Syllabic signs
Consonants cannot be pronounced in themselves, so whole syllables are pronounced when they are sounded. When pronunciation is not determined by a written vowel character or common usage, they may be considered to represent whole syllabic groups.
Székely runic script offers
the possibility of omitting vowel letters if the word’s sound system and a
written vowel letter make pronunciation unambiguous. The rule of omission has
not survived but its existence is indicated by the script practice of early
relics.
Long vowels, the rarely used
"u" and "ü" sounds and vowels in end-position are always
marked (Németh/1934/18).
Later, possibly owing to the
influence of Latin, vowel-elision rules changed. In late writings, usually only
the sound "e" is elided, as consonants in the alphabet are read out
with an anaptyctic "e" anyway.
This special writing
practice, similarly to Old-Persian cuneiform script, allows the use of Székely
consonant characters as syllable signs or syllable-group signs. Syllable and
word scripts cannot be divided totally, and there are several transitional
scripts. That is why I.J. Gelb, a historian of writing, regards Western Semitic
scripts (Sinaitic, Old-Palestinian, Phoenician)[1],
and W. Thomsen, who deciphered Turk runic inscriptions, Old-Turkish script as
syllable scripts.
Fig. 20 "Latin-like" character orders contain "th/ty" signs, but Latin alphabet does not. They and their parallels always represent the center of the world, but sometimes only in the form of the four rivers or the divine spring, which represent Bél god. Székely "b" (Bél, belsõ = inner), "f" (Föld = Earth), "ly" (lyuk = hole), and "ty" (atya = father) support that view.
(Székely "b" (Bél = inner) and "ty" (atya = father); late Sarmatan tamgas; Chinese fu (father); Etruscan "th"; Cretan hieroglyph; Phoenician "th" (teth); Greek "th" (theta); "th" from Lykia; “th" from Karia
In his Rudimenta, published in 1598, Janos Thelegdi wrote that eighteen Székely consonants are simple, "b", "c", "d", "j", "f", "g", "h", "k", "l", "m", "n", "p", "k", "r", "s", "t", "v", "sz1", "sz2", "zs". Five consonants are complex, "ty", "ny", "ly", "gy", "cs", "as they are voiced with the vowel i". That means they have to be read out together with the unmarked “i” vowel. Thelegdi considered them such special syllable signs as characters "ti", "li", "ni" in ancient Cypriot and Hittite hieroglyphic syllable scripts, in which the sound “i” is not marked either. Although there is still a clear difference between the pronunciation of "ti" and "ty", Thelegdi's theory illustrates the origin of these Székely characters (syllabic signs).
Besides these letters,
Thelegdi gives 21 regular syllable signs as well. These, however, are composed
of runes, therefore they are ligatures with marked vowels, "ba",
"be", "bi", "bo", "csa",
"ga", "gi", "go", "ha", "he",
"ho", "la", "le", "lo", "ra",
"ri", "ro", "sa", "se", "so",
"za". He gives nine irregular syllable signs, which are "placed at the end of words ... as they upset
syllabification", "ncs", "nd", "ng",
"ngy", "nk", "lt", "st",
"rt", "nt". This classification proves regular syllabic
writing practice and the existence of distinct signs marking endings and
consonant clusters.
Other data also support
Thelegdi's theory about writing practice. In the "USTeN" ligature
from Énlaka, syllable sign "nt/tn" indeed occurs at end-position (and
can be read both from right to left and from left to right; Fig. 14). The word
"FeReNC" in the runic calendar, "nc" is also at the end of the
word.
Steppe applications of Thelegdi's special
"ncs", "nd", "ng", "ni",
"nt", 'lt" syllable signs are shown in the Turkish
"ncs/ngy", "ld/lt", and "nj" consonant cluster
signs, and in the “ncs", "nd", "ngy", "nj",
and "nt" characters of Nikolsburg alphabet (Fig. 18). Only certain
phonetic forms can be compared, as character forms are different in the three
alphabets. They do not allow the graphic identification of Turkish and Székely
letters, but prove the common origin of their syllabification system.
That means that in Turkish script and in the two
Székely "alphabets" syllabification seems to have been determined by
the common ancient source and the linguistic relationship of the languages.
Although most syllabic signs are letter combinations (ligatures), both the
tradition of ligatures and the idea of syllabification are very old[2];
only the forms of certain syllable signs have been altered several times.
"nt" and other characters which are more than ten thousand years old
prove that Székely syllabifying system could not have developed from a Semitic
type of syllable script or a Greek type of alphabet, as the Székely has more
ancient characteristics.
Fig. 21 The Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet as it has survived in a clay tablet (Doblhofer/1962/230)
Usually these ligatures are regarded as generally
used, but individual creations developed for ease of use and to save space and
time. Saving time and space was necessary even as early as ten thousand years
ago. In fact, syllable signs are important typological features that
characterize the age that gave rise to Székely script and related writing
systems. The creation of syllable signs from letters corresponds to the
tendency of increase in character number in all the other systems that could
develop without difficulties. The Chinese character set grew due to similar
character montages, but the requirements of Chinese language made Chinese
script develop in a different direction.
Consequently, Székely runic script is a perfect letter
script that has both word and syllable signs making syllabifying script
possible. The Székely character set is similar to those syllabic scripts that
had already developed a distinct letter set and a practice of letter writing.
It surpasses syllabic scripts in the consistent application of letters, and in
this respect it is similar to the Greek writing system, the first so-called real
letter script.
[1] The term "Western Semitic
syllable writing" we use to describe the various scripts used by Phoneticians,
Hebrews and other Semitic peoples from the 2nd millennium BC means that these
writings are syllabic and not alphabetic. They were mere syllabic writings and
nothing more. (Gelb/1976/299)
[2] The two different "s"
characters may mark syllable groups. One variant with a small additional stroke
(Fig. 13) is next to the sounds "a", "i", "o",
"u", the other is beside sound "e" (Csallány/1963/52).
Contents
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History of the scientific views on the origins of Székely runic script | 10. |
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