Thursday, February 28, 2019

Crazy Idea: What if the Rohonc Codex is in Romani?

In my last post I looked at a pair of glyphs that I think should stand for the phrase "King of the Jews." To clarify, I had landed on the following idea (which I probably didn't explain very well):

1. The glyph C represents the sound [ʃ] in the names for Christ (Krisztus, [kristuʃ]) and Pilate (Pilátus, [pilaːtuʃ])

2. In the glyph CX, the dot indicates an abbreviation for a word stating with the glyph C, or else possibly the sound [ʃi]

3. In the phrase King of the Jews, the glyph CX stands for the sound [ʒ] or [ʒi] in the name for the Jews (Modern Hungarian Zsidóknak, Middle Hungarian Sidóknac, [ʒidoːknak]).

Yesterday I realized the Romani language should also be a candidate language in my analysis, and I have completely left it out. Romani is interesting because it has not traditionally had its own writing system, and the spoken language has often been carefully guarded by its speakers, so might be a natural subject for an innovative and secret writing system. In addition, the Roma have been present in Hungary and neighboring areas for centuries. To top it off, the phonological argument above could work just as well for Romani, where the phrase King of the Jews could be (depending on dialect) zhidovengo thagarzhidovengo krai, etc.


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