Labelese

The division of vords into groups outlined in previous posts immediately reveals something significant about LABELS. Among vords that act or seem to act as labels, we encounter a dramatic and disproportionate lack of benched-no-gallows vords.

Our main distinction was a simple division between vords with gallows and those without. Among those without, there are those with the benched glyphs, [ch] or [sh]. Where it is in a vord without a gallows, the glyph [q] is counted in this category as well.

Thus:

*Vords with gallows
*Vords with benches but no gallows
*Vords with neither benches or gallows.

The basis of this distinction is visual. The gallows glyphs are taller than the others. The benches define a platform or plateau above the base or ground level of the text.

Be that as it may, we find that LABELS provide relatively few cases of benched-no-gallows vords whereas they are abundant in the running text.

It has long been noted that LABELESE shows an aversion to the glyph [q]. There are relatively few instances of vords beginning [qo-] compared to the running text.

But this is only part of a wider abscence of benched-no-gallows vords. In LABELESE we find a different distribution of the benched glyphs, and [q] is among them. Alternatively, we can say that there are more gallows glyphs intruding into otherwise benched-no-gallows vords. In any case, there are notably few labels with bench glyphs but no gallows. We find an abundance of gallowed vords, and an expected proportion of no-bench-no-gallows vords, but benched-no-gallows are poorly represented.

This is an important feature of whatever process it is that creates labels, i.e. stand alone vords. There is no happy definition of what a label is, but they stand outside the running text as unattached vords, usually seeming to ‘label’ an illustration or part of an illustration. As a group, these ‘labels’ have a marked tendency to not be benched-no-gallows vords. Or, to an unusual degree, if they have benched glyphs, they also have gallows.

How many ‘labels’ are there? There is no agreed list. In one list at my disposal there are 504 vords. Of these, by my count, only 50 – about 10% - have bench glyphs but no gallows. In the running text it is closer to a quarter of vords, more in dialect A than B.

Here are some of the examples to be found:

<f102v2.L2.2;H> cheor=
<f88v.m.3;H> cheosdy=
<f89r1.t.5;H> ararchodaiin=
<f80r.X.2;H> olchdy=
<f68r2.S.7;H> olcheesey=
<f100r.L3.3;H> olcheom=
<f73v.S1.2;H> sheol=
<f114r.P1.3;H> ycheod=
<f67r1.S.8;H> sheosam=
<f72v3.S2.2;H> sholeey=
<f71v.S2.5;H> sholshdy=
<f72v2.S1.5;H> oshesy=
<f72r1.S1.1;H> oshodody=
<f77r.N.1;H> darchdar=
<f84v.Y.35;H> ochedy=
<f72v1.S1.17;H> ocheos=
<f67v1.X.8;H> ochodare=

This is the one case I can find of [q] no gallows among labels:

<f66r.L.14;H> qolsa=

R. B.