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The Rongorongo of Easter Island

The Shortcomings of Existing Transliteration Systems


Despite those shortcomings Barthel's system remains the only coherent, practical transliteration system ever proposed, without reference to which it is impossible to discuss the rongorongo.

Nevertheless, there is a need for a better system, as modular, as lossless, and as unambiguous as possible. Such a system is better built on the bases of Barthel's. Whoever is familiar with the rongorongo will have become familiar with Barthel's system, and will automatically associate a leading 2 with the head shape of the 200-299 series of signs, a leading 6 with the bird's head typical of the 600-699 series, a lone 8 with the star-like sign. Preserving and abiding by those implicit standards makes the system easier to learn and remember; breaking or ignoring them introduces confusion where Barthel had introduced a beginning of order.


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