Format converts before script

Claim (verbatim)

Format converts before script. The Tibetan-period Dunhuang corpus should show a double dissociation between two channels of borrowing. Liturgy imports FORMAT: Chinese-language Buddhist texts appear on Tibetan-style pothi leaves because the leaf format itself carried ritual prestige and suited recitation. Administration and schooling import SCRIPT: Chinese-language texts written phonetically in Tibetan letters served people who spoke Chinese but were schooled, under the occupation and after it, in Tibetan writing. Sacred form travels with the liturgy; graphic code travels with the chancery — and the two borrowings should sort onto nearly disjoint text populations.

Prediction clause (verbatim)

Classify Dunhuang items into (a) pothi-format leaves carrying Chinese-language text and (b) Tibetan-script phonetic transcriptions of Chinese. Primary clause (verdict follows it): at least 80 percent of class (a) is Buddhist liturgical or scriptural, AND the secular-or-pedagogic share of class (b) exceeds the secular share of class (a) by at least 30 percentage points — the conjunction must hold. Secondary: class (b) concentrates after 848, the post-occupation bilingual generation, while class (a) concentrates during 787-848.

Kill-dataset (verbatim)

Kill: the IDP's catalogued Stein, Pelliot chinois, and Pelliot tibetain holdings, where format (pothi versus scroll) and script are catalogue-level fields on imaged items.

Novelty / leakage triage

provisional — model-triaged, shepherd review pending

A provisional first pass authored by the model (Opus), not yet confirmed by the shepherd. It carries the same dated-search requirements as an authoritative verdict but is excluded from every headline figure and cannot underwrite a prediction until a shepherd confirms it. Provisional reading: Adjacent (closely related prior work exists).

Both borrowing channels are documented: Takata Tokio's work on Dunhuang multilingualism and on the Chinese texts written in Tibetan script (the 'Long Scroll') establishes the script-borrowing channel and the bilingual Tibeto-Chinese community, while pothi-format Chinese Buddhist manuscripts are a recognized codicological class. Not located: the item's specific DOUBLE DISSOCIATION -- >=80% of pothi-format Chinese-language items being Buddhist liturgical/scriptural AND the secular-or-pedagogic share of Tibetan-script Chinese exceeding that of the pothi class by >=30 points (the conjunction required), with the script class concentrated after 848 and the format class during 787-848 -- across IDP's Stein/Pelliot chinois/Pelliot tibetain holdings. The two channels are known; the disjoint-population double dissociation is unrun.

• Takata Tokio, 'Multilingualism in Tun-huang' (Zinbun) and 'A Study of the Chinese Long Scroll in Tibetan Script' (1993) — The Tibetan-script-Chinese (chancery/school) channel and the Tibeto-Chinese community; the format channel is separately known
• IDP catalogued Stein, Pelliot chinois, and Pelliot tibetain holdings (format and script as catalogue-level fields) — The kill dataset for the format-vs-script double dissociation

Predictions

No prediction registered yet.