Do any khipus record language, or only numbers and categories?
Most likely: khipus record numbers and the categories they belong to; colour, fibre and attachment label what is counted…Ahead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.
Where it stands
Five answers have been proposed. Khipus record numbers and the categories they belong to; colour, fibre and attachment label what is counted… leads, with evidence 2 for: partly supported by its tests. Four are still possible. Of the one narrower question under it, none is answered yet.
Answers 5
History
- Ascher & Ascher puts forward: khipus record numbers and the categories they belong to; colour, fibre and attachment label what is counted…
- Urton puts forward: each cord encodes a set of binary construction choices that together form a large structured sign inventory,…
- Urton & Brezine: excavated archives at Puruchuco and Inkawasi behave as layered accounts.For: Khipus record numbers and the categories they belong to; colour, fibre and attachment label what is counted…
- Hyland puts forward: some khipus, especially narrative ones, recorded words phonetically, for example by using cord types for…
- Hyland: two Collata khipus said locally to be letters show many distinct cord types, which Hyland reads as possible…For: Some khipus, especially narrative ones, recorded words phonetically, for example by using cord types for…
- Medrano & Urton puts forward: non-numerical features form a code of labels for places, social groups and divisions that can be decoded…
- Medrano & Urton: in the Santa Valley khipus, recto or verso attachment of first cords divides the 1670 census tributaries into…For: Non-numerical features form a code of labels for places, social groups and divisions that can be decoded…
- Medrano & Urton: construction features such as attachment direction carry information in at least one decoded set.For: Each cord encodes a set of binary construction choices that together form a large structured sign inventory,…
- Clindaniel: a corpus analysis finds non-numerical signs acting as paired predicates, conventional across the empire.For: Non-numerical features form a code of labels for places, social groups and divisions that can be decoded…
- Medrano & Khosla: sum relations characterise at least 74 per cent of 650 khipus, so most of the corpus is arithmetic.For: Khipus record numbers and the categories they belong to; colour, fibre and attachment label what is counted…
- Medrano & Khosla: white pendants appear to mark boundaries of sum-cord groups, a structural convention.For: Non-numerical features form a code of labels for places, social groups and divisions that can be decoded…
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