Cree Syllabary (was Re: D! IV)

[Moonhawk <moonhawk@xxxxxxx>]

> At 06:05 AM 2/21/01 -0700, Billy Hutton wrote:
> 
>> Wow Jim!
>> 
>> That link is pretty cool.  I have a silly question though.  :)  If the
>> alphabet is a visual code, what made you assign the letters you did to our
>> "H" and our "T"?
>> 
> The "h" looks like a Latin lower case h mirrored and laid down, which also
> looks exactly like Arabic He. Maybe that's the origin. It seems to me the
> writer was a Semite. Probably Hebrew. Using Arabic letters is a signature
> without revealing his true religious background. The T is the group
> assignment. I was just looking at script fonts.
> 
>> It looks like a better match if you "flip" them.  I can "see" the rest of
>> them though.
>> 
> The H yes... but I believe he was using the Arabic. It's identical.

Any resemblance to Cree syllabic characters?

When once I was shown a chart with the Blackfoot Syllabarium which Cree
derives from, along with characters labeled ancient Arabic, ancient
Sanskrit and Cypriote script, I remember noting that some seemed mirrored
and/or flipped, but fairly clearly related.

>> So I'm curious if this visual code could be applied to other arabic
>> alphabets, especially languages with similiar alpahbets like Spanish, French,
>> or who knows what else?
>> 
> Actually all letters, with a couple of exceptions, have their base in
> pictures. This was the origin of the idea that Egyptian words had double
> meanings. One definition based on what was commonly accepted, and one based on
> the Hieroglyphs.  What I have seen in this is a lot older than Egyptian. In
> fact if it was true of Egyptian, determinatives would never have had to be
> instituted. A true ancient word was itself both word (common definition)  and
> determinative (the meanings of the pictures behind the "letters".)  A Hebrew
> word like AMR, that which references all ideas of communication, actually
> translates, that which is born from the head.
>  
>> Decoded voynich "words" may still look encoded if they are of a similiar
>> alphabet, but still another language.
>> 
> This has been a thorn with this group but I accept all blame. I have not as
> yet been able to post my method as the PDF program I have been waiting for has
> not yet arrived. After the word is exposed by this groups "alphabet", the
> language is Hebrew but is actually visually encoded Hebrew. Vowel points may
> or may not be represented at any given time. False vowels may be represented.

This is in no way outlandish to me since I would claim that the Cree and
Blackfoot syllabaries are visually encoded kinesthetic primes equally suited
to sign language (see below). Vowels are problematic in possibly all
syllabaries except what I now consider to be the original -- in America.
 
>> Has this visual approach been applied to non-arabic langugaes?  It would be
>> interesting to see how it worked against something Slavic.  Or perhaps
>> someone would like to undertake the daunting task of looking for
>> similiarities in languages not centered around an alphabet, like Chineese or
>> Japanese.
>> 
> All writing started in pictures. Late languages like Latin used pre
> established picture references if they used the method at all. A lot of times
> meanings were totally reversed.

I am now in a position to question that first statement.

Try this on for a cognitive spin: the syllabary was invented once, long ago,
and was o kinesthetically (not visually) based system (transmitting bodily
feelings of process and relationship, not objects) with four vowels such
that each consonant character twirled to the Four Directions to show them.
Later this Ur-Syllabary made its way to the Middle East and India -- along
with the concept of zero -- where it was used by languages having more than
4 vowels, so the consonants became fixed in one of the 4 directions. And
since these other languages were based on visual rather than the original
kinesthetic processing, pictures later became associated with the shapes
much as our own "'A' is for Apple" books for English literacy.

I am coming to believe this is an accurate rendering of the pre-history of
syllabic writing. 

Oh, and I also believe this Algonkian Ur-Syllabary was also responsible for
the early Cherokee syllabary and thus the Anthon characters behind the
Mormon golden tablets; my Blackfoot colleague also believes this from
separate evidence.