Khipus are knotted-cord devices once used in the Andes for communication and recording information. Although numbers can be read on many khipus, it is unknown how other forms of data may have been recorded on the strings. Scholars currently debate whether elements of cord construction, such as the direction of ply, signified meaning on khipus and, if so, how. Testimony from an Aymara-speaking khipu maker, collected in 1895 by Max Uhle and recovered from Uhle's unpublished field notes, combined with the analysis of his actual khipu provides the first direct evidence that ply was a signifying element in khipus. Moreover, the evidence suggests that ply signified through a principle of markedness in which S ply corresponded to the unmarked (more valued) category while Z ply corresponded to the marked (less valued) category.
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机译：Khipus是曾经在安第斯山脉用于通讯和记录信息的打结绳子设备。尽管可以在许多khipus上读取数字，但是未知如何在字符串上记录其他形式的数据。目前，学者们争论着帘线构造的要素（如帘布层的方向）是否在髋关节上表示含义，如果是，则表示如何使用。 Max Uhle于1895年收集了一位说说Aymara的khipu的制造商的证词，并从Uhle尚未发表的田野笔记中获得了证据，再结合对他的实际khipu的分析，提供了第一个直接证据，表明帘布层是khipus中的重要元素。此外，证据表明该层是通过标记原理表示的，其中S层对应于未标记（价值较高）类别，而Z层对应于标记（价值较低）类别。
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