DOCSLIB.ORG

Rongorongo Script: Carving Techniques and Scribal Corrections

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Rongorongo Script: Carving Techniques and Scribal Corrections Journal de la Société des Océanistes 129 | juillet-décembre 2009 Varia Rongorongo Script: Carving Techniques and Scribal Corrections Paul Horley Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/jso/5813 DOI: 10.4000/jso.5813 ISSN: 1760-7256 Publisher Société des océanistes Printed version Date of publication: 15 December 2009 Number of pages: 249-261 ISBN: 978-2-85430-026-0 ISSN: 0300-953x Electronic reference Paul Horley, « Rongorongo Script: Carving Techniques and Scribal Corrections », Journal de la Société des Océanistes [Online], 129 | juillet-décembre 2009, Online since 30 December 2012, connection on 30 April 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/jso/5813 ; DOI : 10.4000/jso.5813 © Tous droits réservés Rongorongo Script: Carving Techniques and Scribal Corrections by Paul HORLEY* ABSTRACT RÉSUMÉ Studies of three original rongorongo tablets (Tahua, L’étude menée sur trois tablettes rongorongo origina- Aruku Kurenga and Mamari) revealed clear traces of les (Tahua, Aruku Kurenga et Mamari) montre claire- two-stage carving (pre-incising with an obsidian flake ment que les signes ont été tracés au cours de deux and contour enhancement with a shark tooth). Most étapes successives : pré-incision avec un éclat d’obsi- probably, the texts were written in short fragments with dienne puis gravure des contours avec une dent de requin. shark-tooth engraving applied before passing to the next Il est probable que de courts fragments de textes étaient fragment. Additional multiple engraving sessions might écrits et gravés à l’aide d’une dent de requin avant de been performed for finished inscription, aiming to tracer le fragment de texte suivant. Des reprises de enhance glyph contours. Despite laborious and time- gravure ont pu être exécutées afin d’améliorer les consuming writing technology, the scribes display extre- contours des glyphes. Malgré une technique de tracé mely high professional level, making only a few errors minutieuse et complexe, peu d’erreurs ont été faites par and corrections in the studied inscriptions totaling to les scribes dans le texte étudié totalisant environ 4 000 about 4,000 glyphs. These errors usually consist in pre- glyphes. Ces erreurs consistent essentiellement dans term writing of a passage, re-insertion of omitted sym- l’écriture initiale d’un passage, dans la réinsertion de bols (even on the edge of the tablet) and palimpsest symboles omis (même sur le bord d’une tablette) et dans corrections. Pronounced shape variation of signs ente- les corrections par ablation partielle d’inscriptions ring inline repetitive fragments seems indicative of (palimpseste). La variation prononcée dans la forme de direct on-tablet composition of the text without any certains signes présents dans des fragments répétitifs draft inscriptions. Corrections and parallel passages semble indiquer une composition du texte directement suggest allography of glyphs 133 and 067, which by sur la tablette sans pré-incision préalable. Les correc- analogy may imply allography of signs 055b and 068 in tions et les fragments de textes similaires suggèrent une Barthel’s notation. allographie des signes 133 et 067, qui par analogie peut impliquer l’allographie des glyphes 055 et 068 dans le K: Easter Island, rongorongo, script, paleo- système de notation de Barthel. graphy, allograph M- : île de Pâques, rongorongo, écriture, paléo- graphie, allographe * Yuri Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine, e-mail [email protected] Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 129, année 2009-2 250 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES Rongorongo script of Easter Island, first men- Carving of Rongorongo inscriptions tioned by Brother Eugène Eyraud in 1864 According to Brother Eugène Eyraud: (Orliac and Orliac, 2008: 62), survived on about two dozens of inscribed artifacts collected in a «one finds in all the houses [on Rapa Nui] wooden short period during the late 19th century. The tablets and staffs covered with sort of hieroglyphic first tablet, Echancreé, was presented to the Bis- characters. These are figures of animals unknown to the island, which natives trace by means of sharp hop Tepano Jaussen by Father Gaspar Zum- stones.» (Fischer, 1997: 12) bohm in 1869 (ibid, 259); three tablets deposited by J.L. Young to the Bishop Museum at Hono- Later ethnographic studies revealed that the lulu are the latest collected around 1888 (Fischer, signs were carved with obsidian flakes and shark 1997: 459). The radiocarbon dating of the wood teeth (Englert, 1948: 317). To increase the preci- of Small St. Petersburg tablet yielded the possi- sion and lower the strain, both types of tools ble dates in the ranges AD 1680-1740 and 1800- should be hafted (Fischer, 1997: 388). This detail 1871 (Orliac, 2005: 118). The first interval advo- is confirmed with a crossed-out passage in the cates for a considerable antiquity of the script notes of Tepano Jaussen (Orliac and Orliac, expanding to pre-contact (1722) time, while the 2008: 247). Before carving in wood, the pupils second range practically overlaps with a period practiced writing with a bone stylus over banana when the majority of rongorongo tablets were stems and leaves (Englert, 1948: 316), which pro- collected. The existence of inscriptions on a ved to be an excellent writing media (Barthel, European oar (tablet Tahua) and four kohau ron- 1959: 164). Moreover, the veins of banana plant gorongo made of conifer wood (Orliac and (separated in average by 10 mm and 15 mm space ff ff Orliac, 2008: 257) that could be probably sour- for stems and leaves, respectively) o ered an e i- ced from the crosses set at Poike by Gonzalez in cient natural lining that might determined glyph 1770 (Orliac, 2007: 9), suggests that Easter size for inscriptions in wood (ibid). It was sugges- Island script was still active in post-contact time ted that banana leaves were also possibly used to including late 18th century. keep a «draft text» intended for carving on woo- den tablet (Fischer, 1997: 647). Predominant glyph orientation perpendicular Rongorongo studies revealed that several arti- to the fibers of leaf or wood (Orliac and Orliac, facts have the same text (Kudryavtsev, 1949: 180; 2008: 253) most probably was an important fac- Barthel, 1958: 56-70) and share many parallel tor defining the shape of the signs; they are passages (Barthel, 1958: 156-157; Pozdniakov, practically devoid of horizontal segments that 1996: 295; Sproat, 2003; Horley, 2007: 26). The are capable to damage the integrity of a leaf or inscriptions contains repetitive sequences deli- cause slips of writing implement on wood. Even mited with a fixed glyph groups (Harrison, 1873: rectangle-looking signs usually have inclined or 379, 380-382; Butinov and Knorozov, 1956: 82; v-shaped top and bottom parts to avoid cutting Barthel, 1958: 304; Fedorova, 1982: 38, 66; lines along the fibers. The similar restrictions can Fischer, 1995: 306; Guy 2006: 59, 60; Horley, be seen in other scripts (unrelated to rongorongo) 2007: 27-29; Melka, 2008: 162). Analysis of designed for incising on palm leaves ¢ Kannada, parallel passages helped to define reading order Telugu and Oriya from India ¢ which widely use for the ligatures (Métraux, 1940: 401; Guy, curved lines to avoid tearing the leaves apart 1982: 447; Pozdniakov, 1996: 297). Results of (Masica, 1993: 143, 144). Runic script, develo- statistical analysis of rongorongo texts suggest ped for carving in wood, also lacks horizontal that the script most probably had a predominant segments that will be hard to distinguish from syllabic nature (Pozdniakov, 1996: 300; Horley, wood fibers or cracks (Greetham, 1994: 65). To 2005: 114; Pozdniakov and Pozdniakov, 2007: the contrary, scripts designed for non-incising 12). writing implements (e.g., Chinese or Maya hie- roglyphs intended for brush and ink writing on a One of the important problems that should be paper), are usually free from this restriction on solved to enable decipherment of rongorongo horizontal lines. consists in a proper identification of basic glyph Prior to carving, the surface of a tablet was elements and their allographic forms. In addi- usually carefully polished (Fischer, 1997: 388); tion to parallel sequences, much information for then, a set of shallow grooves (flutes) few tenths allographic studies can be extracted from the of a millimeter deep (Orliac and Orliac, 2008: calligraphy of the script, which is closely related 245) was formed on its surface to aid alignment to carving techniques and properties of writing of the signs and protect them from wearing media itself. (Harrison, 1873: 372). The glyphs were pre- RONGORONGO SCRIPT: CARVING TECHNIQUES AND SCRIBAL CORRECTIONS 251 incised with an obsidian flake (Orliac and Orliac, The tracings of rongorongo glyphs shown in 2008: 246) and deepened with a shark tooth the figures were made after the photos from the (Dederen and Fischer, 1993: 182). The properties SS.CC. Archives and illustrations published by of writing media also influenced the choice of a Orliac and Orliac (2008), Chauvet (1935), proper instrument ¢ old and worn shark tooth Heyerdahl (1975), Butinov and Knorozov proved to be more useful than a new one, because (1956). Barthel’s notation is used for referencing it does not tear wood fibers during carving of tablets, lines and individual glyphs; glyph codes acute angles (ibid.: 184). are zero-padded (also in figures, if the space The lines of rongorongo texts are arranged in permits) to three-digit numbers according to the reverse boustrophedon fashion (Métraux, 1940: extended Barthel system. 394), requiring rotation of a tablet upon rea- ching the end of each line. In many cases, obser- vation of fitted and overlapped signs in the nei- Minor scribal corrections ghboring lines helps to deduce their reading order even without resorting to analysis of Minor corrections of mistaken glyph elements parallel textual fragments. can be detected by unusual contours featuring pronounced angle on what should be a smooth curve, or survived pre-incised lines (Figure 1).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 0. Introduction L2/12-386
    Doc Type: Working Group Document Title: Revised Proposal to Encode Additional Old Italic Characters Source: UC Berkeley Script Encoding Initiative (Universal Scripts Project) Author: Christopher C. Little ([email protected]) Status: Liaison Contribution Action: For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC Replaces: N4046 (L2/11-146R) Date: 2012-11-06 0. Introduction The existing Old Italic character repertoire includes 31 letters and 4 numerals. The Unicode Standard, following the recommendations in the proposal L2/00-140, states that Old Italic is to be used for the encoding of Etruscan, Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian, North Picene, and South Picene. It also specifically states that Old Italic characters are inappropriate for encoding the languages of ancient Italy north of Etruria (Venetic, Raetic, Lepontic, and Gallic). It is true that the inscriptions of languages north of Etruria exhibit a number of common features, but those features are often exhibited by the other scripts of Italy. Only one of these northern languages, Raetic, requires the addition of any additional characters in order to be fully supported by the Old Italic block. Accordingly, following the addition of this one character, the Unicode Standard should be amended to recommend the encoding of Venetic, Raetic, Lepontic, and Gallic using Old Italic characters. In addition, one additional character is necessary to encode South Picene inscriptions. This proposal is divided into five parts: The first part (§1) identifies the two unencoded characters (Raetic Ɯ and South Picene Ũ) and demonstrates their use in inscriptions. The second part (§2) examines the use of each Old Italic character, as it appears in Etruscan, Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian, South Picene, Venetic, Raetic, Lepontic, Gallic, and archaic Latin, to demonstrate the unifiability of the northern Italic languages' scripts with Old Italic.
    [Show full text]
  • Thinking in ⅃TЯ
    Nathan P. Gibson • University of Munich (LMU) • usaybia.net Thinking in ⅃TЯ Reorienting the Directional Assumptions of Global Digital Scholarship https://tinyurl.com/gibson190608 Right2Left Workshop #DHSI19RTL Victoria, 8 June 2019 This presentation is licensed under a CC-BY 4.0 International License. Images may be subject to individual licenses (see captions). Outline Forward from Failures The State of Standards A Dizzying Tour of Directionality (Present Meets Future) (Past Meets Present) (The Past) Nathan Gibson, “Thinking in ⅃TЯ,” Right2Left DHSI, 8 June 2019, https://tinyurl.com/gibson190608 A Dizzying Tour of Directionality #sinistrodextrification Nathan Gibson, “Thinking in ⅃TЯ,” Right2Left DHSI, 8 June 2019, https://tinyurl.com/gibson190608 Modern Writing Systems Image: Adapted from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wi ki/File:WritingSystemsOfTheWorld. svg. Creator of the vector version: Pmx. Original work: Maximilian Dörrbecker, CC BY-SA 3.0. Nathan Gibson, “Thinking in ⅃TЯ,” Right2Left DHSI, 8 June 2019, https://tinyurl.com/gibson190608 Selected Languages* with Primarily Right-to-Left Writing Systems by Number of First-Language Speakers #5 Arabic 319 (millions) #10 Lahnda (Western Punjabi, etc.) 119 #20 Urdu 69 #23 Persian 62 * Or macrolanguages. ** May include non-primary speakers Pushto 38** Source: Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, and Charles Sindhi 25 D. Fennig, eds. 2019. “Summary by Language Size” [and Kurdish 22** individual language profile pages]. In Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 22nd ed. Dallas: SIL Uyghur 10** International. Hebrew 5 https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size. Rohingya 3** Nathan Gibson, “Thinking in ⅃TЯ,” Right2Left DHSI, 8 June 2019, https://tinyurl.com/gibson190608 > half a billion people almost 10% of the world population Nathan Gibson, “Thinking in ⅃TЯ,” Right2Left DHSI, 8 June 2019, https://tinyurl.com/gibson190608 The State of Standards (Past Meets Present) Plain Text Logical vs.
    [Show full text]
  • A Ruse Secluded Character Set for the Source
    Mukt Shabd Journal Issn No : 2347-3150 A Ruse Secluded character set for the Source Mr. J Purna Prakash1, Assistant Professor Mr. M. Rama Raju 2, Assistant Professor Christu Jyothi Institute of Technology & Science Abstract We are rich in data, but information is poor, typically world wide web and data streams. The effective and efficient analysis of data in which is different forms becomes a challenging task. Searching for knowledge to match the exact keyword is big task in Internet such as search engine. Now a days using Unicode Transform Format (UTF) is extended to UTF-16 and UTF-32. With helps to create more special characters how we want. China has GB 18030-character set. Less number of website are using ASCII format in china, recently. While searching some keyword we are unable get the exact webpage in search engine in top place. Issues in certain we face this problem in results announcement, notifications, latest news, latest products released. Mainly on government websites are not shown in the front page. To avoid this trap from common people, we require special character set to match the exact unique keyword. Most of the keywords are encoded with the ASCII format. While searching keyword called cbse net results thousands of websites will have the common keyword as cbse net results. Matching the keyword, it is already encoded in all website as ASCII format. Most of the government websites will not offer search engine optimization. Match a unique keyword in government, banking, Institutes, Online exam purpose. Proposals is to create a character set from A to Z and a to z, for the purpose of data cleaning.
    [Show full text]
  • Kiraz 2019 a Functional Approach to Garshunography
    Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 7 (2019) 264–277 brill.com/ihiw A Functional Approach to Garshunography A Case Study of Syro-X and X-Syriac Writing Systems George A. Kiraz Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton and Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute, Piscataway [email protected] Abstract It is argued here that functionalism lies at the heart of garshunographic writing systems (where one language is written in a script that is sociolinguistically associated with another language). Giving historical accounts of such systems that began as early as the eighth century, it will be demonstrated that garshunographic systems grew organ- ically because of necessity and that they offered a certain degree of simplicity rather than complexity.While the paper discusses mostly Syriac-based systems, its arguments can probably be expanded to other garshunographic systems. Keywords Garshuni – garshunography – allography – writing systems It has long been suggested that cultural identity may have been the cause for the emergence of Garshuni systems. (In the strictest sense of the term, ‘Garshuni’ refers to Arabic texts written in the Syriac script but the term’s semantics were drastically extended to other systems, sometimes ones that have little to do with Syriac—for which see below.) This paper argues for an alterna- tive origin, one that is rooted in functional theory. At its most fundamental level, Garshuni—as a system—is nothing but a tool and as such it ought to be understood with respect to the function it performs. To achieve this, one must take into consideration the social contexts—plural, as there are many—under which each Garshuni system appeared.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unicode Cookbook for Linguists: Managing Writing Systems Using Orthography Profiles
    Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2017 The Unicode Cookbook for Linguists: Managing writing systems using orthography profiles Moran, Steven ; Cysouw, Michael DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.290662 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-135400 Monograph The following work is licensed under a Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License. Originally published at: Moran, Steven; Cysouw, Michael (2017). The Unicode Cookbook for Linguists: Managing writing systems using orthography profiles. CERN Data Centre: Zenodo. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.290662 The Unicode Cookbook for Linguists Managing writing systems using orthography profiles Steven Moran & Michael Cysouw Change dedication in localmetadata.tex Preface This text is meant as a practical guide for linguists, and programmers, whowork with data in multilingual computational environments. We introduce the basic concepts needed to understand how writing systems and character encodings function, and how they work together. The intersection of the Unicode Standard and the International Phonetic Al- phabet is often not met without frustration by users. Nevertheless, thetwo standards have provided language researchers with a consistent computational architecture needed to process, publish and analyze data from many different languages. We bring to light common, but not always transparent, pitfalls that researchers face when working with Unicode and IPA. Our research uses quantitative methods to compare languages and uncover and clarify their phylogenetic relations. However, the majority of lexical data available from the world’s languages is in author- or document-specific orthogra- phies.
    [Show full text]
  • Early-Alphabets-3.Pdf
    Early Alphabets Alphabetic characteristics 1 Cretan Pictographs 11 Hieroglyphics 16 The Phoenician Alphabet 24 The Greek Alphabet 31 The Latin Alphabet 39 Summary 53 GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 1 / 53 Alphabetic characteristics 3,000 BCE Basic building blocks of written language GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 2 / 53 Early visual language systems were disparate and decentralized 3,000 BCE Protowriting, Cuneiform, Heiroglyphs and far Eastern writing all functioned differently Rebuses, ideographs, logograms, and syllabaries · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 3 / 53 HIEROGLYPHICS REPRESENTING THE REBUS PRINCIPAL · BEE & LEAF · SEA & SUN · BELIEF AND SEASON GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 4 / 53 PETROGLYPHIC PICTOGRAMS AND IDEOGRAPHS · CIRCA 200 BCE · UTAH, UNITED STATES GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 5 / 53 LUWIAN LOGOGRAMS · CIRCA 1400 AND 1200 BCE · TURKEY GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 6 / 53 OLD PERSIAN SYLLABARY · 600 BCE GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 7 / 53 Alphabetic structure marked an enormous societal leap 3,000 BCE Power was reserved for those who could read and write · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 8 / 53 What is an alphabet? Definition An alphabet is a set of visual symbols or characters used to represent the elementary sounds of a spoken language. –PM · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 9 / 53 What is an alphabet? Definition They can be connected and combined to make visual configurations signifying sounds, syllables, and words uttered by the human mouth.
    [Show full text]
  • A Ruse Secluded Character Set for the Source
    JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE & TECHNOLOGY Issn No : 1006-7930 A Ruse Secluded character set for the Source Mr. J Purna Prakash1, Assistant Professor Mr. M. Rama Raju 2, Assistant Professor Christu Jyothi Institute of Technology & Science Abstract We are rich in data, but information is poor, typically world wide web and data streams. The effective and efficient analysis of data in which is different forms becomes a challenging task. Searching for knowledge to match the exact keyword is big task in Internet such as search engine. Now a days using Unicode Transform Format (UTF) is extended to UTF-16 and UTF-32. With helps to create more special characters how we want. China has GB 18030-character set. Less number of website are using ASCII format in china, recently. While searching some keyword we are unable get the exact webpage in search engine in top place. Issues in certain we face this problem in results announcement, notifications, latest news, latest products released. Mainly on government websites are not shown in the front page. To avoid this trap from common people, we require special character set to match the exact unique keyword. Most of the keywords are encoded with the ASCII format. While searching keyword called cbse net results thousands of websites will have the common keyword as cbse net results. Matching the keyword, it is already encoded in all website as ASCII format. Most of the government websites will not offer search engine optimization. Match a unique keyword in government, banking, Institutes, Online exam purpose. Proposals is to create a character set from A to Z and a to z, for the purpose of data cleaning.
    [Show full text]
  • The Origin of the Alphabet: an Examination of the Goldwasser Hypothesis
    Colless, Brian E. The origin of the alphabet: an examination of the Goldwasser hypothesis Antiguo Oriente: Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Historia del Antiguo Oriente Vol. 12, 2014 Este documento está disponible en la Biblioteca Digital de la Universidad Católica Argentina, repositorio institucional desarrollado por la Biblioteca Central “San Benito Abad”. Su objetivo es difundir y preservar la producción intelectual de la Institución. La Biblioteca posee la autorización del autor para su divulgación en línea. Cómo citar el documento: Colless, Brian E. “The origin of the alphabet : an examination of the Goldwasser hypothesis” [en línea], Antiguo Oriente : Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Historia del Antiguo Oriente 12 (2014). Disponible en: http://bibliotecadigital.uca.edu.ar/repositorio/revistas/origin-alphabet-goldwasser-hypothesis.pdf [Fecha de consulta:..........] . 03 Colless - Alphabet_Antiguo Oriente 09/06/2015 10:22 a.m. Página 71 THE ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET: AN EXAMINATION OF THE GOLDWASSER HYPOTHESIS BRIAN E. COLLESS [email protected] Massey University Palmerston North, New Zealand Summary: The Origin of the Alphabet Since 2006 the discussion of the origin of the Semitic alphabet has been given an impetus through a hypothesis propagated by Orly Goldwasser: the alphabet was allegedly invented in the 19th century BCE by illiterate Semitic workers in the Egyptian turquoise mines of Sinai; they saw the picturesque Egyptian inscriptions on the site and borrowed a number of the hieroglyphs to write their own language, using a supposedly new method which is now known by the technical term acrophony. The main weakness of the theory is that it ignores the West Semitic acrophonic syllabary, which already existed, and contained most of the letters of the alphabet.
    [Show full text]
  • An Introduction to Roman Epigraphy an Inscription in the Lapis Niger
    To read or not to read: an introduction to Roman epigraphy An inscription in the Lapis Niger (‘Black Stone’) The Lapis Niger, an area of ill-omen and an early cult site in the Forum Romanum, was paved in black stone by Sulla around 80 BC. It provides the earliest evidence of Rome’s comitium (an assembly meeting-point) and contains one of the oldest surviving inscriptions in ancient Rome. The archaic inscription found within this area, often called a cippus (CIL 1.2.1), is an excellent case study, both for archaic Rome and for the use of inscriptions as evidence. This unassuming slab of grey tufa has the distinction of being one of the most confounding objects from antiquity. Even the name, Lapis Niger, often used by scholars for the inscription, is a term coined by the ancient sources for the area around Sulla’s pavement (not the inscription itself). To assess some of the mysteries behind this inscription one must examine it both as a text and as a monument. This involves looking not only at the writing but how it was displayed and in what context it was placed. In this respect the inscription falls within a number of fields, and requires literary, archaeological, geographic and sometimes geological analysis. This study will consider a number of different approaches to show to illustrate both the insights and the limitations of this source. The role of context: what can urban and archaeological contexts tell us about an inscription? The location of this inscription and the fact that it remains in situ provides a wealth of information (especially in Rome, a city that is notorious for ‘eating itself’: materials are often moved and reused).
    [Show full text]
  • A STUDY of WRITING Oi.Uchicago.Edu Oi.Uchicago.Edu /MAAM^MA
    oi.uchicago.edu A STUDY OF WRITING oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu /MAAM^MA. A STUDY OF "*?• ,fii WRITING REVISED EDITION I. J. GELB Phoenix Books THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS oi.uchicago.edu This book is also available in a clothbound edition from THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS TO THE MOKSTADS THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO & LONDON The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada Copyright 1952 in the International Copyright Union. All rights reserved. Published 1952. Second Edition 1963. First Phoenix Impression 1963. Printed in the United States of America oi.uchicago.edu PREFACE HE book contains twelve chapters, but it can be broken up structurally into five parts. First, the place of writing among the various systems of human inter­ communication is discussed. This is followed by four Tchapters devoted to the descriptive and comparative treatment of the various types of writing in the world. The sixth chapter deals with the evolution of writing from the earliest stages of picture writing to a full alphabet. The next four chapters deal with general problems, such as the future of writing and the relationship of writing to speech, art, and religion. Of the two final chapters, one contains the first attempt to establish a full terminology of writing, the other an extensive bibliography. The aim of this study is to lay a foundation for a new science of writing which might be called grammatology. While the general histories of writing treat individual writings mainly from a descriptive-historical point of view, the new science attempts to establish general principles governing the use and evolution of writing on a comparative-typological basis.
    [Show full text]
  • The Greek Alphabet Sight and Sounds of the Greek Letters (Module B) the Letters and Pronunciation of the Greek Alphabet 2 Phonology (Part 2)
    The Greek Alphabet Sight and Sounds of the Greek Letters (Module B) The Letters and Pronunciation of the Greek Alphabet 2 Phonology (Part 2) Lesson Two Overview 2.0 Introduction, 2-1 2.1 Ten Similar Letters, 2-2 2.2 Six Deceptive Greek Letters, 2-4 2.3 Nine Different Greek Letters, 2-8 2.4 History of the Greek Alphabet, 2-13 Study Guide, 2-20 2.0 Introduction Lesson One introduced the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet. Lesson Two continues to present the building blocks for learning Greek phonics by merging vowels and consonants into syllables. Furthermore, this lesson underscores the similarities and dissimilarities between the Greek and English alphabetical letters and their phonemes. Almost without exception, introductory Greek grammars launch into grammar and vocabulary without first firmly grounding a student in the Greek phonemic system. This approach is appropriate if a teacher is present. However, it is little help for those who are “going at it alone,” or a small group who are learning NTGreek without the aid of a teacher’s pronunciation. This grammar’s introductory lessons go to great lengths to present a full-orbed pronunciation of the Erasmian Greek phonemic system. Those who are new to the Greek language without an instructor’s guidance will welcome this help, and it will prepare them to read Greek and not simply to translate it into their language. The phonic sounds of the Greek language are required to be carefully learned. A saturation of these sounds may be accomplished by using the accompanying MP3 audio files.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Writing Systems in Terms of Typological and Other Criteria: Cross-Linguistic Observations from the German and Japanese Writing Systems
    The evolution of writing systems: Empirical and cross-linguistic approaches workshop (AG5) @ DGfS2020, Universität Hamburg, Germany; 4-6 March, 2020 ‘Evolution’ of writing systems in terms of typological and other criteria: Cross-linguistic observations from the German and Japanese writing systems Terry Joyce Dimitrios Meletis Tama University, Japan University of Graz, Austria [email protected] [email protected] Overview Opening remarks Selective sample of writing system (WS) typologies Alternative criteria for evaluating WSs Observations from German (GWS) + Japanese (JWS) Closing remarks Opening remarks 1: Chaos over basic terminology! Erring towards understatement, Gnanadesikan (2017: 15) notes, [t]here is, in general, significant variation in the basic terminology used in the study of writing systems. Indeed, as Meletis (2018: 73) observes regarding the differences between the concepts of WS and orthography, [t]hese terms are often shockingly misused as synonyms, or writing system is not used at all and orthography is employed instead. Similarly, Joyce and Masuda (in press) seek to differentiate between the elusive trinity of terms at heart of WS research; namely, script, WS, and orthography, with particular reference to the JWS. Opening remarks 2: Our working definitions WS1 [Schrifttyp]: Abstract relations (i.e., morphographic, syllabographic, + phonemic), as focus of typologies. WS2 [Schriftsystem]: Common usage for signs + conventions of given language, such as GWS + JWS. Script [Schrift]: Set of material signs for specific language. Orthography [Orthographie]: Mediation between script + WS, but often with prescriptive connotations of correct writing. Graphematic representation: Emerging from grapholinguistic approach, a neutral (ego preferable) alternative to orthography. GWS: Use of extended alphabetic set, as used to represent written German language.
    [Show full text]