В.А.Чудинов

The syllabic readings were suggested by M.L. Sseryakov too, but this investigator has decided that in the ground of Runica lies the writing which is very near to the Hindian Brahmi. The failure here was inevitable as we can see on the drawing (it is the Seryakov reading the inscription on the seal of the prince Svyatoslav)¹⁷.

Fig. 2. The inscription reading on the Svyatoslav seal by M.L. Seryakov

Thus to the beginning of the XX century there were near 50 examples of the Slavic Runica and close to it writing system readings where there exists no one satisfactory deciphered texts. But meanwhile the corpus of inscriptions published by the archaeologists up to that time consist of circa 3 000 texts.

The analysis of my predecessor’s errors has helped me to understand their weak points: they tried to read every text not to know its origin, its grade of complicity, its connection with the Slavic Runica. The reading method was practically absent. For the reliable and provable reading it was necessary first of all to elaborate the provable method and to read already read inscriptions anew.

The syllabic writing deciphering method. The shown by many linguists skepticism was quite justified as the enthusiasts-amateurs proposed the most fantastic readings. The method progress was connected with the reading of the standard texts on the coins and on the birch bark record documents where the same words were repeated being wrote by Cyrillic characters or by syllabic signs, for example ПУЛЪ ТЪВЕРЬСЬКОЙ, ПУЛЪ ПОЛЬСЬКИ, ГОСУДАРЬ ВЬСЕЯ РУСИ, СЕ — ЛУШЕВАН (the coin “pul” of Tver, the Polen pul, the sovereign of all the Russia, here it is Lushevan, the name of a boy) and so on, that gave the possibility to expose the main part of the Slavic syllabarium.

On the Fig. 3 the same text wrote on the XV century Moscow coin is shown which is fulfilled by the Cyrillic characters (left) and by Runica¹⁸ (right); we see an extra word wrote by Runica, СЛАВЯНЪ (of the Slavs), which show us that it was the Slavs who has have the Runica, but no Russian people who has have the Cyrillic characters. Thus first in my practice I could see the difference between the all-Slavic writing (Runica) and the ethnic Slavic writing (Cyrillic characters of the Russian folk). On the other hand trough the comparision of these two inscriptions of the same content and the same sounds the determination of the every Runica sign sens as synonymous would be simple. In this case we can see the outlook of the signs GO, SU, DA, RЬ, VЪ, SE, YA, RU and SI. From other standard records we can know the sentence of the other syllabic signs.

Fig. 3. My reading of the inscription on the Moscow XV century coin

Here we see only one example. In my monograph there were especially shared out near 20 such examples from which one can determine the meaning of near 40 signs, meanwhile the meanings of the other signs were determined from the reading of the known words where the new signs were guessed as missed syllabi.

The peculiarities of Runica. The phonetic ground of runica is ruther original. Reading the same signs on the difference inscriptions one can understand the earlier sign form and its variants. Thus the sign for the syllable GO (Russian ГО) could have outlook in the main form as Г, although it could be in the form of 1. For the main majority of the signs the vowels A, O, U and Ъ within the first group of sounds and the vowels E, I, Y (Ы), YA, YU and Ь within the second group do not differ at all, so the sign Г one can read as GA, GO, GU or GЪ and the sign L had readings GE, GI, GY (GЫ), GIA, GIU and GЬ. Except of them these signs can read as deaf sounds, so Г in several texts has the meaning of KЪ (meanwhile for KA was in use the sign N, for KO — the sign­, for QU — the signÑ), and L — the meanings КЕ, КI, КЫ, КIA, КIU and КЪ. This peculiarity is very difficult for the reading. Much more difficult is another peculiarity that is graphical designation every vowel as I, and this sign can read as А, YA, О, YO, E, YE, Ы, И, U, YU, Ъ, Ь. That is why in several cases instead of the word OLEG we can see the word VOLEG, instead of the word KAYEMSIA we see the word KAVEMSIA. To differ Č and C (TCH and TS) which were written by the same sign instead of C we can see the combination ТЬSЬ as in the word KRIТЬSIA (КРИЦА). The sign “I” (“Y”) as ending with the reading Й was often absent. So even with the line disposition of the text the Runica signs on the reason of its orthography one can read with great difficulty. But up to the X century the signs of Runica often were joined together in the ligatures from 2 to 4 signs where the reading is very like to the solution of an puzzle.

Fig. 4. The Slavic syllabic writing syllabarium

The syllabarium of this writing I put on the ill. 4. From it we can see that some signs are similar to the characters of Latin, Greek, German runic and Cyrillic writing. I suppose that such similarity is not by chance, but relays on the influence of Runica on the later ethnic character alphabets.