Saturday, January 8, 2011

The Origins of Writing, the Alphabet and the Syllable PO - LEXILINE JOURNAL 566

[In amended form later published as a book under the title Ancient Signs

This is the 14th posting in this series (later updated for Luvian), and presents the Syllable PO in the Syllabic Grid. Each syllable is presented in its own posting.

There is first a scan of a "syllabic" table excerpt from the original Microsoft Word manuscript -- the links there are not clickable because it is one image.

That image is followed by the original text -- the links there are clickable -- but you can not see the Aegean Fonts or images embedded in Microsoft Word, as these do not resolve in Blogger, so you will see "a ? ? filler".

The Syllable PO in the Minoan Aegean Sign Concordance (by Andis Kaulins)

Syllabic Value of
the Sign (Symbol)
(there was no
universally established
AEIOU vowel system yet
in this era, and there
were dipthongs, so that
a strict AEIOU system
here is a bit misleading)
Cypriot
Syllabary
signs from the
(Unicode
Character Map
for Windows)
(Ventris &
followers)
(standard
Bennet
numbers in
parentheses)
(Kaulins)
(first
deciphered
by him in the
years 1978-
1980)
Axe of
Arkalochori
(Kaulins)
(these same basic signs
are also on the Phaistos
Disk). This column also
provides explanatory
photo images for various
Minoan symbols
Elamite
Script
(Kaulins)
(same basic
signs as the
Phaistos
Disk -  see
Sumerian
Pictographs
and/or
Egyptian
Hieroglyphs
and/or sign
commentary
on individual
symbols
PO
“to make”
This is a companion sign
to Linear B TE τέκτων
viz. τέχνη "craftsman,
master of an art".

The one identifies the
craftsman maker  and
the other the making.
Cypriot
syllabary

No comparable
sign known to
this author, but
there may be
one I do not
know of.
Linear B
��(39)
PO
In Linear B
scholarship this
is PI in error
and the axe is
in error as PO.
Phaistos Disk

No
Comparable
 sign.
No similar sign on Axe

Comment:
This sign in Linear B
appears to be a creation
limited to Crete and
formed from the
Linear B sign
for TE
No Elamite
sign yet.

No Sumerian
comparable.

The Origins of Writing, the Alphabet and the Syllable PI - LexiLine Journal 565

[In amended form later published as a book under the title Ancient Signs]

This is the 13th posting in this series (later updated for Luvian), and presents the Syllable PI in the Syllabic Grid. Each syllable is presented in its own posting.

There is first a scan of a "syllabic" table excerpt from the original Microsoft Word manuscript -- the links there are not clickable because it is one image.

That image is followed by the original text -- the links there are clickable -- but you can not see the Aegean Fonts or images embedded in Microsoft Word, as these do not resolve in Blogger, so you will see "a ? ? filler".


The Syllable PI in the Minoan Aegean Sign Concordance (by Andis Kaulins)

PI (pé)
Classical Greek
πέλεκυς “pelekus”, a
"double-sided" axe,
also single/sided ones
Some... late neolithic,
been suggested, e.g.
Sumerian balag,
Akkadian pilakku-
(spindle whorl), or PIE
pelek'u- 'axe'. Sumerian
balag means hour-glass
shaped drum. The shape
is the word root. (cont.)
Cypriot syllabary
(reshuffle PE, PI, PO labels ?)
𐠡
PO
(cont.)
Pelekus will
have the same
root as pierogi
(Latvian pīrags,
“*bi-horned,
*two horned”).
Linear B
𐀡(11)
PI
an axe

See the
perplexed
on pelekus.
Phaistos Disk
𐇞
PI
an axe

later as the
symbol
PHI
Axe of Arkalochori

PELEKUS is the bottom
word on the axe middle
column.
Found at icobase.com a
Sumerian balag (hour-
glass drum) right bottom
Elamite
PI
jar, cask

Sumerian
balag
"drum"
Sumerian

PO

Thumb of
hour-glass
pithos image

The Origins of Writing, the Alphabet and the Syllable PE - LexiLine Journal 564

[In amended form later published as a book under the title Ancient Signs]


This is the 12th posting in this series (later updated for Luvian), and presents the Syllable PE in the Syllabic Grid. Each syllable is presented in its own posting.

There is first a scan of a "syllabic" table excerpt from the original Microsoft Word manuscript -- the links there are not clickable because it is one image.

That image is followed by the original text -- the links there are clickable -- but you can not see the Aegean Fonts or images embedded in Microsoft Word, as these do not resolve in Blogger, so you will see "a ? ? filler".


The Syllable PE in the Minoan Aegean Sign Concordance (by Andis Kaulins)

PE
πρ (pyr). The
hypothetical proto-
Indo-European root is
*peh₂ur "fire".
The Phaistos Disk sign
could be an ancient
torch while the other
signs are braziers.
An Ancient Greek
casserole and brazier.
Image from Wikipedia,
in Athens, Photo by
Giovanni Dall'Orto,
November, 2009.
Cypriot
syllabary
��
PI
Casserole in a
Brazier, see
image at left.

An old Indo
European root.
FIRE, PYRE, e.g
Latvian UPUR
"offering" (and
KUR "stoke a
fire, burn"
hence Egyptian
hieroglyph KH.)
Linear B

��(72)
PE


An ancient
brazier,
cooking
utensil, or
of some kind.

Greek
"fire"

Phaistos Disk
��
PE

Perhaps a torch.
Greek
πρ "fire"
Hittite
(paḫḫur)
Old English
fȳr (“fire)
Some think it
is an ox foot.
No similar sign on the
Axe of Arkalochori


Photo of an ancient 4-
legged brazier found
online at

Elamite
PE
4-legged
brazier

Egyptian
KH
brazier
4-legs and
flame
Sumerian
PIR
heat,
(clearly a
brazier)

BAR4
oil vessel on
a brazier

The Origins of Writing, the Alphabet and the Syllable PA - LEXILINE JOURNAL 563

This is the 11th posting in this series [updated for Luvian in a later posting, and in further amended form subsequently published as a book under the title Ancient Signs]. It begins the syllabic grid with the Syllable PA. Each syllable will be presented in its own posting.

First there is a scan of the page, followed by the text with clickable links, a format necessitated by Blogger not resolving online the Aegean Font and Microsoft Word images.


TABLE I
TABLE OF CYPRIOT SYLLABARY, MINOAN LINEAR B, PHAISTOS DISK, AXE OF ARKALOCHORI, OLD ELAMITE and SUMERIAN SIGN CONCORDANCE
A Table of the Sign Concordance of: 1) The Cypriot Syllabary, 2) Linear B -- Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, 3) the Phaistos Disk -- Andis Kaulins, 4) the Axe of Arkalochori -- Andis Kaulins, 5) Old Elamite Script -- Andis Kaulins, 6) Sumerian Pictographs and Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Syllabic Value of
the Sign (Symbol)
(there was no
universally established
AEIOU vowel system yet
in this era, and there
were dipthongs, so that
a strict AEIOU system
here is a bit misleading)
Cypriot
Syllabary
signs from the
(Unicode
Character Map
for Windows)
(Ventris &
followers)
(standard
Bennet
numbers in
parentheses)
(Kaulins)
(first
deciphered
by him in the
years 1978-
1980)
Axe of
Arkalochori
(Kaulins)
(these same basic signs
are also on the Phaistos
Disk). This column also
provides explanatory
photo images for various
Minoan symbols
Elamite
Script
(Kaulins)
(same basic
signs as the
Phaistos
Disk -  see
Sumerian
Pictographs
and/or
Egyptian
Hieroglyphs
and/or sign
commentary
on individual
symbols
PA (and BA ?)
In Linear B,
sign B03 has been
assigned a value of PA
and sign B16 was
originally assigned a
value of PA2, correctly
BA, but later changed in
error to QA. The first
word on the Axe of
Arkalochori is βασιλεύς,
thus negating in Linear
B the transcription qa
si-re-u which is correctly
ba-si-leu-s.

In Linear B signs, the
meaning is often not the
vertical line but usually
the other sign elements.
In B16 it is an abstract
head with ears placed at
the top of the vertical.

Cypriot
syllabary:

𐠞
PA

Cypriot
syllabary:

𐠢
PU
"scraping tool"
scraper above
line as earth
viz. the ground
Linear B


𐀞(03) PA


𐀣(16)
Sign B16 once
read as PA2,
now read in
error as QA.
Correct is
BA
Phaistos Disk

𐇑
PA
Some think
this to be the
people of
Keftiu, Crete.
More likely
is "warrior"
Thracian
"peltast"
later Greek
π[o]λίτης
hoplitēs
The Axe of Arkalochori.
(2 drawing variants)
󿼉or󿼃
PA
Warrior image found at
William H. Stiebing, Jr.,
Bibl. Arch. Review
The warrior image
suggests a warrior sign

PA

The
abstracted
sign in Old
Elamite
shows the
head and
neck
in profile
view.
PAR2
BAR
"sharp tool,
pick, head?"
PA2
BA
"division,
scraping
tool"


[1] The Peleset are listed in the hieroglyphs of Egypt among the so-called Sea Peoples. These hieroglyphs are reproduced below from the Wikipedia. The erroneous mainstream scholarship reading of those Egyptian hieroglyphs is n3 3t.w n p3 ym (try pronouncing that artificial notation !), allegedly meaning "Sea Peoples" or "People of Foreign Lands". The hieroglyphs are followed by a list of ethnic names. My reading of those same hieroglyphs shows the corrected reading to result in terms strikingly similar to Greek. Ponder what the following hieroglyphic readings tell us about Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in terms of Ancient Greek connections generally.
n3 3t.w n p3 ym
An- thro- po- n- y- my     hydro (or) naiya    peir-aikos (peir-as)
= Names of peoples of the border countries beyond the limit (mouth) of the Nile.
Note: The Nile: in Ancient Egyptian iteru or 'pī [Latvian upe "river], Coptic piaro (Sahidic) or phiaro (Bohairic).
The Egyptian hieroglyph for the Mediterranean is  (in my reading έξω (αξω) ερεα naiya peiras viz. έξω ερεα nama/hydro peiras meaning "great wide river limit" viz. "mouth of the Nile") and for the Nile is [ (hydro) which is the same as Greek δωρ "udro-, hydro, water" viz. νμα "nama" or naiya (Ναιάς). Nama in Greek means anything flowing, running water, stream, spring, and could have the same N-root as Greek Νελος for "Nile" as in δος τ Νείλου, to which compare Arabic: النيل, an-nīl. The N- root is retained in English in naval, nautical and nymph (Ναιάς), Finnish nevo "sea", Swedish ny "new river", and Russian Neva.
One can see clearly from the "Sea Peoples" hieroglyph that the term anthro- derived from *ana-terra, in Greek *ana- *xer- i.e. χέρσος.