5 hours ago
(This post was last modified: 3 hours ago by quimqu.
Edit Reason: Wrong stats with qo
)
I have been running more statistics on this, and four things came out that I find interesting.
1. The forbidden pairs work across the space. Inside a word there are pairs of glyphs that never appear (no oo, no ya, no nk...). When two words meet and would make one of those pairs (with a space inbetween), a glyph is put to separate them. And in 9 cases out of 10 that glyph fits with both sides: it is legal after the word before and legal before the word after. If I shuffle the connectors around, it fits only half of the time. So it is not a random glyhp, it is chosen to fit.
2. The scribe doesn't avoid the clash, he fixes it. If I take the connectors off and look at wich word follows which, the clashes are as frequent as if the words were shuffled (24% in both cases). He never picks a different word to avoid the problem. The word comes as it comes, and the fix is done right there with the pen. But not after writting the word. The scriba knows beforehand that there must bu a connector (we would see a considerable shrinkage of the space).
3. It is allways the second word that adapts. 9 fixes out of 10 are done at the start of the second word, almost none at the end of the first. But the connectors don’t all work the same way. o (or y) before a gallows is added: a gallows word gets it after a word ending in n, r, s, d, m, and nearly always (94%). q is the other way round: for the same words (okal, okedy, oky...), the form with q is the normal one in running text, 70% at the start of a line where nothing comes before, 70% after a word ending in o or y, and it is dropped after a word ending in n, r, s, d, m (28%), after a drawing gap (13%) and in labels (2-3%). So o is something you add to fix a contact, and q is something you take away. And how much q a page keeps is still a habit of the page and of the word.
4. Labels and restarts after a drawing behave as if a word ending in n or r was there: q almost never appears (2%), y or o before a gallows almost always (94-98%). Ordinary line starts don’t: qo is at 48% there, halfway between the two interior cases, and it changes with the section. (Edited: the first version of this point was wrong, see below.)
Here is which word starts get fixed and which don't:
Why r, y, e and ch are left alone, I don't know.
So the space separates words but the glyph grammar runs through it and the line starts in a fixed state. Whether this is sounds running on in speech or just a writing procedure that looks one glyph back, I still can't say.
Comments welcome, as always.
1. The forbidden pairs work across the space. Inside a word there are pairs of glyphs that never appear (no oo, no ya, no nk...). When two words meet and would make one of those pairs (with a space inbetween), a glyph is put to separate them. And in 9 cases out of 10 that glyph fits with both sides: it is legal after the word before and legal before the word after. If I shuffle the connectors around, it fits only half of the time. So it is not a random glyhp, it is chosen to fit.
2. The scribe doesn't avoid the clash, he fixes it. If I take the connectors off and look at wich word follows which, the clashes are as frequent as if the words were shuffled (24% in both cases). He never picks a different word to avoid the problem. The word comes as it comes, and the fix is done right there with the pen. But not after writting the word. The scriba knows beforehand that there must bu a connector (we would see a considerable shrinkage of the space).
3. It is allways the second word that adapts. 9 fixes out of 10 are done at the start of the second word, almost none at the end of the first. But the connectors don’t all work the same way. o (or y) before a gallows is added: a gallows word gets it after a word ending in n, r, s, d, m, and nearly always (94%). q is the other way round: for the same words (okal, okedy, oky...), the form with q is the normal one in running text, 70% at the start of a line where nothing comes before, 70% after a word ending in o or y, and it is dropped after a word ending in n, r, s, d, m (28%), after a drawing gap (13%) and in labels (2-3%). So o is something you add to fix a contact, and q is something you take away. And how much q a page keeps is still a habit of the page and of the word.
4. Labels and restarts after a drawing behave as if a word ending in n or r was there: q almost never appears (2%), y or o before a gallows almost always (94-98%). Ordinary line starts don’t: qo is at 48% there, halfway between the two interior cases, and it changes with the section. (Edited: the first version of this point was wrong, see below.)
Here is which word starts get fixed and which don't:
| word before ends with | next word starts with | fixed with | how often |
| o, y, e | a | d | 83% |
| n, r, d, s, m | k, t | o, y | 86-91% |
| o, y | o | q | 54% |
| n, r, d, s | l | o | 43% |
| anything | r, y, e, ch | nothing | 0% |
Why r, y, e and ch are left alone, I don't know.
So the space separates words but the glyph grammar runs through it and the line starts in a fixed state. Whether this is sounds running on in speech or just a writing procedure that looks one glyph back, I still can't say.
Comments welcome, as always.