Heritage of Scribes

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Heritage of Scribes HERITAGE OF SCRIBES The Relation of Rovas Scripts to Eurasian Writing Systems Written by GÁBOR HOSSZÚ Budapest 2013 Title: Heritage of Scribes The Relation of Rovas Scripts to Eurasian Writing Systems Written by: Dr. habil. Gábor Hosszú, Candidate of Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Reviewers: Modeling: Prof. Ferenc Kovács, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Hungarian Dr. Erzsébet Zelliger, Candidate of Sciences of the Hungarian linguistics: Academy of Sciences Linguistic advice: György András Jeney Translation: Dr. habil. Gábor Hosszú and László Sípos Carolyn Yohn, translation editor Editing and cover Tamás Rumi and László Sípos page design: Foreword: Dr. István Erdélyi, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Edition Third, Revised and Extended Edition Publishing: Rovas Foundation, Hungary Sponsored by: Rovas Foundation and Affiliates, Hungary Printed: Budapest, Hungary Copyright © 2011, 2012, 2013 by Dr. habil. Gábor Hosszú and Rovas Foundation. All rights reserved. ISBN 978 963 88 4374 6 ROVAS FOUNDATION – HUNGARY ROVÁS ALAPÍTVÁNY – MAGYARORSZÁG gASroraGa m – NAvtIpal a sAvo r 2 To My Mother 1927 – 2010 3 Contents Foreword 7 Acknowledgements 9 1. Introduction 11 2. Abbre viations, glossary and sources 14 3. The family of the Rovash scripts 18 3.1. General description 18 3.2. Early Rovash scripts 27 3.2.1. The Proto-Rovash 27 3.2.2. The Early Steppe Rovash 34 3.3. The Rovash paleographical modeling 42 3.3.1. The Glyph Complexity Parameter 42 3.3.2. The glyph transformation modeling 43 3.3.3. Determining the genealogies of the graphemes 44 3.4. The Carpathian Basin Rovash 46 3.4.1. Historical background 46 3.4.2. Evolution of CBR—Stage 1: The roots 50 3.4.3. Evolution of CBR—Stage 2: Development in the 7 th –9th centuries 50 3.4.4. Evolution of CBR—Stage 3: Development in the 10 th –11 th centuries 53 3.5. The Steppe Rovash 54 3.5.1. Historical background 54 3.5.2. The roots and development of Steppe Rovash 55 3.5.3. The phonetic system of the Steppe Rovash 56 3.6. The Szekely-Hungarian Rovash 58 3.6.1. Historical background 58 3.6.2. Evolution of SHR—Stage 1: The earliest glyphs (8 th century) 62 A) General description 62 B) The roots of SHR 63 C) The earliest Szekely-Hungarian Rovash graphemes 64 D) The circumstances of the first age of Szekely-Hungarian Rovash 70 3.6.3. Evolution of SHR—Stage 2: Incorporating loan graphemes (9 th –12 th /13 th centuries) 71 3.6.4. Evolution of SHR—Stage 3: Age of ligatures (11 th –14 th centuries) 74 A) Influence of phonetic changes 74 B) Symbols denoting a period of time 77 C) Duplication and creating ligatures 78 3.6.5. Evolution of SHR—Stage 4: Age of calligraphy (14 th –18 th centuries) 81 3.6.6. Influences on the development of Szekely-Hungarian Rovash 86 A) Influence of the Latin-based orthography on Szekely-Hungarian Rovash 86 B) The geographical distribution of SHR relics 89 C) Cluster analysis of significant Rovash alphabets and relics 91 3.7. Relations between the Rovash and the Glagolitic scripts 93 3.7.1. Rovash roots of the Glagolitic alphabet 93 3.7.2. Influence on SHR 97 4. Rovash Atlas: Genealogy of all rovash graphemes 98 4.1. Genealogy of the Phoenician originated rovash graphemes 98 4.2. Genealogy of the Turkic originated rovash graphemes 111 4.3. Paleographic relations of the rovash numerals 111 4.4. Examples of the glyph-forming methods 112 5. The Proto-Rovash 114 5.1. Description of the script 114 5.1.1. General properties 114 4 5.1.2. Proto-Rovash letters 114 5.1.3. Diacritical mark and punctuation 116 5.1.4. Absence of harmonization of consonants with vowels 116 5.1.5. Ligatures 117 5.2. Proto-Rovash relics 118 5.2.1. Mayaki Amphora Inscription in Ogur 118 5.2.2. Novocherkassk Clay Flask Inscription in Turkic 120 5.2.3. Stanitsa Krivyanskoe Clay Flask Inscription in Pre-Ossetic (As–Alan) 121 5.2.4. Mayatskoe Gorodishche Inscription No. 2 in Ogur 122 5.2.5. Stone Inscription of Alsószentmihályfalva 122 5.2.6. Pottery of Bilyar 125 6. The Early Steppe Rovash 127 6.1. Description of the script 127 6.1.1. General properties 127 6.1.2. Early Steppe Rovash letters 127 6.1.3. Punctuation 128 6.1.4. Harmonization of consonants with vowels 128 6.2. Early Steppe Rovash relics 128 6.2.1. Hunnic Bronze Helmet of France 129 6.2.2. Spindle Disk of Minusinsk 130 6.2.3. Quiver Inscription of Homokmégy-Halom in Turkic 131 7. The Carpathian Basin Rovash 133 7.1. Description of the script 133 7.1.1. General properties 133 7.1.2. Carpathian Basin Rovash letters 133 7.1.3. Rovash Numerals 137 7.1.4. Punctuation 137 7.1.5. Ligatures 138 7.2. Carpathian Basin Rovash relics 138 7.2.1. Bow of Környe 139 7.2.2. Silver Vessel of Ozora-Tótipuszta 140 7.2.3. Needle Case of Jánoshida 141 7.2.4. Chalice of Kisk őrös–Vágóhíd 142 7.2.5. Chalice of Budapest District 14—Tihany Square 143 7.2.6. Jug of Kunágota 143 7.2.7. Aethicus’ Alphabet 144 7.2.8. Needle Case of Szarvas 147 7.2.9. Golden Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós 151 A) Bowl No. 8 152 B) Drinking Horn No. 17 155 C) Bowl No. 10 and Cup No. 22 156 D) Bowl No. 9 156 E) Cup No. 23 157 F) Jug No. 6—a quadrilingual relic 158 G) Jugs No. 3 and No. 4 159 H) Flat-shallow ladles No. 15 and No. 16 160 I) Jug No. 5—a bilingual relic 161 J) Cup No. 11 161 K) Inscription No. 13 162 7.2.10. Pot Fragment of Torja 162 7.2.11. Bone cover of a bow from Békés-Povádzug 163 8. The Steppe Rovash 165 8.1. Description of the orthography 165 8.1.1. General properties 165 8.1.2. Steppe Rovash letters 165 5 8.1.3. Punctuation 170 8.1.4. Harmonization of consonants with vowels 170 8.1.5. Ligatures 171 8.2. Steppe Rovash relics 172 8.2.1. Bow Cover of Jitkov 173 8.2.2. The Devitsa Coins 173 8.2.3. The Achik-Tash Inscription from the Talas Valley in Turkic 174 8.2.4. The Khumara building inscriptions 175 8.2.5. Mayatskoe Gorodishche Large Building Inscription 179 8.2.6. Mayatskoe Gorodishche smaller inscriptions 182 8.2.7. Bilingual Khazar Coin of Sweden 184 8.2.8. Cattle skull from the kurgan Ermen Tolga 185 8.2.9. The Rovash inscription on the Kievan Letter 187 9. The Szekely-Hungarian Rovash 190 9.1. Description of the script 190 9.1.1. General properties 190 9.1.2. Naming of the script 190 9.1.3. Direction of the Szekely-Hungarian Rovash script 190 9.1.4. Fundamental Szekely-Hungarian Rovash letters 191 9.1.5. The modern reptile-like symbols (pseudo-ligatures) 196 9.1.6. Historically used individual Szekely-Hungarian Rovash letters 197 9.1.7. Rovash Numerals 198 9.1.8. Historical Szekely-Hungarian Rovash ligatures 199 9.1.9. Sound length and the diacritical mark 201 9.1.10. Punctuation 202 9.1.11. Casing 203 9.2. Szekely-Hungarian Rovash relics and publications 203 9.2.1. Introduction to the history of Szekely-Hungarian Rovash 203 9.2.2. The 9 th –10 th centuries 203 9.2.3. The 13 th century 204 9.2.4. Around 1400 208 9.2.5. The 15 th century 209 9.2.6. The Bologna Rovash Relic (17 th c. copy of a 15 th c. stick calendar and an SHR alphabet)215 A) General description 215 B) SHR alphabet found in the manuscript of Marsigli 218 C) List of the feasts of the Saints (the core of the calendar) 219 D) List of Biblical names related to the life of Jesus Christ 225 E) List of fundamental prayers 227 9.2.7. The 16 th century 229 9.2.8. The 17 th century 237 9.2.9. The 18 th century 245 9.2.10. The 19 th century 251 9.2.11. The 20 th century 255 9.2.12. The 21 st century 263 Appendix A: Phonetic notations 273 Appendix B: Timeline 277 Appendix C: Periodization of the Hungarian language and Latin-based orthography 302 Appendix E: The complete list of the attested rovash graphemes 304 Bibliography 306 Appendix D: Color Images 334 Words from the publisher 340 6 Foreword The new theories described in the Rovash Atlas result from of a surprising intellectual puzzle and exciting experiment. Hopefully no readers will think that dealing with ancient Rovash scripts is just science for science’s sake. The authors of the inscriptions, shorter and longer texts made with rovash, always had as their goals to communicate with someone, to record and convey information. Some of the relics have yet to be deciphered, as we do not know their exact language. Additionally, time and time again rovash were consciously used for secret communication, as we will see later on. A long time ago, there was a significant need for the creation of the Rovash Atlas, and for a credible presentation and explanation of well-known relics. This complex task was finally performed by the present author with a university degree in engineering. In order to complete this task, the author dealt with a huge amount of domestic and foreign scientific literature; moreover, he had to evaluate works and theories by diligent, but amateur, Hungarian Rovash researchers.
Recommended publications
  • FEEFHS Journal Volume VII No. 1-2 1999
    FEEFHS Quarterly A Journal of Central & Bast European Genealogical Studies FEEFHS Quarterly Volume 7, nos. 1-2 FEEFHS Quarterly Who, What and Why is FEEFHS? Tue Federation of East European Family History Societies Editor: Thomas K. Ecllund. [email protected] (FEEFHS) was founded in June 1992 by a small dedicated group Managing Editor: Joseph B. Everett. [email protected] of American and Canadian genealogists with diverse ethnic, reli- Contributing Editors: Shon Edwards gious, and national backgrounds. By the end of that year, eleven Daniel Schlyter societies bad accepted its concept as founding members. Each year Emily Schulz since then FEEFHS has doubled in size. FEEFHS nows represents nearly two hundred organizations as members from twenty-four FEEFHS Executive Council: states, five Canadian provinces, and fourteen countries. lt contin- 1998-1999 FEEFHS officers: ues to grow. President: John D. Movius, c/o FEEFHS (address listed below). About half of these are genealogy societies, others are multi-pur- [email protected] pose societies, surname associations, book or periodical publish- 1st Vice-president: Duncan Gardiner, C.G., 12961 Lake Ave., ers, archives, libraries, family history centers, on-line services, in- Lakewood, OH 44107-1533. [email protected] stitutions, e-mail genealogy list-servers, heraldry societies, and 2nd Vice-president: Laura Hanowski, c/o Saskatchewan Genealogi- other ethnic, religious, and national groups. FEEFHS includes or- cal Society, P.0. Box 1894, Regina, SK, Canada S4P 3EI ganizations representing all East or Central European groups that [email protected] have existing genealogy societies in North America and a growing 3rd Vice-president: Blanche Krbechek, 2041 Orkla Drive, group of worldwide organizations and individual members, from Minneapolis, MN 55427-3429.
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliography
    Bibliography Many books were read and researched in the compilation of Binford, L. R, 1983, Working at Archaeology. Academic Press, The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology: New York. Binford, L. R, and Binford, S. R (eds.), 1968, New Perspectives in American Museum of Natural History, 1993, The First Humans. Archaeology. Aldine, Chicago. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Braidwood, R 1.,1960, Archaeologists and What They Do. Franklin American Museum of Natural History, 1993, People of the Stone Watts, New York. Age. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Branigan, Keith (ed.), 1982, The Atlas ofArchaeology. St. Martin's, American Museum of Natural History, 1994, New World and Pacific New York. Civilizations. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Bray, w., and Tump, D., 1972, Penguin Dictionary ofArchaeology. American Museum of Natural History, 1994, Old World Civiliza­ Penguin, New York. tions. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Brennan, L., 1973, Beginner's Guide to Archaeology. Stackpole Ashmore, w., and Sharer, R. J., 1988, Discovering Our Past: A Brief Books, Harrisburg, PA. Introduction to Archaeology. Mayfield, Mountain View, CA. Broderick, M., and Morton, A. A., 1924, A Concise Dictionary of Atkinson, R J. C., 1985, Field Archaeology, 2d ed. Hyperion, New Egyptian Archaeology. Ares Publishers, Chicago. York. Brothwell, D., 1963, Digging Up Bones: The Excavation, Treatment Bacon, E. (ed.), 1976, The Great Archaeologists. Bobbs-Merrill, and Study ofHuman Skeletal Remains. British Museum, London. New York. Brothwell, D., and Higgs, E. (eds.), 1969, Science in Archaeology, Bahn, P., 1993, Collins Dictionary of Archaeology. ABC-CLIO, 2d ed. Thames and Hudson, London. Santa Barbara, CA. Budge, E. A. Wallis, 1929, The Rosetta Stone. Dover, New York. Bahn, P.
    [Show full text]
  • New Glagolitic Signs in a Digital Age Novi Znakovi
    Filip Cvitić, magistar dizajna Grafički fakultet, Getaldićeva 2, Zagreb, Hrvatska phone: +385-91-559-3064 e-mail: [email protected] Jasna Horvat Ekonomski fakultet u Osijeku, Gajev trg 7, Hrvatska phone: +385-91-224-402-25 e-mail: [email protected] Nenad Hančić-Matejić Duesselstr. 30, 40219 Duesseldorf, Njemačka http://www.nenad.bplaced.net phone: +49- 17-6 64-62 4-702 e-mail: [email protected] NEW GLAGOLITIC SIGNS IN A DIGITAL AGE NOVI ZNAKOVI GLAGOLJICE U DIGITALNOM DOBU ABSTRACT Human communication is based on messsage transfer and its simplification (Danesi, 2004, 1). With the development of human writing systems ways of written communication have also changed (Cvitić, 2011, 3), new scripts have been developed (such as Glagolitic script – script created in 9th century), as well as new signs in existing scripts. Digital age is accelerating written communication is introducing a large number of new signs (monkey, emotions etc.). Although Glagolitic script is not in official use any more its comeback through projects which popularize cultural heritage (project Fabula Croatica for example) has resulted in designing glagolitic fonts (Epistula Croatica and Misal DPG) available for public use. The existance of glagolitic fonts has led to their use in digital medias what brought about the need for introducing new signs to existing Glagolitic script system. The criteria for introducing new signs into the fund of existing glagolitic fonts was the insurance of transcripting given forms to English language. In accordance with the stated criteria it is decided to add signs representing letters Q, X, Y, W and punctuation marks like monkey, ampersand, question mark, exclamation mark and similar to the existing glagolitic font.
    [Show full text]
  • Confrontation in Karabakh: on the Origin of the Albanian Arsacids Dynasty
    Voice of the Publisher, 2021, 7, 32-43 https://www.scirp.org/journal/vp ISSN Online: 2380-7598 ISSN Print: 2380-7571 To Whom Belongs the Land? Confrontation in Karabakh: On the Origin of the Albanian Arsacids Dynasty Ramin Alizadeh1*, Tahmina Aslanova2, Ilia Brondz3# 1Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), Baku, Azerbaijan 2Department of History of Azerbaijan, History Faculty, Baku State University (BSU), Baku, Azerbaijan 3Norwegian Drug Control and Drug Discovery Institute (NDCDDI) AS, Ski, Norway How to cite this paper: Alizadeh, R., As- Abstract lanova, T., & Brondz, I. (2021). To Whom Belongs the Land? Confrontation in Kara- The escalation of the Karabakh conflict during late 2020 and the resumption bakh: On the Origin of the Albanian Arsa- of the second Karabakh War—as a result of the provocative actions by the cids Dynasty. Voice of the Publisher, 7, Armenian government and its puppet regime, the so-called “Artsakh Repub- 32-43. lic”—have aroused the renewed interest of the scientific community in the https://doi.org/10.4236/vp.2021.71003 historical origins of the territory over which Azerbaijan and Armenia have Received: December 6, 2020 been fighting for many years. There is no consensus among scientific experts Accepted: March 9, 2021 on this conflict’s causes or even its course, and the factual details and their Published: March 12, 2021 interpretation remain under discussion. However, there are six resolutions by Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and the United Nations Security Council that recognize the disputed territories as Scientific Research Publishing Inc. Azerbaijan’s national territory. This paper presents the historical, linguistic, This work is licensed under the Creative and juridical facts that support the claim of Azerbaijan to these territories.
    [Show full text]
  • Iso/Iec Jtc1/Sc2/Wg2 N3483 L2/08-268
    ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N3483 L2/08-268 2008-08-04 Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set International Organization for Standardization Organisation Internationale de Normalisation Международная организация по стандартизации Doc Type: Working Group Document Title: Preliminary proposal for encoding the Old Hungarian script in the UCS Source: Michael Everson and André Szabolcs Szelp Status: Individual Contribution Action: For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC Date: 2008-08-04 This document replaces N2134 (1999-10-02), N1638 (1997-09-18), and contains the proposal summary form. 1. Introduction. The Old Hungarian script is a runiform script used to write the Hungarian language. In Hungarian it is called rovásírás ‘incised script’, from rovás ‘incision’ and írás ‘writing, script’. Various sources call it “Old Hungarian” or “Hungarian Runic” where runic refers to the script's runiform character and does not indicate direct descent from the Germanic runes (though Old Hungarian and the Fuþark are distant cousins). Old Hungarian is thought to derive ultimately from the Old Turkic script used in Central Asia, and appears to have been brought by the Székely Magyars to what is now Hungary in 895 CE. Owing to its link with the Old Turkic script, Old Hungarian must have been developed around the 8th century CE; it is first mentioned in a written account in the late 13th century. The first surviving alphabetical listing dates to about 1483. Short inscriptions are attested from the 12–13th centuries; some inscriptions are said to have been written as early as the 10th century, though there is no consensus on the accuracy of this dating.
    [Show full text]
  • An Etymological Study of Mythical Lakes in Iranian "Bundahišn"
    Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 Vol. 6 No. 6; December 2015 Australian International Academic Centre, Australia Flourishing Creativity & Literacy An Etymological Study of Mythical Lakes in Iranian Bundahišn Hossein Najari (Corresponding author) Shiraz University, Eram Square, Shiraz, Iran E-mail: [email protected] Zahra Mahjoub Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran E-mail: [email protected] Doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.6n.6p.174 Received: 30/07/2015 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.6n.6p.174 Accepted: 02/10/2015 Abstract One of the myth-making phenomena is lake, which has often a counterpart in reality. Regarding the possible limits of mythological lakes of Iranian Bundahišn, sometimes their place can be found in natural geography. Iranian Bundahišn, as one of the great works of Middle Persian (Pahlavi) language, contains a large number of mythological geography names. This paper focuses on the mythical lakes of Iranian Bundahišn. Some of the mythical lakes are nominally comparable to the present lakes, but are geographically located in different places. Yet, in the present research attempt is made to match the mythical lakes of Iranian Bundahišn with natural lakes. Furthermore, they are studied in the light of etymological and mythological principles. The study indicates that mythical lakes are often both located in south and along the "Frāxkard Sea" and sometimes they correspond with the natural geography, according to the existing mythological points and current characteristics of the lakes. Keywords: mythological geography, Bundahišn, lake, Iranian studies, Middle Persian 1. Introduction Discovering the geographical location of mythical places in our present-day world is one of the most noteworthy matters for mythologists.
    [Show full text]
  • Iso/Iec Jtc1/Sc2/Wg2 N3241 L2/07-102
    ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N3241 L2/07-102 2007-04-12 Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set International Organization for Standardization Organisation Internationale de Normalisation Международная организация по стандартизации Doc Type: Working Group Document Title: Proposal for encoding the Parthian, Inscriptional Pahlavi, and Psalter Pahlavi scripts in the BMP of the UCS Source: Michael Everson Status: Individual Contribution Action: For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC Date: 2007-04-12 The three scripts proposed here were used to write a number of Indo-European languages, chiefly Parthian, and Middle Persian. They are descended from the Imperial Aramaic script used in Iran during the during the Achaemenid period (549–330 BCE), the Seleucid period (330–210 BCE) and the early Parthian period (210 BCE–224 CE). By the second century CE the Parthian script had evolved, and was used as the official script during the first part of the Sassanian period (224–651 CE). The main sources of Parthian are the inscriptions from Nisa (near present Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) and from Hecatompolis, as well as from texts in Manichean script, and a number of Sasanian multilingual inscriptions. In Pars in what is now southern Iran however the Aramaic script evolved differently, into the Inscriptional Pahlavi script, which was used regularly as a momumental script until the fifth century CE. The Psalter Pahlavi script was used in Chinese Turkestan and is so named because of its used in a fragmentary manuscript of the Psalms of David. This script itself developed (or decayed) into the ambiguous Book Pahlavi script which was replaced by the Avestan reformed script.
    [Show full text]
  • Slavic Alphabets in Contact
    7 Bamberger Beiträge zur Linguistik Slavic Alphabets in Contact Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri, Sebastian Kempgen (eds.) Bamberger Beiträge zur Linguistik hg. von Sebastian Kempgen, Thomas Becker (†), Geoffrey Haig, Martin Haase, Manfred Krug und Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna Band 7 2015 Slavic Alphabets in Contact Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri, Sebastian Kempgen (eds.) 2015 Bibliographische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deut- schen Nationalbibliographie; detaillierte bibliographische Informationen sind im Internet über http://dnb.ddb.de/ abrufbar. Dieses Werk ist als freie Onlineversion über den Hochschulschriften-Server (OPUS; http://www.opus-bayern.de/uni-bamberg/) der Universitätsbiblio- thek Bamberg erreichbar. Kopien und Ausdrucke dürfen nur zum privaten und sonstigen eigenen Gebrauch angefertigt werden. Herstellung und Druck: Druckerei docupoint, Magdeburg Umschlaggestaltung: University of Bamberg Press, Anna Hitthaler Umschlaggrafik: Ivan Fedorov, „Azbuka“, Ostrog 1578 © University of Bamberg Press Bamberg, 2015 http://www.uni-bamberg.de/ubp/ ISSN: 2190-3298 ISBN: 978-3-86309-276-4 (Druckausgabe) eISBN: 978-3-86309-277-1 (Online-Ausgabe) URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:473-opus4-261355 Contents Introduction ...................................................................................... v List of contributors .......................................................................... xiii Vladimir Mikhajlovich Alpatov, A Latin alphabet for the Russian language
    [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]
  • Indo-Europeans in the Ancient Yellow River Valley
    SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 311 April, 2021 Indo-Europeans in the Ancient Yellow River Valley by Shaun C. R. Ramsden Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS FOUNDED 1986 Editor-in-Chief VICTOR H. MAIR Associate Editors PAULA ROBERTS MARK SWOFFORD ISSN 2157-9679 (print) 2157-9687 (online) SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series dedicated to making available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor-in-chief actively encourages younger, not yet well established scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including romanized modern standard Mandarin and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino-Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. Submissions are regularly sent out for peer review, and extensive editorial suggestions for revision may be offered. Sino-Platonic Papers emphasizes substance over form. We do, however, strongly recommend that prospective authors consult our style guidelines at www.sino-platonic.org/stylesheet.doc.
    [Show full text]
  • Glagolitic Script in the UCS Source: Michael Everson, EGT (IE) Status: Expert Contribution Action: for Consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC Date: 1998-11-24
    ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N1931 1998-11-24 Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set International Organization for Standardization Organisation Internationale de Normalisation Œåæäóíàðîäíàß îðãàíèçàöèß ïî ñòàíäàðòèçàöèè Doc Type: Working Group Document Title: Revised proposal for encoding the Glagolitic script in the UCS Source: Michael Everson, EGT (IE) Status: Expert Contribution Action: For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC Date: 1998-11-24 This document is based on the proposal written by Joe Becker and published in UTR#3, and the proposal written by me in N1659. It is a revision of N1659, and contains the proposal summary. A. Administrative 1. Title Revised proposal for encoding the Glagolitic script in the UCS. 2. Requester’s name Michael Everson, EGT (WG2 member for Ireland). 3. Requester type Expert contribution. 4. Submission date 1998-11-24. 5. Requester’s reference 6a. Completion This is a complete proposal. 6b. More information to be provided? No. B. Technical – General 1a. New script? Name? Yes. Glagolitic. 1b. Addition of characters to existing block? Name? No. 2. Number of characters 92. 3. Proposed category Category B.1. 4. Proposed level of implementation and rationale As an alphabetic script, Glagolitic requires Level 1. 5a. Character names included in proposal? Yes. 5b. Character names in accordance with guidelines? Yes. 5c. Character shapes reviewable? Yes (see below). 1 6a. Who will provide computerized font? Michael Everson. 6b. Font currently available? Yes. 6c. Font format? TrueType. 7a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts, etc.) provided? Yes. ISO 6861:1996 is a coded character set for Glagolitic, as well as the bibliography below.
    [Show full text]
  • Preliminary Proposal to Encode the Book Pahlavi Script in the Unicode Standard
    UTC Document Register L2/13-141R Preliminary proposal to encode the Book Pahlavi script in the Unicode Standard Roozbeh Pournader, Google Inc. July 24, 2013 1. Background This is a proposal to encode the Book Pahlavi script in the Unicode Standard. Book Pahlavi was last proposed in the “Preliminary proposal to encode the Book Pahlavi script in the BMP of the UCS” (L2/07-234 = JTC1/SC2/WG2 N3294). Here is a short summary of the major differences in the character repertoire between that document and this proposal: • Characters only proposed here: an alternate form of d and a second alternate form of l (see section 7), one atomic symbol and two atomic ligatures (section 8), combining dot below (sections 3 and 6); • Characters proposed in L2/07-234 but not proposed here: ABBREVIATION TAA (representable as a character sequence, section 9), three archigraphemes (ambiguity, implementability, and multiple representation concerns, section 5), combining three dots below (no evidence of usage found), KASHIDA (unified with TATWEEL, sections 9 and 10), numbers (more information needed, section 10). 2. Introduction Book Pahlavi was the most important script used in writing the Middle Persian language.1 It probably started to be commonly used near the end of the Sassanian era (sixth century CE), evolving from the non-cursive Inscriptional Pahlavi. While the term “Book Pahlavi” refers to the script mostly surviving in books, Book Pahlavi has also been used in inscriptions, coins, pottery, and seals. Together with the alphabetic and phonetic Avestan script, the Book Pahlavi abjad is of religious importance to the Zoroastrian community, as most of their surviving religious texts have been written in one or both of the scripts.
    [Show full text]