Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications
Volume 18 1989
http://www.epigraphy.org/volume_18.htm
Deciphering the Easter Island Tablets - Part 1 (26 pp) Barry Fell 18-p 185
The author deciphers the Easter Island rongorongo inscriptions with the aid of New Zealand cave inscriptions, signatures of Maori chieftains on the Treaty of Waitangi, and spoken passages recorded more than a century ago by Bishop Tepano Jaussen from the dictation of an Easter Island chief named Metoro. Passages cover the early discovery and settlement of Easter Island and sequences of formulae for use as protective charms. A vocabulary of the words encountered is included.
Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers
Volume 19 1990
http://www.epigraphy.org/volume_19.htm
Forum: Easter Island (1 p) Gordon Hislop & Marshall Payn 19-p 14
Hislop, a Chief of the Maoris, congratulates Fell on the "news from Easter Island ... What a wonderful success..." Payn passes on a phone conversation he had with Petero Edmunds of Easter Island. Edmunds had met with the local Council of Elders and explained to them Barry's premises for the translation of the Rongorongo tablets. The Council members readily equated Barry's premises with Easter Island tradition concerning "reverse talking" --i.e., person A speaking to person B so that person C cannot understand the conversation. Reverse talking called for the using of words which, when spoken, sounded very close to the words they actually meant, but taken literally were gibberish. Payn says that Petero was quite optimistic about "the accuracy of your translation."
Forum: Secret Languages of Polynesia (1 p) Likeke McBride 19-p 15
Says that Fell's Easter Island hypothesis was upheld by none other than the late Mary Kawena Pukui (a co-author of the Hawaiian Dictionary). Over 20 years ago she told the author that "obscure talking" was an integral part of the game Loku. The author cites other cases of "secret languages" known to have been employed by Polynesians. [Buchanan note, July 2000: The Easter Islanders even have a special word pon-ko = "noun: a jargon by which the logical order of the syllables in a word is changed so as to talk without letting the rest learn of the subject discussed; as a transitive verb: to talk jargon." A US example would be "Pig Latin."]
Deciphering the Easter Island Tablets, Part 2 (27 pp) Barry Fell 19-p 250
This is a continuation of the article in Vol. 18 on the decipherment of the Kohau Rongorongo of Easter Island. He mentions letters of support from Petero Edmunds of the Easter Island Council of Elders and Likeke McBride of Hawaii as well as Maui Pomare, a leading Maori chief and scholar. He also heard from Gordon Hislop, an Otago chief. In this article, Fell gives a proposed reading of the opening passage of the Kohau known as Tahua using Thomas Bartel's transcription of the writing on the tablet published in 1958. A catalog of 270 Rapanui ideograms is given as well as the meanings of the phonoglyphs.
Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers
Volume 20/1, 1991
http://www.epigraphy.org/volume_20_1.htm
Deciphering the Easter Island Tablets, Part 3 (16 pp) Barry Fell 20/1-p 122
This is a continuation of the article begun in Vol. 18 on the decipherment of the Kohau Rongorongo of Easter Island. Fell explains that the vocalizations of the Easter Island hieroglyphics comprise prosonomastic language, meaningless in itself, but comprehensible when the punning transforms are recognized. Polynesian scholars have written Fell to support this finding.
Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers
Volume 21 1992
http://www.epigraphy.org/volume_21.htm
Deciphering the Easter Island Tablets Part 5: Maui and the Fire Goddess (10 pp) Barry Fell 21-p 31
The author continues his series on the decipherment of the Rongorongo inscriptions. Fell reveals a masterful knowledge of Maori myths and culture.
Deciphering the Easter Island Tablets Part 6: Powers of the Tohunga (10 pp) Barry Fell 21-p 41
The author completes his series on the decipherment of the Rongorongo inscriptions.
http://cumulus.planetess.com/Immortals2/ch17.htm
In a moment of inspiration Barry Fell realized that the Rongo Rongo script was not plain text in the Polynesian language. It was a specific form of hidden text. Some phonetically similar words were substituted for the intended-meaning words. There is a somewhat similar example of 'double talk' in England, among the Cockneys of London. I happen to have a 3 volume encyclopedic dictionary that has a 9 page section on this which it calls 'rhyming slang.' For example, a 'wife' is a 'jane'. But the word 'jane' is omitted and instead 'ball and chain' is substituted... The result of this type of communication is that only a knowledgeable hearer understands the speaker, although he/she might be familiar with the language spoken. It's said that Polynesian workers used such a language-form so that their bosses couldn't understand what they said to one another...
The Easter Island Council of Elders agreed with Barry Fell's translation -- "Based on the premise for Person A speaking to Person B so that Person C cannot understand the conversation. It's called 'reverse talking.'"