You agree that vaca in these contexts means vocalized-speech and not mental speech unspoken?
If so, then in SN 36.11, MN 44 using my translations where I match the pali closely in msg 29, however you think of vacisankhara as a precursor of speech, V&V (defined by MN 44 as vacisankhara) is much closer to thinking & evaluation, than just sanna/perceptions & feelings that survive past first jhana into all 4 jhanas?
Otherwise I don’t see how V&V can remain coherent, in first jhana context, through all the situations I’ve audited in detail, noble silence being second jhana, not first jhana, telepathy, oral tradition of speaking, reciting, thinking leading to 7sb sequence derived jhanas (AN 5.26), etc.
There are a lot more references than just AN 3.60 where mind reading the thoughts happens, and the contents of the mind reading is pari-vitakka, and the thought quoted is coherent unspoken speech, such as the beginning of AN 8.30.
atha kho bhagavā āyasmato anuruddhassa cetasā ceto-pari-vitakka-maññāya — seyyathāpi nāma balavā puriso samiñjitaṃ vā bāhaṃ pasāreyya, pasāritaṃ vā bāhaṃ samiñjeyya; evamevaṃ — bhaggesu suṃsumāragire bhesakaḷāvane migadāye antarahito cetīsu pācīnavaṃsadāye āyasmato anuruddhassa sammukhe pāturahosi. nisīdi bhagavā paññatte āsane. āyasmāpi kho anuruddho bhagavantaṃ abhivādetvā ekamantaṃ nisīdi. ekamantaṃ
Then the Blessed One, realizing with his awareness the line of thinking in Ven. Anuruddha’s awareness—just as a strong man might extend his flexed arm or flex his extended arm—disappeared from among the Bhaggas in the Deer Park at Bhesakaḷā Forest, near Crocodile Haunt, and re-appeared among the Cetis in the Eastern Bamboo Park, right in front of Ven. Anuruddha. There he sat down on a prepared seat. As for Ven. Anuruddha, having bowed down to the Blessed One, he sat to one side.
At the end of the sutta, in verse Anuruddha expresses that part of his mind being read, as sankappa instead of vitakka