05-03-2017, 12:13 AM
This post attempts to collate distinct discussions of observed tendencies within Voynichese which could be called spelling and grammar.
I include links to the different threads where each phenomenon is discussed. Please do not discuss the phenomenon here but in their respective threads - use the reply feature exclusively to alert me to phenomenon I have missed, or where I have made a mistake. Replies will be deleted once they have been dealt with in order to keep things tidy. I am linking to discussions that have appeared on this forum, not to third party websites.
Disclaimer: I use the word "rules" lightly here. We are discussing patterns in the text, not proposing any definitive rules.
I'm sure I'm missing quite a few so let me know what to add - this is my first draft.
Spelling rules
Vord rules
Paragraph rules
Grammar rules
I include links to the different threads where each phenomenon is discussed. Please do not discuss the phenomenon here but in their respective threads - use the reply feature exclusively to alert me to phenomenon I have missed, or where I have made a mistake. Replies will be deleted once they have been dealt with in order to keep things tidy. I am linking to discussions that have appeared on this forum, not to third party websites.
Disclaimer: I use the word "rules" lightly here. We are discussing patterns in the text, not proposing any definitive rules.
I'm sure I'm missing quite a few so let me know what to add - this is my first draft.
Spelling rules
Vord rules
- y appears either mainly as a suffix (in more than one third of the corpus) and occasionally as a prefix; rarely as in the middle of vords.
- q is a prefix followed by o in about 90% of all appearences. It is often followed by a gallows character, or if not, by d or l. It sometimes appears prefixed by another o (oqotar f10r, shoqoky f49r, etc). It can rarely appear by itself in the middle of vords. qo appears as an unique vord 29 times. However, almost all vords prefixed by q appear elsewhere in the corpus without that prefix. No label uses that prefix.
- Glyph i is followed by another i or n in 90% of all occurrences, and almost all n will be preceded by i. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
- q almost always appears at the beginning of a vord before o . It is also common after a vord ending in y. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
Paragraph rules
- f and p appear predominantly in the first lines of paragraphs (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). Furthermore, Currier Prescott (1976) notes that neither glyph are ever followed by c.
- m appears predominately at the end of lines but not paragraphs – and when it appears in the middle of lines, it has a tendency to cluster groups of words ending in m (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).
- Certain bigrams can be substituted within vords to create (almost always) a new valid vord. (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). These are grouped into character classes:
[ch] [sh]
[t][k]
[L][R]
[y][o]
[o][a]
[l][m]
For a fuller list and percentages of valid words returned, click here
[t][k]
[L][R]
[y][o]
[o][a]
[l][m]
For a fuller list and percentages of valid words returned, click here
- Asymmetric vord pairs. For example, the word or occurs 366 times and the word aiin occurs 470 times. But the phrase or aiin is much more common than aiin or. (Taken from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) Word order is important for several other "phrases" - the list is omitted for brevity here but can be found You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Editor's note: Care should be taken to distinguish between genuine vord pairs and single vords that have been mis-transcribed with a space.
- Line initial words. There are no popular words used to start lines. In the entire corpus (excluding one word lines) ychor starts 16 lines, followed by dcheo which starts 6 lines. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.| You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. | You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
- Bigrams. It has been suggested that parts of the corpus can be broken down into 26 bigrams. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
- Repetition. The same vord can be repeated in sequence for no apparent reason (this may simply be dittography caused by scribal eyeskip). The same word is repeated three times in 35 different phrases (T. Timm).
- Currier languages. There are statistical differences in the appearance of vords between quires. These differences have been collated into two "languages" by Currier. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..