, and combinations of individual elements.
The chronological priority of these artifacts relative to the historical Phoenician, Greek, Etruscan, and Latin alphabets is obvious.
But chronological priority alone does not demonstrate genealogical descent.
This is one of the most important qualifications of the present study.
A Vinča symbol resembling a later alphabetic letter does not automatically prove that the later letter descended from it.
There are at least four possible explanations:
direct transmission;
indirect transmission through intermediate cultures;
independent invention;
similarity resulting from simple geometric constraints.
The fourth possibility is particularly important.
Circles, lines, triangles, crosses, and semicircles are among the simplest forms humans can draw. Their recurrence in different cultures may therefore arise independently.
Consequently, the hypothesis that a Vinča sign is ancestral to D must be demonstrated through a chain of evidence, not visual resemblance alone.
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12. The Chronological Problem
A further difficulty concerns the enormous chronological gap between the Vinča culture and the first alphabetic traditions.
The earliest securely documented alphabetic writing belongs to the Bronze Age Levant. Research on early alphabetic inscriptions places the emergence of alphabetic writing within second-millennium BCE Levantine societies.
This means that an argument connecting Vinča symbols to later alphabetic forms must explain what happened during the intervening millennia.
A serious historical model would therefore require evidence for one or more transmission routes through:
southeastern Europe;
Anatolia;
the Aegean;
the Balkans;
the eastern Mediterranean;
the Levant.
Without such evidence, the proposed connection remains a hypothesis about structural similarity, not a demonstrated genealogical relationship.
This is precisely where future research should concentrate.
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13. The Albanian Question
The central linguistic implication of the hypothesis concerns Albanian.
Albanian's position within Indo-European linguistics is unusual because it represents a distinct branch with a relatively late written record and a poorly documented ancient prehistory. Modern scholarship emphasizes both its independent development and its complex connections with other Palaeo-Balkan languages.
The absence of early Albanian manuscripts, however, does not imply that the spoken language itself is young.
Written documentation and spoken-language chronology are different questions.
The first surviving written Albanian evidence dates to the fifteenth century, but Albanian as a spoken language necessarily predates its written documentation by an unknown period.
This distinction is essential.
The present article therefore does not argue:
> “Albanian was written 8,000 years ago.”
There is currently no evidence establishing such a claim.
Instead, it asks:
> **Could certain conceptual and lexical structures preserved in Albanian ultimately reflect very old linguistic traditions whose origins predate the historical alphabetic record?**
That question is legitimate, but answering it requires historical-comparative methodology.
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14. A Proposed “D Rule”
The observations discussed above can be summarized as a provisional model:
D-Rule Hypothesis
A geometric form representing division, separation, opening, or a half-circle may acquire a stable conceptual meaning and subsequently participate in the formation of linguistic expressions associated with:
division;
two;
separation;
opening;
exit;
door;
passage.
The hypothesis can be represented schematically:
O → division → D-shaped half → two/separation
and:
boundary → opening → passage → exit
The Albanian lexical forms da, dy, dal/del, dalje, and derë provide a modern linguistic dataset through which these conceptual relationships can be investigated.
The crucial word is investigated.
The proposed “D rule” should not be presented as an established universal law of word formation.
It is better understood as a research model that generates predictions.
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15. Predictions of the Hypothesis
A useful scientific hypothesis should generate testable predictions.
If the proposed relationship between geometry and lexical semantics is historically meaningful, we would expect to find some of the following:
15.1 Recurrent geometric-semantic associations
Similar geometric forms should repeatedly occur in prehistoric symbolic corpora alongside contexts suggestive of:
openings;
boundaries;
division;
duality;
movement;
enclosure.
15.2 Intermediate forms
There should be intermediate graphic forms linking Neolithic symbols to later Mediterranean signs.
15.3 Semantic continuity
Where a graphic form survives historically, its associated concept should show some degree of semantic continuity.
15.4 Phonological compatibility
If a graphic sign acquired phonetic value, the proposed sound correspondences should conform to established historical phonology.
15.5 Cross-linguistic distribution
Related semantic and phonetic structures should be examined across neighboring languages rather than selectively in Albanian.
15.6 Archaeological transmission
There should be plausible geographical pathways through which the relevant signs could have moved between populations.
These criteria provide a means of potentially falsifying the hypothesis.
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16. The Problem of Coincidence
One of the greatest dangers in prehistoric etymology is retrospective pattern recognition.
Humans are exceptionally good at identifying patterns.
This ability is scientifically valuable, but it can also create false historical relationships.
For example:
D = half of O
is geometrically true as a description of the capital letter's shape.
But it does not prove that prehistoric people conceived the letter in those terms.
Similarly:
dal = exit
and
dalet = door
does not by itself establish a historical relationship between the two words.
A scholarly investigation must therefore distinguish:
resemblance
from
historical relationship.
The present study proposes that the resemblance is sufficiently interesting to justify further investigation.
It does not claim that resemblance alone constitutes proof.
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17. Reconsidering the “Arbitrary Sign”
Another important theoretical issue concerns the assumption that letters are fundamentally arbitrary.
Modern alphabetic systems are largely conventional. Once a sign has acquired a phonetic value, its visual form does not normally determine its pronunciation.
But this does not mean that the earliest stages of graphic communication were necessarily arbitrary.
A sign may begin as an image or geometric representation.
It may then become conventionalized.
Finally, it may lose its original semantic transparency and function primarily as a phonetic symbol.
Thus:
icon → symbol → letter
may describe one possible developmental pathway.
If so, modern speakers see only the final stage.
The original conceptual motivation may disappear.
This possibility is particularly relevant to ancient scripts whose earliest stages are poorly documented.
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18. Beyond the Alphabet: A Different Model of Word Creation
The broader proposal of this article is therefore not simply that “D came from Vinča.”
The deeper proposal is that the origins of words and writing may have been interconnected.
A prehistoric community could have experienced:
object → action → concept → image → sign → sound → word
rather than the modern separation between language and writing.
For example:
closed space → opening → exit → movement → lexical concept
could generate a conceptual network.
Likewise:
whole circle → division → two halves → duality
could generate another conceptual network.
Such networks might later become lexicalized in different languages.
If this model is correct, the study of etymology should not focus exclusively on phonological correspondences.
It should also investigate:
geometry;
embodied perception;
semantic motivation;
prehistoric symbolism;
material culture;
cognitive categorization;
archaeological context.
This would not replace historical linguistics.
It would complement it.
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19. Implications for Albanian Historical Linguistics
The hypothesis has particular implications for the study of Albanian.
Albanian is not merely another modern European language with a late literary record. It constitutes an independent branch of Indo-European and preserves a vocabulary that has developed through long-term interaction with neighboring linguistic populations. Modern scholarship places its development within the complex linguistic environment of the Balkans.
This makes Albanian valuable for historical research.
However, the value of Albanian should not be framed as proof that all other European languages derive from Albanian.
A more productive proposition is:
> **Albanian may preserve lexical structures whose historical analysis can contribute evidence to the reconstruction of older Balkan linguistic and conceptual systems.**
This is a much more testable claim.
It allows Albanian to participate in the reconstruction of prehistoric linguistic history without assuming the conclusion in advance.
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20. A Research Program
The hypothesis developed here could be tested through a multidisciplinary research program involving at least five areas.
20.1 Archaeology
Compile a complete corpus of Vinča signs and establish their:
dates;
locations;
archaeological contexts;
frequencies;
combinations.
20.2 Paleography
Compare individual Vinča signs with later graphic forms while controlling for geometric coincidence.
20.3 Historical linguistics
Analyze Albanian forms using established comparative methodology, including:
phonological reconstruction;
morphological analysis;
semantic history;
cognate comparison;
loanword chronology.
20.4 Computational analysis
A computational study could measure the probability that proposed similarities between Vinča signs and later alphabetic characters exceed what would be expected from random geometric similarity.
20.5 Cognitive archaeology
Experimental studies could investigate whether particular geometric forms naturally evoke concepts such as:
opening;
division;
enclosure;
direction;
two;
half.
Such evidence would not prove historical transmission, but it could establish whether the proposed semantic associations are cognitively plausible.
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21. Discussion
The central hypothesis of this article can now be stated more precisely.
It is not:
> “The Latin letter D is an Albanian letter copied from Vinča.”
Nor is it:
> “The Vinča culture has already been proven to have written Albanian.”
Neither proposition is supported by the available evidence.
The stronger and more scientifically useful proposition is:
> **Some prehistoric graphic signs may have functioned as semantically motivated geometric symbols before becoming phonetic writing units, and certain Albanian lexical relationships may preserve conceptual structures relevant to investigating this transition.**
This hypothesis is compatible with the broader archaeological observation that symbolic communication existed long before historically attested alphabets.
It is also compatible with current research emphasizing that Neolithic graphic systems may have occupied an intermediate position between isolated imagery and fully linguistic writing.
The Albanian evidence is intriguing because of the concentration of concepts surrounding dal/del, derë, da, and dy.
But intrigue is not proof.
The next stage of research must therefore determine whether these relationships survive rigorous historical-comparative testing.
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22. Conclusion
The history of writing may be considerably older and more complex than the history of alphabets.
The alphabet is only one stage in a much longer development of human symbolic communication.
Before the appearance of historically documented writing systems, humans already possessed the ability to create repeated visual signs, organize them according to conventions, and associate graphic forms with culturally meaningful concepts.
The Vinča corpus is important precisely because it occupies this poorly understood period. Although its signs cannot presently be demonstrated to encode a known spoken language, they provide evidence for sophisticated Neolithic symbolic practices.
The D-sign offers a particularly useful case study.
Its later historical forms connect the traditions conventionally represented as:
dalet → delta → D
while its geometric structure permits an alternative conceptual analysis:
circle → division → half → duality.
The Albanian lexical system provides another intriguing set of relationships:
dal/del → exit
dalje → way out
derë → door
da → divide/separate
dy → two
These correspondences do not establish a prehistoric Albanian writing system.
They do, however, justify a research question:
> **Could some early graphic signs have encoded conceptual relationships—such as opening, exit, division, separation, and duality—before they became conventional phonetic letters?**
If this question can be answered positively through archaeological, paleographic, phonological, and comparative evidence, it would alter our understanding of the transition from symbolic communication to writing.
The significance of such a finding would extend beyond the history of a single letter.
It would concern the origin of one of humanity's most fundamental cognitive technologies:
the transformation of perception into symbol, symbol into concept, concept into word, and word into writing.
The hypothesis presented here therefore should be regarded as a starting point rather than a conclusion.
Its value lies not in claiming that the mystery has already been solved, but in proposing a way to investigate it.
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References
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Cartolano, M., & Ferrara, S. (2025). Codes in the making: A new appraisal of Neolithic imagery in Southwest Asia. Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
Hamp, E. P. (1966). The position of Albanian. In H. Birnbaum & J. Puhvel (Eds.), Ancient Indo-European Dialects. University of California Press.
Hamp, E. P. (1992). Albanian. In J. Gvozdanović (Ed.), Indo-European Numerals. Mouton de Gruyter.
Hyllested, A., & Joseph, B. D. (2022). Albanian. In T. Olander (Ed.), The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective. Cambridge University Press.
Hyllested, A., & Joseph, B. D. (2025). The Balkan Languages. Cambridge University Press.
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Winn, S. M. M. (1981). Pre-Writing in Southeastern Europe: The Sign System of the Vinča Culture ca. 4000 B.C. Western Publishers.
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Author's note
The present manuscript deliberately distinguishes documented historical evidence, comparative linguistic analysis, and hypothesis. The proposed relationships among Vinča signs, the D-shaped geometric form, and Albanian lexical items should be subjected to further archaeological, paleographic, and historical-linguistic testing.
This formulation is intended to make the argument suitable for scholarly discussion without weakening its central research question: whether geometric symbolism may have played a more fundamental role in the emergence of linguistic structure and writing than is normally assumed.
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