Last edited on 1998-07-15 00:09:17 by stolfi
Voynichese
- Voynichese PHA
The Pharmaceutical section
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The dark color of this plot confirms
the low entropy of Voynichese. The main sources of blue ink
are some popular endings, like -aiin and
-eey; the h in gallows groups
cth and ckh, and after
word-initial c; and the o after
q.
The plot also confirms the old
observation that words spaces in Voynichese are highly
predictable.
As in the pinyin Chinese sample, most
of the information seems to reside in the first half of the
words. Of course this resemblance does not quite prove that
Voynichese is Chinese 8-). Rather, it may be diagnostic of a
newly invented spelling system, one that hasn't been polished
and streamlined by centuries of common usage.
One notes a few very bright
spots, such as the (ornamental?) p and the
s in the peculiar word chs
(twice). it is not clear whether the latter are due to
"foreign" words, or (trans)scribal errors...
l = 1 r = 0
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l = 2 r = 0
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l = 3 r = 0
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l = 1 r = 1
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- Voynichese HEA
The Herbal section, language A
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The pattern is similar overall to the
Pharmaceutical sample. One notable difference is large number
of dark blue cho and sho, as
word prefixes and as the common chol and
chor.
The bright spots include two
(ornamental?) fs, and the r in
the word chr. Is this a typo, a "scrybo", an
abbreviation for chor, or a legit but exotic
word?
l = 1 r = 0
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l = 2 r = 0
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l = 3 r = 0
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l = 1 r = 1
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- Voynichese HEB
The Herbal section, language B
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Here we see lots of dark blue
-dy suffixes, characteristic of language B, as
well as the dark hs in word-initial
sh and ch. The peppery pattern
of bright spots makes me suspect of transcription errors.
Among the bright spots are some
fs, a line-initial p (check
John Grove's messages about detachable ps and
ts) and some word-initial es.
My guess is that the latter are actually chs
with omitted ligatures.
l = 1 r = 0
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l = 2 r = 0
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l = 3 r = 0
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l = 1 r = 1
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- Voynichese BIO
The Biological section
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This may be the most repetitive and
predictable of all the samples shown here. The entropy
h3 in this section is only 1.74, much lower than, say,
in Herbal-A, or even Herbal-B. Not only is the
o after q highly predictable,
but also the q after a space, the
k after qo, and the
e after the ok.
Note the bright o on line 8:
it looks like a space was dropped by the (trans)scribe(r).
The litany of similar words reminds me
of the lists of demons and angels in magical books, like the
one quoted by Jim Reeds in his Soyga article:
Adracty, Adaci, Adai, Troccot, Trocot, Tercot, Herm, Hermzm,
Hermzisco, Cotzi, Cotzizi, Cotzizizin, Zinzicon, Ginzecohon,
Saradon, Sardon, Sardeon, Belzebuc, Belzscup, Belcupe,
Saraduc, Sarcud, Carc, Sathanas, Satnas, Sacsan, Contion, Conoi,
Conoison, Satnei, Sapnn, Sappi, Danarcas, Dancas, Dancasnar.
So perhaps the "nymphs" are demons?
(Hmm... Mozart as the VMs author? 8-)
l = 1 r = 0
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l = 2 r = 0
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l = 3 r = 0
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l = 1 r = 1
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