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Does rongorongo record language?

Asked 26 Oct 2026 by ·3 answers·0·0 following
Most likely: rongorongo is proto-writing or a mnemonic system that cued recited texts without encoding them phoneticallyAhead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

Where it stands

Three answers have been proposed. Rongorongo is glottographic writing (logosyllabic or syllabic) recording the Rapanui language. leads, with evidence 3 for, 1 against: partly supported by its tests. Two are still possible. Of the three narrower questions under it, one is answered.

Why it matters

If the glyphs encode speech, a decipherment is possible in principle and statistical methods for scripts apply. If they are a mnemonic or proto-writing system, no phonetic reading can succeed and the question becomes what they cued. Every later question depends on this one⁠[1]⁠[2].

Answers 3

Evidence: 3 for, 1 against
Most likely
Evidence: 2 for
Most likely
None of these.
Not tested enough to call either way
Evidence: none yet
Still possible

History

  1. Jaussen: metoro, the only informant, named the glyphs one at a time rather than reading a text.For: Rongorongo is proto-writing or a mnemonic system that cued recited texts without encoding them phonetically.
  2. Butinov & Knorozov: a repetitive run on text G with a recurring marker glyph is structured like a genealogy.For: Rongorongo is glottographic writing (logosyllabic or syllabic) recording the Rapanui language.
  3. Guy: the Mamari calendar's function can be described from its crescents and counts without reading any word.For: Rongorongo is proto-writing or a mnemonic system that cued recited texts without encoding them phonetically.
  4. Pozdniakov: the same compound glyphs and repeated phrases occur on tablets held on different continents.For: Rongorongo is glottographic writing (logosyllabic or syllabic) recording the Rapanui language.
  5. Pozdniakov & Pozdniakov puts forward: rongorongo is glottographic writing (logosyllabic or syllabic) recording the Rapanui language.
  6. Pozdniakov & Pozdniakov: 52 basic glyphs account for 99.7 per cent of the corpus and their frequency distribution resembles that of…For: Rongorongo is glottographic writing (logosyllabic or syllabic) recording the Rapanui language.
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