You ask, ?In which character set/transcription method are you working??
In the beginning when I was at the same stage as the VMS org are I used my own character set to transcribe VMs. characters. The VMs characters (letters) which in my mind I pictured as a single letter I marked as 1a, 2a, and so on. The letters that I pictured as weird I transcribed as 1b, 2b and so on. After listing all the variations of letters I began to study and than assigned phonetic value ? obviously later on I found out I was wrong. When I finished my study of all the possible variations it was evident that the VMs alphabet consists of consonants only.
I choose one page from VMs and one language I began to test my assumptions. After many errors in my assumed alphabet I finally arrived at the alphabet given in my Home Page. http://home.att.net/~oko/home.htm
Now I do not use any transcription, I use my alphabet to read VMs writing.
I translated the whole VMs in original language and copyrighted.
The variations in #6 and 7 ?gallows? I think is due that the pictures were taken in the middle of phrase or sentence. And also it could be due to hand writing.
But it does not matter how it looks the VMs character has phonetic value of ?T? according to my decipherment.
The EVA in VMs group is needed for uniform discussion in further study.
john
----- Original Message -----From: Jon GroveSent: Friday, February 13, 2004 4:50 AMSubject: VMs: RE: Re: RE: RE: Evita, EVA, and transcriptions.John,In which character set/transcription method are you working? I generally use EVA - but regardless of that, the point I was trying to draw attention to was the apparent 'feature' halfway down many of the gallows characters. Numbers 6 and 7 (below) look like they used to have an 'e' or 'i' character as the right-hand leg, which was then overwritten. All the examples below look (to me) as though the feet were drawn in a different operation from the top half.My question was whether this might simply have been the easiest way to draw these characters when using a quill, or whether we ought to consider reading more into the way these characters are formed.Jon.-----Original Message-----
From: john stojko [mailto:oko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 12 February 2004 18:17
To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: VMs: Re: RE: RE: Evita, EVA, and transcriptions.
Importance: LowGallows are defined.1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9 10 11 12I numbered the alphabets (gallows) from 1-12.The letters (gallows) have the following meanings;No. 1, 4, 6, 7, 10, and 12 are letter " T "No. 2, 3, 8, 9 are two letters combined, " ST " or " SH T "No. 11 is 3-letters combined, " PST " or " PSHT "In VMs alphabet there are two letters for S or SHThe VMs letter that look like number 4 is always used at thebeginning of word or sentence. Observe the combinationof ST or SHT in N0. 2, 3, 8 and 9.Also observe difference in hand writings.John----- Original Message -----From: Jon GroveSent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 12:33 PMSubject: VMs: RE: RE: Evita, EVA, and transcriptions.I've put the image at:Jon.-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Grove [mailto:JGrove@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 12 February 2004 17:14
To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: VMs: RE: Evita, EVA, and transcriptions.
Importance: LowHi Barbara,
In your detailed examination of the script, have you noticed that frequently the 'legs' of the gallows characters appear to have been drawn in halves? It's as though one or two short strokes were drawn for the foot/feet, and then the top half added in a separate movement. Sometimes there is a small gap in the middle of a leg, sometimes a kink, sometimes a slight overlap. In some cases the second 'foot' of a /t/ or /k/ looks like it started out as an /e/. Of course I don't know what it means, but it struck me as a strange way to have written these characters. Maybe using a quill forces one to use a writing style which seems illogical to someone who's never tried it - what do you think?
I have a jpg of various examples, if anyone's interested.
Jon.