While almost[6] all the preserved texts employing Anatolian hieroglyphs are written in the Luwian language,[7] some features of the script suggest its earliest development within a bilingual Hittite-Luwian environment.[8] There was occasionally some use of Anatolian hieroglyphs to write foreign material like Hurrian theonyms, or glosses in Urartian (such as á – ḫá+ra – ku for aqarqi or tu – ru – za for ṭerusi, two units of measurement).[11] Anatolian hieroglyphs first came to Western attention in the nineteenth century, when European explorers such as Johann Ludwig Burckhardt and Richard Francis Burton described pictographic inscriptions on walls in the city of Hama, Syria.[12] By 1915, with the Luwian language known from cuneiform, and a substantial quantity of Anatolian hieroglyphs transcribed and published, linguists started to make real progress in reading the script.Hawkins, Anna Morpurgo Davies and Günther Neumann, who corrected some previous errors about sign values, in particular emending the reading of symbols *376 and *377 from i, ī to zi, za.= 𔔁 há = 𔓟 haₓ = 𔕡 hí = 𔕘 hú = 𔖈 hwiₓ = 𔓎 ká = 𔐾 ki₄ = 𔔓 kiₓ = 𔔓 la = 𔗲 laₓ = 𔗽 li = 𔗲 lí = 𔒖 lì = 𔕇 má = 𔖘 mà = 𔕖 maₓ = 𔕖, 𔘅 mí = 𔗘 mì = 𔖷 ná = 𔕵 ní = 𔓵 nì = 𔐽 niₓ = 𔗴 nú = 𔖿 pá = 𔘅 paₓ = 𔓐 pú = 𔗣 rú = 𔑳, 𔑵 sá = 𔗦 sà = 𔑷 sa₄ = 𔗆 sa₅ = 𔕮 sa₆ = 𔔀 sa₇ = 𔕣 sa₈ = 𔖭 sí ?= 𔓇 tú = 𔕬 tù = 𔕭 tu₄ = 𔔈 wá = 𔓁 wà = 𔓀 wa₄ = 𔓬 wa₅ = 𔓩 wa₆ = 𔓤 wa₇ = 𔕁 wa₉ = 𔔻 wi = 𔗬 wí = 𔓁 wì = 𔓀 wi₄ = 𔓬 wi₅ = 𔓩 wi₆ = 𔓤 wi₇ = 𔕁 wi₉ = 𔔻 iá = 𔕑 ià = 𔖬 zá = 𔕹 zà = 𔕼 za₄ = 𔒈 zaₓ = 𔕽 zí = 𔕠 zì = 𔕻 zi₄ = 𔒚 zú = 𔗵 Transliteration of logograms is conventionally the term represented in Latin, in capital letters (e.g. PES for the logogram for "foot").[19] Some of the homophonic signs have received further attention and new phonetic interpretation in recent years, e.g. tà has been argued to stand for /da/,[20] and á seems to have stood for /ʔa/ (distinct from /a/), representing the descendant of Proto-Indo-European */h₁/.
Anatolian hieroglyphs surround a figure in royal dress. The inscription, repeated in cuneiform around the rim, gives the seal owner's name: the ruler
Tarkasnawa
of
Mira
. This famous bilingual inscription provided the first clues for deciphering Anatolian hieroglyphs.