Bachelor of Arts, Linguistics, conferred on Rita Roberts May 7 2020
Tag Archive: historical linguistics
CONJUGATION OF VERBS IN HITTITE: Present and Preterite (past tense) Conjugation: Present active: MI: HI: uncommon sing. Sing. 1 mi 1 hi (/hhi/ahhi) 2 si 2 ti 3 zi 3 i pl. pl. MI = HI 1 weni//wani/ueni 1 weni 2 teni 2 teni 3 anzi 3 anzi PRESENT: es = to be MI 1 esmi 2 essi 3 eszi 1 esuwani ... 3 asanzi ses = to sleep MI 1 sesmi 2 ... 3 seszi 1 sesueni 2 ... 3 sesanzi ed = to eat MI 1 edmi 2 ezzassi 3 ezzazzi/ezzai 1 eduwani 2 ezzatteni 3 adanzi kuen = to strike, kill MI Cf. kill (English) + tuer (French) 1 kuemi 2 kuesi 3 kuenzi 1 kuennummeni 2 kuenatteni 3 kunanzi hark = to hold, to have MI 1 harmi (k dropped before consonant) 2 harsi/harti (k dropped before consonant) 3 harzi (k dropped before consonant) 1 harweni/harwani (k dropped before consonant) 2 harteni (k dropped before consonant) 3 harkzani istamas = to hear MI 1 istamasmi 2 istamassi (istamasti/istamaszi) 3 istamaszi 1 istamasteni 2 ... 3 istamassanzi punus = to ask MI 1 punusmi 2 ... 3 punuszi 1 punussueni 2 ... 3 punussanzi uwate = to bring MI 1 uwatemi 2 uwatesi 3 uwatezzi 1 uwateweni (uwatewani 2 uwatetteni (uwatettani) 3 uwadanzi lami = to detach HI? 1 lami 2 lasi 3 lai 1 ... 2 ... 3 lanzi te = to speak MI 1 temi 2 tesi 3 tezzi 1 tarweni (te -> ta in the plural) 2 tarteni 3 taranzi pai = to go MI 1 paimi 2 paisi (pasi/paitti) 3 paizzi 1 paiweni (paiwani) 2 paitteni (paittani) 3 panzi hatrai = to write MI 1 hatrami 2 hatrasi 3 hatraizzi 1 hatraweni 2 ... 3 ... kupawi = to count MI Cf. français “couper” 1 ... 2 kupuesi 3 kuppuwaizi (kupuezzi) 1 ... 2 kuppuwateni 3 kuppwanzi handai = to add MI 1 handami 2 handasi 3 handaizzi (hantesa/handai) 1 ... 2 ... 3 handanzi iya = to do MI 1 iyami (iyammi) 2 iyasi 3 iyazi (iyazzi/iezi) 1 iyaweni (iyawani) 2 iyatteni 3 iyanzi wemiya = to find MI 1 wemiyami 2 wemiyasi 3 wemiyaz(z)i (wemiezi) 1 wemiyaweni 2 ... 3 wemiyanzi harnink = to destroy HI 1 harrikmi (drops n before consonant) 2 harrikti (drops n before consonant) 3 harrnikti (drops n before consonant) 1 ... 2 harnikteni (drops n before consonant) 3 harninkanzi sarnink = to replace MI 1 sarnikmi (drops n before consonant) 2 ... 3 sarnikzi (drops n before consonant) 1 sarninkueni 2 sarnikteni (drops n before consonant) 3 sarninkanzi ninik = to mobilize MI 1 ... 2 ... 3 ninikzi 1 ... 2 ninikteni 3 nininkanzi akkusk = to drink a lot MI 1 ... 2 uskusi (uskatti) ask -> usk 3 uskizzi 1 ... 2 uskatteni 3 uskanzi azzikk = to adore (all the time) MI 1 ... 2 ... 3 azzikizzi 1 ... 2 azzikkittani 3 azzikktanzi arnu = to bring MI 1 arnum(m)i 2 arnusi 3 arnuz(z)i 1 arnummeni 2 arnutenni 3 arnuwa(n)zi assanu/asnu = to prepare/obtain MI 1 assanumi 2 assanusi/asnusi 3 assanuz(z)i/asnuzi 1 ... 2 ... 3 assanuanzi PRETERITE: Preterite active: MI: HI: 1 (n)un 1 h(hun) 2 sta 2 (s)ta 3 sta/t 3 s pl. 1 wen/uen 1 wen MI = HI 2 ten 2 ten 3 er/ir 3 er/ir es = to be MI 1 esun 2 esta 3 esta 1 esuen 2 esten 3 esir ses= to sleep MI 1 sesun 2 sesta 3 ... 1 sesuen 2 ... 3 seser ed = to eat MI 1 edun 2 ... 3 ezta 1 ... 2 ... 3 eter kuen = to strike, kill MI 1 kuenun (kuenunun) 2 kuinnesta kue -> kui 3 kuenta 1 kueun (kuinnummen) 2 kuenten 3 kuennir hark = to hold, to have MI (Alexandre, please double check this!) 1 harkun 2 ... 3 harta 1 harwen 2 harten 3 harkir istamas = to hear MI 1 istamassun 2 ... 3 istamasta 1 ... 2 istamasten 3 istamassir punus = to ask MI 1 punussun 2 punusta 3 punusta 1 punussuen 2 ... 3 punussir uwate = to bring MI? 1 uwatenun 2 uwatet 3 uwatet 1 uwatewen 2 ... 3 uwater lami = to detach MI? 1 laun 2 lais 3 lait 1 lawen 2 ... 3 ... te = to speak MI 1 tenun 2 3 tet 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... pai = to go MI 1 paun 2 ... 3 pait/paitta 1 paiwen 2 .... 3 pair hatrai = to write MI/HI? 1 hatranun 2 hatraes 3 hatrait/hatraes 1 ... 2 ... 3 hatrair kupawi = to count MI Cf. to count (English), compter (French), contare (Italian) 1 kappuwanun – kup -> kapp 2 kappuit 3 kappuwait/kappuet 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... handai = to add MI 1 hatrunun d -> t (drops n before consonant t) 2 hatraes (drops n before consonant t) 3 hatrai/hatraes 1 ... 2 ... 3 hatrair (drops n before consonant t) iya = to do MI 1 iyanun 2 iyas/iyat 3 iyas/iet 1 iyawen 2 iyatten 3 ier wemiya = to find MI 1 wemiyanun 2 ... 3 wemiyat/wemit 1 wemiyawen 2 ... 3 wemiyer harnink = to destroy HI? 1 harinkun 2 harikta (drops n before consonant k) 3 harnikta (drops n before consonant k) 1 ... 2 3 harninkir sarnink = to replace 1 sarninkun 2 ... 3 sarnikta 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... akkusk = to drink a lot MI 1 uskinun 2 ... 3 uskit 1 usgawen 2 ... 3 ... arnu = to bring MI 1 arnunun 2 ... 3 arnut 1 ... 2 ... 3 arnuir/arnuer assanu/asnu = to prepare/obtain 1 assanunun 2 ... 3 assanut 1 ... 2 ... 3 assanuir April 25 2020
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DECLENSIONS OF NOUNS IN HITTITE NOUNS in Hittite: Noun declensions are fragmentary Declensions: ABL = from, of etc. ALL (directive) = to (direction) Common (masculine/feminine): sing. NOM as/is/us GEN as/iyas ACC an DAT/LOC i INST it/ta ABL ...z/za/aza/yaz ALL a (almost never attested) pl. NOM es/is ACC us GEN an/as DAT/LOC as INST it/ta ABL za/aza man = antuhsas sing. NOM antuhsas GEN antuhsas ACC antuhsan DAT/LOC antuhsi ABL antuhsaz pl. NOM antuhses ACC antuhsus GEN antuhsas DAT/LOC antuhsas anna = mother sing. NOM annas GEN annas ACC annan DAT/LOC anni ABL annaz pl. NOM annis ACC annus aruna = sea sing. NOM arunas GEN arunas ACC arunan DAT/LOC aruni ABL arunaz(za) pl. ACC arunus kessara = hand kess -> kiss sing. NOM kessaras GEN kissaras ACC kisseran DAT/LOC kissiri INST kisserit ABL kissaraz(a) pl. ACC kisserus isha = lord sing. NOM ishas DAT/LOC ishi/eshe ALL isha pl. NOM ishes DAT/LOC ishas halki = cereal sing. NOM halkis GEN halkiyas ACC halkin INST halkit ABL halkiyaza pl. NOM halkis ACC halkius/halkes tuzzi = army sing. NOM tuzzis/tuzziyas GEN tuzzias ACC tuzzin DAT/LOC tuzziya ABL ... tuzziyaz pl. ACC tuzzius halukanni = chariot sing. NOM halukannis GEN halugannas ACC halukanin DAT/LOC haluganni(ya) INST halukannit ABL ...haluganniyaz(a) halhaltumari = cornerstone sing. DAT/LOC halhaltumari(ya) pl. NOM halhaltumares GEN halhaltumariyas DAT/LOC halhaltumariyas ABL halhaltumaraza huwasi = grindstone sing. NOM huwasi GEN huwasiyas DAT/LOC huwasi(ya) ABL huwasiyaz pl. NOM huwasi ispantuzzi = wine barrel sing. NOM ispantuzzi GEN ispantuzziyas DAT/LOC ispantuzzi INST ispantuzzit ABL ispantuzziaz zahhai = battle sing. NOM zahhais GEN zahhias ACC zahhain/zahhin DAT/LOC zahhiya ABL ... zahhiyaz(a) lengai = oath sing. GEN likiyas/lingayas ACC lingain DAT/LOC linkiya/lingai ABL linkiaza pl. NOM lingais ACC lingaus zashai = dream sing. ACC zashain DAT/LOC zashiya INST zashit ABL ...zashiyaz pl. ACC zahsimus harnau = chair sing. NOM harnaus GEN harnawas ACC harnaun DAT/LOC harnawi wellu = meadow sing. NOM wellus ACC wellun DAT/LOC welli ABL welluwaz pl. DAT/LOC welluwas heu = rain sing. NOM heus GEN hewas ACC heun INST heawit pl. NOM hewes/heyawes ACC heus siu = god NOM siunis/DINGURus as/iyas ACC siunin DAT/LOC siuni INST siunit ABL ...z/za/aza/yaz pl. NOM siwannies ACC simus GEN siunan/siunas uttar = word Cf. “utter” (English) NOM uttar GEN uddanas DAT/LOC udani INST uddanit ABL .. udanaza/undananza pl. NOM uddar GEN uddanas DAT/LOC uddanas memiya = word Cf. “memory” (English) + “mémoire” (French) etc. sing. NOM memiyas GEN memiyanas ACC memiyan DAT/LOC memiyani INST meminit pl. ACC memiyanus eshar = blood NOM eshar GEN eshanas DAT/LOC eshani INST eshanta ABL eshanaza/esnaza watar = water Cf. all sorts of Indo-European languages, especially “water” (English) NOM watar GEN witenas DAT/LOC witeni INST wetenit ABL ...wetenaza pahhuar = fire NOM pahhuwar GEN pahhuwenas DAT/LOC pahhueni INST pahhuenit ABL pahhuenaz mehur = time NOM mehur DAT/LOC mehueni hilammar = gate Common (masculine/feminine): sing. NOM hillamar GEN hillamnas ACC hillamar DAT/LOC hillamni INST it/ta ABL hillamnaz ALL hillamna nepis = sky sing. NOM nepis GEN nepisas DAT/LOC nepisi ABL nepisaz(a) ALL nepisa ais = mouth sing. NOM ais GEN issas DAT/LOC issi INST issit ABL issaz isgaruh = container, vessel sing. NOM isqaruh/iskarih DAT/LOC hi INST isqaruit arkamma = tribute sing. NOM arkammas GEN arkammanaas ACC arkamman pl. ACC arkammus muri(yan) = grapefruit sing. NOM mures INST murinit ABL ...z/za/aza/yaz ALL a (almost never attested) pl. ACC muriyanus kard= heart Cf. “heart” (English) + “coeur” (French) etc. etc. sing. NOM SA(ideogram)+ir GEN kardiyas DAT/LOC kardi INST kardit ABL kartaz ALL karta parn = house sing. NOM pir GEN parnas DAT/LOC parni ABL parnaza ALL parna (almost never attested) Adjectives: salli = big sing. NOM sallis GEN sallas/sallaiyas ACC sallin DAT/LOC sallai ABL ...sallayaz ALL a pl. NOM sallaes ACC sallaus/sallius DAT/LOC sallayas suppi = pure NOM suppis GEN suppayas DAT/LOC suppai/suppi/suppa/suppaya INST suppit ABL suppayaza pl. NOM suppaes/suppis ACC suppaus DAT/LOC suppayas/suppiyas ABL suppayaza karuili = old sing. NOM karuilis GEN karuilias ACC karuilun ABL karuililes/karuiliyas pl. NOM karuiles/ karuiliyas GEN karuila DAT/LOC karuiliyas assu = good sing. NOM assus GEN assawas ACC assun DAT/LOC assawi INST assawet ABL ... assawaza pl. NOM assawes ACC assamus DAT/LOC INST assawet parku = high sing. NOM parkus GEN parkuwas ACC parkun DAT/LOC pargawe ABL pargawaz pl. NOM pargawes/pargaus ACC pargamus/pargaus DAT/LOC pargawas April 26 2020
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Richard Vallance Janke now has 500 followers on academia.edu:
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Richard
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THE MYCENAEAN LINEAR B “ROSETTA STONE” TO MINOAN LINEAR Tablet HT 31 (Haghia Triada) Vessels and Potteryhas just been uploaded to my academia.edu account, here:
To DOWNLOAD it, click on the DOWNLOAD button on the top right hand side of the page. ABSTRACT In partnership with The Association of Historical Studies, Koryvantes (Athens), we address past and current prospects for the decipherment of the Minoan language, which has never met with any credible success in the 117 years since the ?rst discovery of Minoan Linear A tablets by Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos in 1900. A considerable number of philologists and historical linguists, some of them amateurs, claim to have deciphered the Minoan language, yet no one has ever formulated a convincing decipherment. We advance a unique and entirely untested approach to unravelling the text of Minoan Linear A tablet HT 31 (Haghia Triada), based on the principle of cross-correlative retrogressive extrapolation (CCRE) from Mycenaean Linear B to Linear A. HT 31 so closely parallels Mycenaean Linear B tablet, Pylos Py TA 641-1952 (Ventris) that the latter effectively serves as a kind of “Rosetta Stone” for the former. There is also credible evidence that a Mycenaean derived superstratum imposed itself on Linear A as the result of the Mycenaean conquest of Knossos and Crete ca. 1500 – 1450 BCE or, failing that, their all but absolute suzerainty over Knossos and its dependencies. Approximately 300 or 26 % of 1166 intact words in Linear A are very likely of Mycenaean origin.
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Article, Linear B Lexicon for the Construction of Mycenaean Chariots just published on academia.edu:
Click on the TITLE to view and download the article:
just uploaded to my academia.edu account at the link above. To download it, click the green DOWNLOAD button on the right side of the document.
Illustrations from the article:
This Lexicon is the only one of its kind in the entire world. To date, no one has ever published a Linear B Lexicon on a subject as focused as the Construction of Mycenaean Chariots.
This article has just been published in the prestigious European journal, Epohi (Epochs), Vol. 25, Issue 2 (2017), published bi-annually by the Department of History of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, University of Veliko, Tarnovo, Bulgaria. I have been invited by the Editor-in-Chief, Stefan Iordanov, to publish new papers in the near future (sometime in 2018) and again in 2019. Considering that the Editor-in-Chief, Stefan Iordanov, solicited me to submit this article sight unseen, you can be sure I shall submit more papers to the journal.
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How can so-called Cretan hieroglyphs be hieroglyphs when there are only 45 of them?
Until now most researchers have simply assumed that the 45 Cretan symbols (by my count), exclusive of numerics, must be hieroglyphs. But the evidence appears to gainsay this hypothesis. As the table below makes quite clear, there are only 45 Cretan symbols, to which
only 27 may possibly/probably/definitely be assigned meanings.
The significance of the remaining 18 are currently beyond the bounds of decipherment:
So this lands us with a total of only 45 Cretan symbols. If and when we compare this number with the approximately 1,000 Egyptian hieroglyphs, the whole notion that the Cretan symbols are hieroglyphs comes apart at the seams and is shattered.
And that is not the end of it. There are anywhere between 600 and 1,000 symbols in Cuneiform.
So once again, the massive proliferation of symbols, i.e. hieroglyphs, in Egyptian, and of symbols in Cuneiform make a mockery of the notion that the Cretan symbols are hieroglyphs. But if they are not hieroglyphs, what are they? It would appear that they are ideograms or logograms on seals and nodules which serve to tag the contents of the (papyrus) documents they seal. This hypothesis makes a lot of sense, since almost all Cretans and Minoans, administrators, merchants and consumer, were illiterate. These people were probably able to master the minimal number of 45 ideograms and logograms which we find on 100s of surviving seals. But while the illiterate hoy polloi could not read the script on the sealed papyrus (or leaf tablets sometimes), the scribes most definitely could. This leaves us open to yet another hypothetical question? What is the script of the texts? How many symbols or syllabograms (if the latter yet existed) would have been required to write the papyrus or inscribe the leaf tablets? Was this script, if script it was, an early form of Linear A, such as Festive Linear A? Or was it actually Linear A? This question or hypothesis demands further investigation.
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How circular language in the movie, Arrival, determines the aspacial/atemporal nature of logograms throughout the ages:
In the movie, Arrival (2016), which chronicles the arrival on earth of 12 mysterious ships, apparently from outer space, the following statements leap out at us:
1. Unlike all written languages, the writing is semiseriographic. It conveys meaning. It doesn't represent sound. Perhaps they view our form of writing as a wasted opportunity. 2. How heptapods write: ... because unlike speech, a logogram is free of time. Like their ship, their written language has forward or backward direction. Linguists call this non-linear orthography, which raises the question, is this how they think? Imagine you wanted to write a sentence using 2 hands, starting from either side. You would have to know each word you wanted to use as well as much space it would occupy. A heptapod can write a complex sentence in 2 seconds effortlessly. The key to all of this is the phrase a logogram is free of time. Allow me to illustrate. Logograms are also often called ideograms, and that is what I prefer to call them. Another word to describe them is icon. When we examine ancient Linear A and B ideograms and compare them with modern ones, the results are astonishing, to wit:
All of the aforementioned examples make it quite clear that ideograms, whether they be as ancient as those in Linear A and Linear B (i.e. about 3,400 years old) or modern ... or for that matter, neolithic or even earlier, all bear a striking resemblance to one another. Take for instance the Linear A ideogram for “scales” and compare it with just one modern one (among so many others), and we see immediately that they are extremely similar. Now take the Linear B ideograms for “man” and “woman” and compare these with the washroom symbols for the same and once again the similarity is almost too good to be true. Then there is the Linear B ideogram for a four-spoke wheel compared with a modern one for an eight-spoke wheel. The number of spokes is not relevant to this discussion, only the fact that the ancient Linear B ideogram for “wheel” is practically identical to the modern one. The implications for the decipherment of ideograms in any language, ancient or modern (let alone Linear A and Linear B) versus those in any modern language are staggering. We can be sure that the ancient ideograms varied little from one language to another, let alone between Minoan and Mycenaean. In fact, the syllabogram TE, which sometimes represents wheat, in Linear A and Linear B is almost identical to the same ideograms in cuneiform! It is patently obvious that since the distinction between the ancient ideograms and their modern equivalents enumerated above is so thin, all of these ideograms (or logograms or icons) are not only time independent (atemporal) and spatially independent (aspatial), they are also language independent. This is a stunning phenomenon. The implications for the further decipherment of Linear A are simply overwhelming. And this is why in the movie, Arrival, the heptapods assert, “There is no time.”
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My article, Lexicon of Chariot Construction in Mycenaean Linear B, has been accepted in advance by the international historical journal, Epohi/Epochs:
I shall be submitting it to the editor-in-chief, Stefan Iordanov of the Faculty of History of St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo (hence forward referred to as UVT), Bulgaria. The editorial board consists of highly prestigious researchers:
Executive Editor:
Stefan Yordanov, Associate Prof., Ph.D., St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo
Editor-in-Chief:
Ivan Tyutyundjiev, Prof., Dr. Hab., St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo
Deputy Editors in Chief:
Plamen Pavlov, Prof., Ph.D., St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo
Nikolay Kanev, Associate Prof., Ph.D., St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo
Editors:
Acad. Vasil Gyuzelev, Prof., Dr. Hab., Member of the Bulgarian Academy of science and President of the Association of Byzantinists and Medievalists in Bulgaria
Demetrios Gonis, Dr. Hab., Professor Emeritus of University of Athens (Greece)
Mirosław Jerzy Leszka, Prof., Dr. Hab., University of Lodz (Poland)
Tatyana Leontyeva, Prof., Dr. Hab., State University of Tver (Russia)
Milko Palangurski, Prof., Dr. Hab., St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo
Petko Petkov, Проф. д-р Петко Петков, St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo
Rumen Yankov, Prof., Dr. Hab., St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo
Mariya Ivanova, Prof., Dr. Hab., St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo
Dan Dana, Chargé de recherche de 1ère classe, Ph.D., Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique – Paris (France)
Issue editors:
Nikolay Kanev, Associate Prof., Ph.D.
Stefan Yordanov, Associate Prof., Ph.D.
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Linear B seal BE Zg 1 as erroneously interpreted by Gretchen Leonhardt, corrected here:Gretchen Leonhardt, a self-styled Linear B expert, has erroneously deciphered Linear B seal BE Zg 1. As she so often does, she misinterprets syllabograms, all to often blatantly violating their phonetic values. It is clear from this seal that the last syllabogram must be either ru or ne, and certainly not me, by any stretch of the imagination. Leonhardt is also in the habit of recasting the orthography of Linear B words she interprets to suit her own purposes. In this instance, she translates what she mistakenly takes to be the word on the VERSO to be dokame as dokema in Latinized Greek, flipping the vowels. But the second syllabogram is clearly ka, and cannot be interpreted as anything else. The problem with Ms. Leonhardt’s so-called methodology in her decipherment of any and all Linear B tablets is that she runs off on wild tangents whenever she is confronted with any word that does not meet her preconceptions. In this instance, she is desperate to cook up a meaning which appeals to her, no matter how much she has to twist the Linear B orthography. She indulges in this very practice on practically every last Linear B tablet she “deciphers”, interpreting Linear B words to suit her fancy, except in those instances where she is faced with no alternative but to accept what is staring her in the face. For instance, allow me to cite some of her translations of certain words on Linear B tablet Pylos TA 641-1952. She has no choice but to accept tiripode as signifying “tripod”, eme as “together/with” and qetorowe as “four year”, even though it properly means “four”, in line with the Latin orthography, quattuor. Linear B regularly substitutes q for t. As for her so-called decipherment of apu, she should know better than to translate it as “to become bleached/white”. After all, how could a burnt tripod be bleached white, when scorching turns pottery black? It is astonishing that she would overlook the obvious here. What is even more damning is the indisputable fact that apu is the default aprivative preposition for “from/with” in Mycenaean, Arcadian, Arcado-Cypriot, Lesbian and Thessalian, as attested by George Papanastassiou in The preverb apo in Ancient Greek:
Then we have mewijo, which she interprets as “a kind of cumin”. Why on earth the Mycenaeans would have bothered with naming a specific kind of cumin when the standard word suffices, is completely beyond me. In fact, the alternative word she has latched onto is extremely uncommon in any ancient Greek dialect. Finally, she bizarrely interprets dipa, which is clearly the Mycenaean equivalent to the Homeric depa, as “to inspect”, another wild stretch of the imagination. Sadly, Ms. Leonhardt is much too prone to these shenanigans, which mar all too many of her decipherments. She ought to know better. This of course applies to her decipherment of Linear B seal BE Zg 1. Finally, we can also interpret the figure on this seal as representing the Horns of Consecration ubiquitous at Knossos.
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Partial decipherment of Linear A tablet ZA 15 (Zakros) and the phenomenon of orthographic adjustment of superstratum words in the substratum language:This decipherment of Linear A tablet ZA 15 seems to add up overall. I have divined that the word qesizue, of which there are 57, means “goblets”. The plural in e is common in Linear A, and appears to be the plural of feminine diminutives, which in the case would imply that the singular is qesizuai = “goblet”. The decipherment certainly fits the context. The translation of itinisa as “in wicker/baskets” is less certain. Samidae can be construed as Old Minoan genitive singular for “from Samos”. Recall that when words derive from the superstratum, which means Mycenaean derived words in the case of Linear A, the orthography of the derived words must be altered from their Mycenaean spelling to Old Minoan Linear A spelling conventions. So in this case, Mycenaean Samoio (genitive sing.) could conceivably become Samidae in Minoan. We should not be at all surprised at this metamorphosis of orthography from the superstratum (Mycenaean derived vocabulary) to the substratum (Minoan vocabulary derived from the Mycenaean superstratum). After all, when superstratum French words are imported into English, their orthography undergoes the same metamorphosis. For instance, we have: French to English: albâtre = alabaster bénin = benign cloître = cloister dédain = disdain épître = epistle forêt = forest fanatique = fanatic gigantesque = gigantic gobelet = goblet loutre = otter maître = master plâtre = plaster similitude = similarity traître = treacherous and on and on. This phenomenon applies to every last substratum language upon which a superstratum from another language is imposed. So in the case of Old Minoan, it is inevitable that the orthography of any single superstratum Mycenaean derived word has to be adjusted to meet the exigencies of Minoan orthography. The most striking example of this metamorphosis is the masculine singular. Mycenaean derived words in Minoan must have their singular ultimate adjusted to u from the Mycenaean o. There are plenty of examples: Akano to Akanu (Archanes) akaro to akaru (field) kako to kaku (copper) kuruko to kuruku (crocus/saffron) mare (mari) to maru (wool) Rado to Radu (Latos) simito to simitu (mouse) suniko to suniku (community) Winado to Winadu (toponym) woino to winu (wine) iyero to wireu (priest)
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Invitation by Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics ISSN 2411-6459 to submit my first article: Click on the banner to visit their site:https://culturalanthropologyandethnosemiotics.wordpress.com/ I have just been invited by the international quarterly, Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics ISSN 2411-6459, to submit my first article. Since this is the second new journal to have invited me to submit, I will not be able to write my first article for them until the autumn of 2017. Thus my article will not appear in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics until the summer of 2018. I am deeply honoured by this unsolicited invitation. This article will doubtless focus on my ongoing efforts to decipher Linear A, at least partially.
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Decipherment of Linear A tablet HT 7, probably inscribed in New Minoan, i.e. the Mycenaean superstratum:Linear A tablet HT 7 (Haghia Triada) may have been inscribed entirely in New Minoan, i.e. in the Mycenaean superstratum, and not in the Minoan substrate language at all. The decipherment does makes sense in proto-Greek, but I cannot account for the presence of the numbers 3 & 4, which casts doubt on it. There is also the problem of human sacrifice. Some historians allege that the Minoans practised human sacrifice, but there is no proof of this at all. Besides, I find a bit strange that a civilization as advanced as the Minoan would have indulged in such a barbaric practice. But you never know.
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Supplement to the Comprehensive Linear A Lexicon of 903 words in Linear A: Onomastics and Topomastics: +12 = 904 - 916It is understood that I have personally interpreted the words below as either eponyms (personal names) or toponyms (place names), but some of them may be neither, being perhaps merely words. It is also possible that one or more of the 3 terms I have listed as onomastics may be topomastics, and that any number of those I have classed as topomastics may be onomastics (or neither). Onomastics: Kanajami Tateikezare Tidiate Toponomastics: Akanu = Archanes (Crete) Dawa (Haghia Triada) 5 Dikate = Mount Dikte Idaa = Mount Ida Kura Meza (= Linear B Masa) Paito = Phaistos (= Linear B) 10 Sukirita/Sukiriteija = Sybrita Winadu = Linear B Inato 12 TOTAL for the Comprehensive Linear A Lexicon = 916
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Comprehensive Linear A lexicon of 903 words in Linear A: 801-903 = TI - ZU
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Comprehensive Linear A lexicon of 903 words in Linear A: 701-800 = SI - TI
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Comprehensive Linear A lexicon of 903 words in Linear A: 601-700 = RE - SI
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Comprehensive Linear A lexicon of 903 words in Linear A: 501-600 = PI - RE
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Comprehensive Linear A lexicon of 903 words in Linear A: 401-500 = NA - PI
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Comprehensive Linear A lexicon of 903 words in Linear A: 301-400 = KU - NA
