Re: More on label anomalies

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gabriel Landini wrote:

> I had a look at the distribution of characters
> by considering the 2nd character if the label
> starts with <q>|<o> or the 3rd if it starts with
> <qo>.
> I got the following surprise(in %)
...
> So almost half the labels (if <q> and <o> are
> not strictly part of the word) start with <k> or
> <t>. Those % are so close...
> Is <k>=<t>?
> If so, why half the labels start with <k>|<t>?

As I was reading this, the similarity between
what I am currently working on jumped to my
mind.  I am hunting the typos in Sebastian
Englert's "Diccionario Rapanui-Español", with
a view to produce a reverse dictionary and
English versions, and later perhaps, a grammar
of Rapanui.  The language, in my view at least,
does not distinguish between noun and verb per
se. Preposed particles do. "Te tagata" 
is a noun because of "te" (te tagata = ka kanaka
in Hawaiian), so "te tagata" = man, men. "He
tagata" is a verb because of "he", so "he tagata"
= "is/are a man/men". So "te" is an article of
sorts. There is another article, "ko", but it
is used primarily with proper nouns and with
personal pronouns (which are perceived in this
language as similar to proper nouns). So:
ko au = I, ko koe = thou, ko Hai = Hai. This 
"article" is also used for "distinguished"
common nouns, e.g. the famous tablets are
called ko hau (lines) mo (for) rongorongo
(recite). And, in this function,  it can
be used in conjunction with the normal 
article te: ko te ..., roughly translatable
as "it is, this is...".  "Ko te..." would be
the natural start for a label in such a 
language.  You see what I am coming to.

No, I am not suggesting that the VMS is
written in Rapanui! (or in Maori, or in
Hawaiian).  Just that Gabriel's pattern  is
quite compatible with existing languages.
Not an anomaly at all, but a valuable
clue about the grammar of this language.
If it is a language, not a cipher. But
if it is a cipher... what kind of a cipher
is that????