09-03-2016, 02:30 PM
Hi crezac, I had no idea that this post was here, so let me give you my opinion belatedly.
By distinct do you mean "discrete" or "unique". I would broadly agree that the characters are discrete, but certainly not that they are unique.
There's a core set accounting for most of the text and a bigger set of all characters. The number of characters in the core set is anywhere from high teens to low twenties. As JKP points out though, we certainly could have the count wrong. But beyond [e] and [i] sequences, I personally think we're broadly right.
It depends on if you mean this exactly or broadly. I have ideas, which I can support with arguments, that certain characters represent certain things. I can't be sure of any exact values, however.
I don't know what this means.
I would agree with this, and most would. But some (Rugg, Timm) would definitely object.
I think everybody would agree with this.
Again, it depends on how exactly you mean "known". None of the strings have been read, in my opinion, but some definitely refer to the images.
Yes. I haven't seen any recent objections to this.
Broadly, yes. They can be organized in this way and that such division is likely meaningful. But I'm increasingly unsure how much strings on either side of a space are truly separate. Marco's recent statistics make me wonder that each string may contain, at the beginning and end, traces from neighbouring strings.
I'm not sure that everybody would agree with this. Even though I agree that arrays do span lines, I believe they only do so with the addition of new information. A new line is in itself an informative or encoding event.
Yes.
Yes.
I don't know how much it is a blank line rather than vertical space. Even then, arrays seem to be separated without any vertical space whatsoever.
Pelling would contest this, for sure.
Some of the rare characters may be. It's wholly possible that the design of the script was borrowed from one already existing, in which (like many of the time) characters were used for numerals, but that characters representing certain sounds were left out except for their numeral use.
Can you give me some examples? I'm personally happy to make assumptions, but I would like to be aware of them and their possibility to invalidate my research.
Quote:VMS is written in a set of distinct characters.
By distinct do you mean "discrete" or "unique". I would broadly agree that the characters are discrete, but certainly not that they are unique.
Quote:There are 25 characters in the set. (attach jpg illustrating each character)
There's a core set accounting for most of the text and a bigger set of all characters. The number of characters in the core set is anywhere from high teens to low twenties. As JKP points out though, we certainly could have the count wrong. But beyond [e] and [i] sequences, I personally think we're broadly right.
Quote:It is not know what any character represents.
It depends on if you mean this exactly or broadly. I have ideas, which I can support with arguments, that certain characters represent certain things. I can't be sure of any exact values, however.
Quote:More than one character is written in the same place on some pages.
I don't know what this means.
Quote:The character set is used to encodes information in strings of these characters.
I would agree with this, and most would. But some (Rugg, Timm) would definitely object.
Quote:Character distribution in these strings is ordered, i.e not random.
I think everybody would agree with this.
Quote:There is no string of these characters with a known meaning.
Again, it depends on how exactly you mean "known". None of the strings have been read, in my opinion, but some definitely refer to the images.
Quote:The strings are written left to right.
Yes. I haven't seen any recent objections to this.
Quote:Individual strings can be organized into arrays separated by spaces.
Broadly, yes. They can be organized in this way and that such division is likely meaningful. But I'm increasingly unsure how much strings on either side of a space are truly separate. Marco's recent statistics make me wonder that each string may contain, at the beginning and end, traces from neighbouring strings.
Quote:Arrays are permitted to span lines.
I'm not sure that everybody would agree with this. Even though I agree that arrays do span lines, I believe they only do so with the addition of new information. A new line is in itself an informative or encoding event.
Quote:Arrays can be used to label images.
Yes.
Quote:Not all arrays are aligned with the left margin.
Yes.
Quote:A blank line can be used to separate arrays.
I don't know how much it is a blank line rather than vertical space. Even then, arrays seem to be separated without any vertical space whatsoever.
Quote:None of the characters are used as punctuation.
Pelling would contest this, for sure.
Quote:None of the characters are used only as representations of numbers.
Some of the rare characters may be. It's wholly possible that the design of the script was borrowed from one already existing, in which (like many of the time) characters were used for numerals, but that characters representing certain sounds were left out except for their numeral use.
Quote:Although since it is worth discussing I will observe that most people working on a linguistic solution seem to make too many working assumptions with nothing in VMS to support them.
Can you give me some examples? I'm personally happy to make assumptions, but I would like to be aware of them and their possibility to invalidate my research.