Changes: Koihoma

Revision as of 18:25, 18 August 2015

OxleyLetter — Oxley's letter, written in Koihoma

Indiana Jones: "An extinct Latin American language. Pre-Columbian syllabary system. See those diagonal stresses on the ideograms? Definitely Koihoma."

Mutt Williams: "So what? Do you speak it?"

Indiana Jones: "Nobody speaks it; it hasn't been heard aloud in three thousand years. Might be able to read a little."

―Indiana Jones and Mutt Williams^[src]

Koihoma was an extinct Latin American language. Its written form used ideograms for its syllables.

History

In 1957, Harold Oxley wrote a cryptic letter in this language. It contained a riddle which when solved would reveal the location of the Crystal Skull of Akator at Orellana's grave. He sent the note to Marion Ravenwood, who mailed it to her son Mutt Williams, who gave it to Indiana Jones.

After escaping from some KGB agents on the Marshall College campus, Jones began to decipher the note, and, using Heyerdahl's treatise on Mesoamerican langugages, realized that it was in Koihoma, and marveled at Oxley's cleverness to encode a message in a dead language. Unable to read Koihoma directly, Jones used the Mayan language to help him with the translation.

Behind the scenes

Koihoma, as depicted in the film, appears to be a combination of two languages: the language's name (Koihoma) is a real language of Peru, and a Mesoamerican written language.

The real world Koihoma language was once spoken in the regions of northeastern Peru/southern Colombia, and was not related to the Mayan language at all, but possibly a Witotoan language. It is not likely to have a pre-Columbian written form. Koihoma is regarded as extinct in the 20th century, but may have lasted longer than the 3,000 years that Jones notes.

There are several extinct Mesoamerican languages that had developed their own syllabic writing systems, some of which would be connected to the Mayan writing system.

Appearances

External links

Bora-Witoto languages on Wikipedia
Languages of Peru on Wikipedia listing Koihoma as not extinct prior to the twentieth century
Mesoamerican writing systems on Wikipedia

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 '''Koihoma''' was an extinct Latin American language. Its written form used ideograms for its syllables.
 == History ==
-In [[1957]], [[Harold Oxley]] wrote a [[Oxley's letter|cryptic letter]] in this language. It contained a [[Oxley's riddles|riddle]] which when solved would reveal the location of the [[Crystal Skull of Akator]] at [[Orellana's grave]]. He sent the note to [[Marion Ravenwood]], who mailed it to her son [[Mutt Williams]], who gave it to [[Indiana Jones]].
+In [[1957]], [[Harold Oxley]] wrote a [[Oxley's second letter|cryptic letter]] in this language. It contained a [[Oxley's riddles|riddle]] which when solved would reveal the location of the [[Crystal Skull of Akator]] at [[Orellana's grave]]. He sent the note to [[Marion Ravenwood]], who mailed it to her son [[Mutt Williams]], who gave it to [[Indiana Jones]].
 After escaping from some [[KGB]] agents on the [[Marshall College]] campus, Jones began to decipher the note, and, using Heyerdahl's treatise on Mesoamerican langugages, realized that it was in Koihoma, and marveled at Oxley's cleverness to encode a message in a dead language. Unable to read Koihoma directly, Jones used the [[Maya]]n language to help him with the translation.