Re: Vinca script, cross bar angle - Ki Ri Ke

Franz Gnaedinger wrote:

Peter T. Daniels wrote:

Why don't you give me a page reference? Is it the same page(s) I cite in
*The World's Writing Systems*, sec. 2?

I have / had three books by Marija Gimbutas:

Die Sprache der Goettin
Die Zivilisation der Goettin
The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe

I would have preferred the English versions of the two
first books, alas, there were only German ones available,
beautiful and large volumes, though. I helped a friend of
mine with her diploma, and when she got it (well deserved)
I gave her the first book for a present, so I can't tell you the
title of the English original. May have been: The Language
of the Goddess, since the English title of the second book
is: The Civilization of the Goddess, and chapter 8 of that
book is devoted to the Vinca signs: Heilige Schrift, in English
probably Sacred Sript. Marija Gimbutas doesn't mention the
sacred script in The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe,
but she does mention it in her book on the Civilization of the
Goddess, and, as I recall, also in her book on the Language
of the Goddess. Beautiful books. I hope they can be found
in American libraries.

They were, and I think still are, ubiquitous. They're published by
HarperSanFrancisco, not exactly a scholarly publisher. The English is
the original, the German is a translation.

*The Language of the Goddess* (1989), $24.95 in pbk. (1991), makes it
abundantly clear that she interprets the signs as _symbols_ only, what
writing scholars call "ideograms," and hence not as writing. They are
the sole topic of that book.

*The Civilization of the Goddess* (1991), $30 pbk., has one chapter
entitled "Sacred Script," in which it is suggested that they represent a
pre-IE language, some of the signs may have phonetic interpretations,
and the possibility exists that a bilingual with an IE language may
someday be found!! However, the name of an "editor" is prominent on the
cover of this book, and it seems highly unlikely that after working on
the first volume for ten years (as she says), she suddenly changed her
mind a few months after it was published. It seems much more likely that
those thoughts were inserted by the "editor" and Gimbutas had little to
do with the later book.

I don't know what the third book you mention is.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@xxxxxxx
.

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