The Voynich Ninja

What does it mean to decipher a writing system? (see J. Gelb in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., 1975)

- How does a script work? (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)
- How difficult is it to decipher an unknown script using an unidentified language? (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)
- What is a writing system? (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)
- What different kinds of writing systems did we know? (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)


The glyphs

- Are there different variants of the same glyph?
- It is is possible to distinguish between different types of glyphs?
   - Are there uppercase and lowercase variants? (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)
- Are there any corrections? It it possible to describe patterns for them?
- How many glyphs does exist?
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]- How to determine the type of the writing system? (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)[/font]
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]- If it is an alphabetic script, is it possible to distinguish between consonants and vowels?[/font][/font]


Repeated glyph groups

- Are glyphs squeezed together at the end of lines?
- How to determine the writing direction?
- Are there groups of glyphs that do repeat?
- Does the script use some kind of separator to group the glyphs into graphemes?
- If there are separators, how does the length of the graphemes distribute?
- Are there longer groups of glyphs that do repeat?


Relations between graphemes (other terms for graphemes are glyph groups or words)

- What is highly characteristic for the writing system? Are there any unexpected patterns?
- Did graphemes depend on their context?
- Did graphemes depend on illustrations?
- Did graphemes depend on other graphemes?
- Can a grapheme be part of another grapheme?
- Did relations between similar graphemes exists? 
- Is it possible to determine prefixes or suffixes?
- Is it possible to determine root forms?
- Is it possible to distinguish between different grapheme classes?
- If there are different grapheme classes, is it possible to describe relations between them?


The meaning encoded in the writing (A common mistake is to start with this question. But it is necessary to determine the way the writing system works first!)

- Is the writing system related to anything we know?
- Is there a relation to other known writing systems?
- Is there a bilingual text?
- How many script samples of different origin did we know?
- Does the writing system encode meaning? (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)
- Does the writing system encode a natural language?
- What does we know about the cultural context the writing system was used in?
- Is it possible to detect the language family?
- Is it possible to detect a related langue or to detect even the language itself?
- Are there further tracks we can research?

Excellent! And now that we have these question, and various others, some of which lack the data to form a clear determination, what can be done to move forward?  How will progress be made?

I am not a linguistics investigator; never was, tried, never will be. The only question I can answer is the one at the end. Are there other tracks? Yes, there are. Does the VMs contain any clues to its interpretation? The raw data is there to be seen, but are there more subtle hints, any off-camera cues to aid or guide an investigation. For instance, if the 4 x 17 symbol sequence were a simple substitution alphabet. That would be the type of clue. Of course it's far beyond that, but can it be said that this construction is entirely meaningless. Standard interpretations of the first six symbols reveal a complex interrelationship based on three different traditional systems; Roman numerals, Greek alphanumerics, and medieval numerals of the Typus Arithmetica.

Does the VMs, *was* the VMs originally constructed to contain the answer to its own interpretation? Does it contain the method to its own solution? Well, the linguistics side has been working on that. Alternatively, it contains the solution, and a method needs to be found so it can be interpreted. The VMs uses Stolfi's markers and other visual cues to designate two text segments on f71r, White Aries. Following traditional interpretations, the VMs artist has constructed a unique form of presentation. That implies, IMHO, that there was a reason to do so.