This is perhaps the first obstacle to reading the script because the authors, at that time in history, had no solid agreement of which direction their symbols would be read or written. It appears that there is a preference for writing from right to left, opposite of what westerners are familiar with doing, and from bottom to top in the script associated with the Purgatory River area in Colorado. Another thing to keep in mind was that, quite often, the script is written in a deliberate and clever way so that the meaning of the phrase is more or less the same, no matter which direction it is read.
Ligatures are when two or more symbols are connected together to form a single shape.
When grouped together like this, the entire ligature is usually a single word. Ordinarily, in old Negev script, the final letter of a word is repeated, signaling the end of the word. If there is more than one variant to any particular letter that terminates a word or phrase, the alternate sign is often placed next to the original sign. Another way that word breaks are indicated is in the deliberate rotation or enlargement of the last letter in a word string. It appears that each author had their own set of preferred rules but, with a little patience, the correct patter can usually be found with a little effort.