Structural Linguistics Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Abstract: New materials on the early history of Polynesia are presented. The inscripion on the Tahua tablet tells of the arrival of king Hotu-Matua, son of king Tara tahi, from Mangareva and Hiva. The author also studies the East... more

Sergei V. Rjabchikov says:

«This author (Rjabchikov 1994: 5; 1997c: 204) read on the Mamari tablet a message about the war between the two tribal alliances of the island called Hanau Eepe and Hanau Momoko respectively, and this event took place in time close to the appearance in the sky of Halley‟s Comet in 1682 A.D. So, this tablet dates back pretty accurately to this year. The fact is that the superstitious scribe who compiled this inscripion was impressed by both the defeat of his tribe and the strange celestial phenomenon, and in his mind both these events merged together. When the Europeans began to visit the island, they saw firsthand that there were no tall palms here at all. This fact led Orliac (2005) to date back the Mamari tablet to the 17th century A.D. So, the dating proposed by me was successfully confirmed.»

«Having read the inscription on the Berlin tablet (O 2[4]), I found in this text the name of the birdman Hina Ono (glyphs 2 68); this personality ruled in 1848 A.D. (Rjabchikov 2012d: 4). This bird-man was also named Ure te Ono (Barthel 1978: 295) and Ko Tahinga (Horley 2012a: 58). The latter name reads Ko Ta Hinga (= Hina) indeed. Interestingly, this board is dated back using the radiocarbon method to some time between ca. 1830 A.D. and 1870 A.D. (Wieczorek et al. 2021: 1). It is the successful confirmation of my dating of that board.»

The Contents of this issue of Polynesia Newsletter, number 27:

Popova, Tatiana, 2021. [A Review, Part 2:] Kieviet, Paulus, 2017. A Grammar of Rapa Nui. (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 12.) Berlin: Language Science Press. Polynesia Newsletter, 27, pp. 2-4.

Popova, Tatiana, 2021. Proto-Polynesian *Ka-kai or *Kai ‘Sharp’? Or *Kaqi Indeed? Polynesia Newsletter, 27, pp. 5-6.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2021. On the Reflexes of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *Lawit ‘Hook’ in the Polynesian Languages. Polynesia Newsletter, 27, p. 6.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2021. The Voyage of King Hotu-Matua from the Marquesas Islands to Mangareva and Afterwards to Easter Island: A School Exercise on the Tahua Tablet. Polynesia Newsletter, 27, pp. 7-22.

This article is dedicated in particular to the radiocarbon datings of Rapanui artifacts.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian