(continued from TI Luvian Update)
This posting updates the series started here by adding Luvian (also spelled Luwian, formerly Hieroglyphic Hittite) to the syllabic grid for the syllable TO originally published at 40 - The Syllable TO : Origins of Writing in Western Civilization and the Kaulins Minoan Aegean Sign Concordance (MinAegCon™): A Syllabic Grid of Mycenaean Greek Linear B Script, the Cypriot Syllabary, the Phaistos Disk, two Old Elamite Scripts, the Inscription on the Axe of Arkalochori, and Comparable Signs from Sumerian Pictographs and Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
If I have found no comparable Luvian syllable in mainstream sources, there is no update posting for that syllable. This applies particularly to syllables with the vowel "O", which predecessor Sumerian did not have (apparently also not in Luvian). Syllables with the vowel "E" are alleged by Luvian scholars not to have been used for Luvian, though I think otherwise. My research indicates that also Luvian had "consonant plus vowel E" (or similar sound) syllables and I include them if I have been able to identify them (provisionally, of course, subject to ultimate confirmation).
Each syllable will be presented in its own posting.
There is first a scanned image of a "syllabic" grid excerpt from the original Microsoft Word manuscript -- the links there are not clickable because it is one image.
The original text follows -- the links there are clickable -- but embedded fonts or images may be missing because Blogger does not pick them all up from Microsoft Word, so use the scanned image for those.
(ALERT: Read the additional closing note here after the grid.)
TO The signs are irrigation ditches viz. trenches. The vertical in Linear B holds up the operative 2 upper lines represent- ing an irrigation trench or irrigation trench. The Cypriot syllabary is said by mainstream scholars to apparently not distinguish D, T and TH, but I withhold final judgment on that issue. | Cypriot syllabary � � TO Two of the five “T-syllable” Cypriot signs, better match D-based signs in e.g. Linear B. | Linear B � �(05) TO "irrigation ditch, trench" | Phaistos Disk � � TO "irrigation ditch, trench" | No comparable Axe sign __________ Irrigation image at | Elamite TO irrigation Luvian &andÜ I, IÁ | Sumerian GUD6 Egyptian tA “irrigated” |
"Water words vary -In the case of Luvian, one might argue that a water-word such as Indo-European e.g. Latvian upe "river", Turkish ab (Persian آب (āb)), became dominant for the watercourse sign, thus accounting for a vowel-like syllable (if correct).
depending on the LOCATION where water is found
(lakes, rivers, oceans, seas, wells, artesian springs, brooks, ponds, wadis, ocean/substance of creation)
- or -
the FORM of water (dew, rain, snow, ice, glaciers, slush, sleet, thaw),
or its SUBSTANCE (fluid, liquid), or its USAGE (washing, pouring, drinking),
- or -
its human EMANATION (urine, tears),
- or -
its form and extent of MOVEMENT (waves, froth, rapids, falls, floods, leaks).
There are also other related "fluid" substances such blood, juice, semen, "milk" or "magma".
The modern-day linguists, incredibly - in the days of clear tapwater - assume that water is simply H2O. In early days, it depended on where the fluid came from. Depending on the language group and environment, one of these forms came to be the dominant form for any language's "water"-word."
Of course, Luvian had no TO syllable unless it was a TUO dipthong-like sound.
More likely here is that the syllables now read as "I" or "IÁ" are actually a long Ū as in the Latvian word ūdens "water". My ancestors in Latvia come from the area of the main, central dialect in Livonia (Vidzeme "the Middle Land, midlands") where the more archaic ūdenis is correct.
My posting of many years back on the word ūdenis and Hittite at LexiLine.com was titled Hittite and Indo-European (with a comparison to Baltic on the basis of Latvian). It is a bit extreme in some of its views, but much rings true today:
The Latvian language (together with Lithuanian) represents the oldest still spoken Indo-European tongue. WHO were the Latvians and just how old is Latvian? Research indicates that it has retained a form which is far older than anyone could possibly initially imagine. Evidence for this is found in Hieroglyphic Hittite.
Scholars write "Luwian" for Hieroglyphic Hittite, but in our view the correct transcription of Lu(t)-wian is Lutwian, i.e. Latvian. Lu(t)wian Hittite is the most ancient acknowledged written Indo-European language - dated back to 1500.B.C.
Let us compare the extinct Hittite case forms of the word for "water" with still-existing Latvian case forms for "water":
The two are as good as IDENTICAL. Lu(t)wian was Latvian.
Yet, incredibly, Kronasser never mentions Latvian in his so-called "etymological" book. This linguistic blindness is rampant throughout the mainstream linguistic community.
Based on the similarity of signs, Hittite Pictographic Writing has the Same Origin as the Hieroglyphs of Pharaonic Egypt and the Symbols used in Sumer.
Many of the symbols are similar in form and phonetics.
Biblical and Other References to the Hittites
The Encyclopaedia Britannica, under "Turkey",
gives us the state-of-the art view of the historians and archaeologists
(p.902, Macropaedia, 1974 edition):
"About 2300 B.C. a great wave
of Indo-European invaders, speaking a Luwian dialect,
seems to have spread over Anatolia from the West,
occupying practically the whole southwestern part
of the peninsula."
Hieroglyphic Hittite, on the other hand, is inexplicably regarded by scholars
to have come to Turkey in 1700.B.C. - a full 600 years later,
which makes no sense at all as far as chronology goes.
The Luwian Hittites were clearly Indo-Europeans from long before that era."