The Voynich Ninja

I've seen many efforts to turn the VMS into Latin. It's the most common language mentioned in connection with the VMS—probably due to the glyph shapes and their arrangement being mostly Latin.

Some of these are reasonable attempts and I give credit to those who tried. There might even be an element of Latin in some part of the VMS but there's no convincing evidence.


The PL transcript is an omelette of raw eggs—slimy and cold. A few more hours of due-diligence would have revealed it wasn't ready to serve. The signal-to-noise ratio is about 1:50—it needs to be at least 1:4 to have any credibility.

Maybe the author should spend a few months studying Latin and then reconsider his claims.

"Maybe the author should spend a few months studying Latin and then reconsider his claims. "

How about years?  Something like 55+ if you include stuff I remember fom grammar school.  

I was able to take those first baby steps towards a beta - I stress: beta - transcription because I have studied language all my adult life.  At age 14 I moved from a grammar school which did not teach French to one which did.  I found myself in 2nd year French with a horrible teacher who insisted on conversing only in French.  I was given no materials or tuition which might help me catch up.  Fortunately, this did not put me off for life.  At age 15 I started studying Spanish and German out of idle interest.  Later, I worked with some Spanish people and became hooked on linguistics.

Thanks to all for reading my blog.

I could say more about the VM and my methods, but I want to read this entire thread and address all the points raised.  I may be some time.  (pace Captain Oates)

PS - discipulus?  Nah! Guru, innit?  

I've just burned some midnight cliches speed-reading this thread.

Firstly: I posted a beta transcription.  Not a translation, never mind a final one.  If my transcription doesn't make sense, I would argue that at least it is a small step for Voynichkind beyond the previous transcription, e.g. "cPhesaiin ol s cPhey ytain ShoShy cPhodales".

Secondly: it was a transcription made by my computer, which doesn't comprehend Latin, English, and sometimes not even machine code.

Thirdly: I accidentally posted the wrong output file - an old one.  culpa mea doesn't even begin to say it!

Fourthly: the site where i post chose to throw a wobbly and refused to let me, let alone anyone else, post a comment.

I need some rest before I respond to specific points made.  But I did not use Google translate.  I used text files from Project Gutenberg for statistical comparisons of Latin endings.  I also used You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to compare ngrams from my program output with Latin texts.  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is also useful, but has a limited vocabulary: many words in Classical Latin texts are not found.


My method relies on the fact that in any given topical context there will be a preponderance of words related to that topic.  There is also the matter of the regional and grammatical contexts.  Are the verbs active or passive?  Does the author say "this thing was done", "do this thing", "I did this thing", "we must do this thing"?

Method: first find high frequency use of core concepts, disregarding the niceties of Latin grammar.  Next find consistencies which point to "correct" Latin grammer.  See what I did there?  Grammar.  Out notions of "correct" grammar and spelling post-date the VM.  The VM is likely to be riddled with "spelling errors" and errors of grammar.  Whatever the underlying language and whether code or breviography, we have no evidence whatsoever that the author used classical grammar and perfect spelling.

(08-09-2017, 03:32 AM)Patrick Lockerby Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....

Secondly: it was a transcription made by my computer, which doesn't comprehend Latin, English, and sometimes not even machine code.

Thirdly: I accidentally posted the wrong output file - an old one.  culpa mea doesn't even begin to say it!

Patrick, if that's the case, that you posted the wrong output file, then you need to correct that in a hurry, because there was no Latin in your transcription (other than a small percentage of coincidental words that resemble Latin).