Visible Speech Terms 2

Rosetta Stone

- most famous inscription in the world (Robinson)
- Napoleon in Egypt - French scholars part of the exhibition found it
- decree of Ptolemy (king)
- texts in 3 languages: hieroglyphic Egyptian, demotic Egyptian, Greek

Horapollo

- author of treatise on Egyptian hieroglyphs
- treatise composed in Greek during 4th century AD or later
- his readings of hieroglyphs were a combination of the fictitious and genuine
- Discovered on a Greek island in 1419, published in 1505.

obelisk

- Egyptian monuments with hieroglyphs written on them
- six ancient Egyptian obelisks re-sited or re-erected in Rome between 1582 and 1589
- caused by the Renaissance revival of classical learning (belief in Egyptian hieroglyphic wisdom)
- ancient temple-frieze in Rome (not Egyptian but represented hieroglyphs) that all artists copied in their sketchbooks.

Kircher

- Jesuit priest and most famous early interpreter of Egyptian hieroglyphs
- entrusted with publication of a hieroglyphic inscription on a Roman obelisk in 1666
- result of translation was mixture of brilliance and fallacy (but more of the latter)
- assisted in the rescue of Coptic

cartouche

- small group of hieroglyphs in an inscription enclosed by an oval outline
- usually used for the names of important people (kings, etc.)
- term coined by French soldiers in Egypt who were part of Napoleon's invasion force in 1798
- found on the Rosetta Stone

Thomas Young

- English linguist, physician, physicist
- began decipherment of Rosetta Stone in 1814
- concluded that the demotic script was an alphabet-hieroglyph mixture
- concluded that the name "Ptolemy" was spelled phonetically

Francois Champollion

- credited with the full decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs
- first believed that the hieroglyphs were ideograms until his own research showed that the script was mostly phonetic
- used Coptic to figure out some words in the hieroglyphic writing
- found that some of the signs were used phonetically, and used them to try and figure out other words in a kind of substitution puzzle

Ptolemy

- king of Egypt
- decree of Ptolemy was the subject of the 3 Rosetta Stone texts
- name was written in a cartouche on the Rosetta Stone
- his name was written phonetically in hieroglyphs, which allowed for the decipherment of the rest of the hieroglyphs

Arthur Evans

- dug up and reconstructed the 'great city' of Knossos in 1900
- discovered what he believed to be the palace of King Minos
- discovered tablets containing an unknown script (now known as Linear B)
- tried to decipher Linear B but failed

Knossos

- great city where King Minos lived
- home of the Minotaur
- was dug up and reconstructed by Evans
- contained tablets that had Linear B written on them

Linear A

- one of three scripts in existence in ancient Crete
- found inscribed on clay tablets
- find mainly at Minoan palace in the south of Crete
- related to Linear B but contains many unknown signs
- today, it still remains undeciphered

Linear B

- one of three scripts found in ancient Crete
- initially discovered at Knossos
- later discovered in mainland Greece (Pylos)
- deciphered by Ventris in 1952 (Evans attempted decipherment, but failed)

Minoan

- Crete
- King Minos & Minotaur
- Linear A discovered in Crete
- Evans believed Minoan language was related to Linear B

Cypriot script

- dialect script
- appeared in bilingual inscriptions
- signs appeared similar to Linear B signs, but this script had been deciphered
- Evans believed that this script was derived from Linear B

Alice Kober

- American classical scholar
- Kober's triplets - suggested declension
- initiated idea of phonetic grid
- did not fully decipher Linear B, but contributed greatly

Michael Ventris

- deciphered Linear B
- compiled a Linear B syllabic grid
- identified certain triplets that contained Cretan place names
- suggested that Linear B was an early/archaic form of Greek

Pylos

- located in mainland Greece
- large cache of Linear B found here in 1939
- Evans believed Linear B should only be found in Crete
- tablet found in 1953 that supported Ventris' decipherment of Linear B

glyph

- Mayan writing
- Knorosov claimed some were phonetic
- Thompson claimed that they were only logographic
- it is now believed the signs are both logographic and phonetic

Landa

- Spanish inquisitor in Yucatan
- "Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan" contains Mayan alphabet
- his alphabet proved to be the key to deciphering Mayan glyphs in 20th century
- assumed the Maya used an alphabet, but did not include enough syllabic signs (though he did include some)

Knorosov

- Russian scholar who proposed that some Mayan glyphs were phonetic
- used glyphs from Dresden Codex to illustrate his points
- his arguments were ridiculed by Thompson
- his ideas were expanded upon once Thompson died

calendar round

- 365-day Mayan calendar
- used 2 interlocking wheels with dates and names in Yucatan Mayan
- "Great Cycle" - begins at 0, ends 23/12/2012
- 18 months; 17 of 20 days duration; 1 of 5 days duration

phonetic complement

- glottalic consonants that differentiate words
- ex. kab' = earth, k'ab' = hand
- found in Mayan writing
- glottalized = based on whether or not the throat is constricted

Cholan

- modern Mayan language
- considered to be the closest to ancient Mayan writing
- monumental texts at Copan and Palenque in this language (2 of greatest cities of ancient Maya)
- influence can be detected in Dresden Codex

Dresden Codex

- Mayan almanac for divination
- each day is given astronomical significance
- each god and goddess is named with a glyph written above their portrait
- Europeans destroyed all but 4

Zapotec(an)

- undeciphered Mesoamerican script
- inscriptions at Monte Alban assumed to be ancestor of modern Zapotec family languages
- earliest known c. 600 BC
- script & language partially knowns

Epi-Olmec (La Mojarra, (Mixe-)
Zoquean, Isthmian)

- Mesoamerican inscriptions
- La Venta inscriptions:
- Olmec "duck man"
- La Mojarra - Epi-Olmec (aka La Mojarra, Isthimian)
- not as old as Maya or Zapotec; there are only 9

Olmec

- Mesoamerican script
- "duck man"
- one of La Venta inscriptions
- not as old as Mayan inscriptions

Etruscan

- northern Italy
- language not related to any other known language
- gave Greek alphabet to Latins
- script known, language unknown

Meroë

- where Meroitic inscriptions found
- rules from here also ruled in Egypt
- modern Sudan
- 300 inscriptions found

Meroïtic

- class III decipherment
- alphabet & alphasyllabary (mixed phonetic system)
- 2 versions of letters: formal & handwritten (formal from Egyptian hieroglyphics)
- from modern Sudan

Rongorongo

- script from Easter Island
- not ancient - date to last 200 years
- appears related to Rapanui (Polynesian language)
- written in reverse boustrophedon

Polynesian

- language family
- includes Rapanui, which appears to be related to Rongorongo

Rapanui

- Polynesian language
- appears to be related to Rongorongo

Cretan hieroglyphic

- found on seal stones and sealings
- older than Linear A
- one of 2 scripts found in Knossos by Evans
- Linear A probably evolved from this script

Phaistos disc

- discovered in 1908 in Crete
- made of baked clay and contains inscriptions on both sides
- "world's first typewritten document" - signs impressed into wet clay with a punch or stamp
- language behind script is unknown

Indus Valley symbols
(Harappan symbols)

- level IV decipherment
- area of modern day Pakistan & India
- inscriptions typically have 4-6 characters (most has 25)
- perhaps related to Dravidian languages

Dravidian

- Indian languages that preceded Sanskrit (spoken in south India)
- perhaps related to Indus Valley / Harappan symbols
- if they are related, may be possible to use Tamil to help decipherment

orthography

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deep orthography

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spelling conservatism

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nonphonemic information

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ghoti

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onset

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coda

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rime

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Old English/Anglo-Saxon

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Middle English

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Modern English

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great English vowel shift

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spelling reform

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William Caxton

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Samuel Johnson

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Noah Webster

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literacy programs

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mental lexicon

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letterbox region

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"bottom-up" processing

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"top-down" processing

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saccade

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"whole word" approach

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phonics approach

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alexia

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literary thesis

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