Structural Observations Regarding RongoRongo Tablet ‘Keiti’

Abstract One over-used technique in the rongorongo research has been the linguistic speculation in regard to its real meaning. This has produced, over the years, a variety of individual translations, some of them faulty, and some merely unverifiable. Since a structural analysis tends to offer a conservative, realistic view—more like raw data—the author has proceeded to make a corpus-based study of one of the extant rongorongo documents, tablet ‘Keiti’ (text E). The study reports on a pattern found on tablet ‘Keiti’ (text E) that repeats itself 10 times, consisting of almost equal lengths of glyphs of similar designs. This pattern is another piece of evidence that supports researchers' claims in regard to repetitive patterns documented across the rongorongo corpus. The current analysis, by targeting glyphic sequences and establishing a possible partition, may gradually lead to an understanding of the textual content of the document.

[1]  V. Ooi.  Review of An introduction to corpus linguistics by Graeme Kennedy. Addison Wesley Longman 1998. , 1999 .

[2]  T. Barthel.  The ``Talking Boards'' of Easter Island , 1958 .

[3]  C. Cherry,et al.  On human communication , 1966 .

[4]  John D. Lafferty,et al.  Statistical Models for Text Segmentation , 1999, Machine Learning.

[5]  Jussi Piitulainen,et al.  Inquiries into words, constraints and contexts , 2005 .

[6]  G. Leech.  Corpora and theories of linguistic performance , 1992 .

[7]  Joseph B. Kruskal,et al.  Time Warps, String Edits, and Macromolecules , 1999 .

[8]  W. Bright,et al.  The World's Writing Systems , 1997 .

[9]  A. Loprieno,et al.  Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction , 1998 .

[10]  S MelkaTomi.  Structural Observations Regarding RongoRongo Tablet 'Keiti' , 2008 .

[11]  Homogeneity in Old Rapanui , 1992 .

[12]  Konstantin Pozdniakov.  Les bases du déchiffrement de l'écriture de l'île de Pâques , 1996 .

[13]  R. Parmentier.  Rongorongo, The Easter Island Script: History, Traditions, Texts. , 1998 .

[14]  Matti Rissanen,et al.  Corpora across the centuries : proceedings of the first International Colloquium on English Diachronic Corpora : St Catharine's College Cambridge, 25-27 March 1993 , 1994 .

[15]  Joseph H. Greenberg,et al.  Current trends in linguistics. , 1959, Science.

[16]  A. Robinson.  Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts , 2002 .

[17]  Shane S. Sturrock,et al.  Time Warps, String Edits, and Macromolecules – The Theory and Practice of Sequence Comparison . David Sankoff and Joseph Kruskal. ISBN 1-57586-217-4. Price £13.95 (US$22·95). , 2000 .

[18]  Heide-Margaret Esen-Baur.  State and Perspectives of Scientific Research in Easter - Island Culture , 1990 .

[19]  Patrick A. V. Hall,et al.  Approximate String Matching , 1994, Encyclopedia of Algorithms.

[20]  ALBERT J. Mott.  Easter Island , 1879, Nature.

[21]  I. J. Gelb.  A study of writing , 1954 .

[22]  R. Sproat,et al.  Morphology and the Harappan Gods , 2005 .

[23]  K. Routledge.  The Mystery of Easter Island: The Story of an Expedition , 1920 .

[24]  M. Mclean.  Weavers of Song: Polynesian Music and Dance , 2001 .

[25]  Maurice Pope,et al.  The Story of Decipherment: From Egyptian Hieroglyphs to Maya Script , 1999 .

[26]  B. Gorsky.  Island at the end of the world , 1966 .

[27]  H. Rogers.  Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach , 2004 .

[28]  A. Métraux.  1. Two Easter Island Tablets in Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu , 1938 .

[29]  T. Heyerdahl,et al.  Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific. , 1968 .

[30]  Philippa Smith.  Island at the End of the World: The Turbulent History of Easter Island , 2006 .

[31]  A. Métraux.  Ethnology of Easter Island , 1940 .

[32]  T. Barthel,et al.  The Eighth Land: The Polynesian Discovery and Settlement of Easter Island , 1980 .

[33]  Robert M. Langdon.  The Lost Caravel , 1975 .

[34]  Graeme D. Kennedy,et al.  Book Reviews: An Introduction to Corpus Linguistics , 1999, CL.

[35]  G. Heath.  Writing , 1971, Veterinary Record.

[36]  俊雄 齊藤,et al.  The Helsinki Corpus of English Texts と初期近代英語研究 , 1992 .

[37]  Margaret Laing.  The Linguistic Analysis of Medieval Vernacular Texts: Two Projects at Edinburgh , 1994 .

[38]  J. Marcus.  Mesoamerican Writing Systems : Propaganda, Myth, And History In Four Ancient Civilizations , 1992 .

[39]  S. Fischer.  Rongorongo : the Easter Island script : history, traditions, texts , 1998 .

[40]  S. Fischer.  Preliminary evidence for cosmogonic texts in Rapanui's rongorongo inscriptions , 1995 .

[41]  Clifford A. Pickover.  Computers, Pattern, Chaos, and Beauty: Graphics from an Unseen World , 2001 .

[42]  Douglas Biber,et al.  Variation across speech and writing: Methodology , 1988 .

[43]  Terry Regier,et al.  Reduplication and the Arbitrariness of the Sign , 1998 .

[44]  Maria Polinsky,et al.  The Atlas of Languages: The Origin and Development of Languages Throughout the World , 1997 .

[45]  Antonio Loprieno,et al.  Ancient Egyptian: Index of lexemes , 1995 .

[46]  Georgia Lee.  Rock Art of Easter Island: Symbols of Power, Prayers to the Gods , 1989 .

[47]  Godfrey Dewey,et al.  English spelling : roadblock to reading = 英語つづり字法 , 1971 .