Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:19:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: "clyde winters" <
olmec982000@yahoo.com> Add to Address Book
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Subject: Re: rongo rongo
To: "steven pyatt" <
stevenpyatt@yahoo.co.uk>
Hi Steve
I loved your site. The information and graphics
are great.
You are definitely on to something. I have known about
rongo rongo for years but I have never attempted to
decipher the writing because I don't have any
samples of the language spoken by the people who wrote
these documents.
Deciphering this writing without a specimen of
the writing can prove difficult, and prove hard to
support. I was able to decipher Sumerian writing
because Col. Rawlinson, claimed that the Sumerians
came from Africa, and after comparisons of Sumerian
and Mande ( an African language) I had to concur with
his findings.
To decipher Sumerian I use the phonology of the
signs in the Vai writing:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/8919/libyco.htm
Next I read each sign using the Sumerian Language. If
you want to attempt to read the rongo rongo script
using Sumerian, all you have to do is give each rongo
rongo sign a phonemic value based on the Pokotia chart
or the Vai sign list above, and read the
transliterated signs in Sumerian. Most of the ancient
systems of writing were monosyllabic, so there is a
pretty good chance that each sign in rongo rongo
equals a word.
I have believed for years that the authors of
rongo rongo may have been Harappans. The Harappan
signs are almost identical to the rongo rongo writing.
I deciphered the Indus Valley writing over 20 years
ago you can find a grammar and dictionary of the Indus
Valley writing at the following site:
http://us.share.geocities.com/olmec982000/HarWRITE.pdf
If you are interested in following this path to
decipherment you can attempt to use the dictionary at
the above site to read the script in Harappan which
was a Dravidian language. Remember though, that the
paper above takes a long time to load.
If you are interested in the history of writing in
Middle Africa you can check out the following site:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/7051/anwrite.htm
Good luck
Clyde