Evidence for Morphemic Glyphs in the Rongorongo of Rapa Nui
This presentation will follow the trail of ongoing investigations into the Rongorongo notation system of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The distribution, shape, and native descriptions of Rongorongo glyphs will be compared with pairs of homophones in Rapanui and closely related Eastern Polynesian languages. This evidence supports the hypothesis that Rongorongo signs, frequently in semanto-phonetic combinations, represented morphemes of the local language rather than syllables, as is nowadays commonly assumed.
