VMs: Research Note: The VMs Alphabet

["Robert Teague" <rteague@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've stumbled across something interesting, and I want to
share it with the group. (If anyone replies, please remember
to keep it fairly simple -- I'm an astrophysicist, not a
linguist. : )  )

I've been working with the basic alphabet symbols, trying
to find a logical sequence for them.

I started with the symbols identified as numbers as the 
leftmost column, and added the variant of each to the
appropriate row (keeping in mind that most letters seem
to have a total of four versions) so I end with a 10x4 table.

I had to move a couple of the numbers to other rows to
fill them all, and it makes a reasonable layout:

p    f    cPh    cFh
o    q    x        v
r    ir    iir        iiir
y    s    b        w
e   ee  ch    sh
l    il      iil    iiil
k    t    cKh    cTh
d    a      j      g
m  im    iim   iiim
n    in    iin    iiin

I have this as a Word file, if anyone wants it.

Now, here's the interesting part:

In one of Jorge Stolfi's papers, he identified some letters
as vowels, others as consonants.

*After* I finished the table, I marked each symbol as vowel
or consonant as appropriate. Note the arrangement:

C    C    C    C
V    V
V
V    V
C          C    C
V
C    C    C    C
V    V    V
V
V

This pattern strikes me as being far too regular for
just coincidence, and came as a complete surprise. I initially
had the top gallows letters on the bottom, but note they can
be omitted without breaking the symmetry of v/c.

Stolfi's "crust/mantle/core" identifications showed a similar
arrangement.

I tried Mark Perakh's vowel/consonant identifications the same
way, but no such pattern appeared.

I tried GC's Standard Glyph Set on this arrangment of letters, 
and with the single exception of <n>, they all fell on the left side
of the table.

Robert

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