RE: VMs: Word Endings

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick wrote:

> One last thought on <ch>: whatever your position on the VMS, I think you
> have to take a view on what the set of diacritic-like marks above
> the <ch>
> is all about. Some possible views (please suggest others) are:-
> (a) meaningless
> (b) ornamentation
> (c) improvised		(local meaning, personal to the encoder)
> (d) semi-improvised	(local meaning, part of a shared shorthand)
> (e) systematic		(global meaning, like a nomenclature)
>
> Given the deliberateness and clarity of the alphabet, I think
> anyone not in
> the hoax camp can almost certainly exclude (a) and (b): which leaves the
> continuum from improvised to systematic.
>
> On balance, I think I'm coming round to (d): and I see abbreviatory
> disambiguation as exactly the kind of task a semi-improvised mechanism
> would be required to resolve. YMMV, however. :-)

I'm more leaning toward (e), but had once settled on (d).  These diacritics
are also used rarely with "o", and very rarely with "a", but used
nonetheless.  (You can also throw your "4o" in the mix, if this is how you
want to see this pair.)

The reason I'm moving toward (e) is that this notation is (to my mind) along
the same lines as the construction of my mutants (Rene's wierdos).  We have
all these funny little sets of 4 variations or mutations going on, and
lining up these sets gives me the sense that these are systematic mutations.
My problem with my own theory is that (and I must qualify this later with
proper numbers) the use of these mutants appears to be progressive, more
adaptive, and not something that was clearly thought out in the early stages
of the writing of the VMS.  We move along for a long time without seeing
something, but once we see it, it enjoys a fairly steady use in the
following pages.  I've noticed this in my runs of first occurrences of
glyphs, and I'm still searching for something to explain the phenomenon.

On top of this "sets of four" problem, we also have to find some viable
explanation for the insertion of what are obvious and sourceable shorthand
symbols in various places.  These are far less than 1% of the text, and
clearly nothing to do with the original design of the VMS glyphset.  I've
just finished quire7 but am having a difficult time with ftp and the server,
so once I get this problem worked out, I'll have this quire posted.
Starting the last two pages of quire6(f48r,f48v), and continuing through the
entire quire7 up to f56v, we witness the introduction of 13 brand new
glyphs, many shorthand.  Quire8 will add many more to this bizarre list
before things begin to taper off.  However you perceive this whole mess, all
I can personally say is "It's an exciting time to be me!". :-)

GC

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