8. The next of my examples is fetched from Tahua (A): In Tahua several variants of hau tea appear, for instance in Aa4-70:
To begin with noting the deviations from the normal hau tea: Of the three vertical lines only the central one is straight, the other two are tending outwards, expanding. The meaning is probably 'spreading out' (meaning growth). A comparison with the other hau tea glyphs in Tahua gives an unequivocal result: those with this 'spreading out' sign are located exclusively on side a (the side where sun has a prominent place). Sun generates growth. Another important sign is how the left vertical line is a separate entity, thereby becoming not real, only a fiction (in the same way as the central line is only theoretical). The horizon in the west is no reality during spring. What does youth care about saving for their retirement? In the G text there is no 'spreading out' variant of hau tea. On the other hand, there is no reversed hau tea in A. A single glyph seems to represent not a 'word' but a 'statement', and such are without limit, a statement can say anything. It is therefore a rather hopeless task to try to classify them in a dictionary. It would be like trying to list the infinity of chemical compounds with their characteristics. Instead, to find the different kinds of 'atoms' and the ways such can be built into 'compounds' should be our task. In rongorongo this means to identify the basic signs and the ways such can be put into glyphs. |