Home›Open Questions›Is rongorongo a true writing system, and what does it record?Open QuestionsIs rongorongo a true writing system, and what does it record?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextLanguage Atlas. "Is rongorongo a true writing system, and what does it record?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-language.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/is-rongorongo-a-true-writing-system.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextLanguage Atlas. (n.d.). Is rongorongo a true writing system, and what does it record?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-language.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/is-rongorongo-a-true-writing-systemCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{languageatlas-is-rongorongo-a-true-writing-system-and, author = {Language Atlas}, title = {Is rongorongo a true writing system, and what does it record?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://dev-language.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/is-rongorongo-a-true-writing-system}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionRongorongo remains formally undeciphered. Scholars are divided over whether its roughly six hundred glyph shapes record language directly, in a logo-syllabic system, or serve as a mnemonic aid for memorized chants and genealogies rather than full writing. Steven Roger Fischer claimed a partial decipherment of one tablet in the 1990s, but Jacques Guy and Igor Pozdniakov later showed the pattern he relied on is a generic feature of the script and of Polynesian chant structure generally, not evidence specific to his reading, and the field has not accepted his claim.What would resolve this A reproducible decipherment method validated independently by multiple specialists, or the discovery of a bilingual text pairing rongorongo with a known language, neither of which exists today.OpenPolynesian linguistics and epigraphySpoken Past: Rongorongo, Easter Island's Undeciphered ScriptCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnRongorongo, Scripts Well-attested Source Spoken Past: Rongorongo, Easter Island's Undeciphered Scripttier 2SourcesSpoken Past: Rongorongo, Easter Island's Undeciphered Scripttier 2View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year