In my latest post I am discussing the two most mysterious VM glyphs, EVA-f and EVA-p. Besides EVA-t and EVA-k, these are the only shapes of the letters I could not find in the 15th century manuscripts. Check my blog to see which sounds they had replaced.
In my previous posts, I offer some ideas to those who want to replicate my theory, by comparing the script to the Latin script in 5 different 15th century manuscripts, and showed 80 transcribed words that are spelled exactly the same in Slovenian.
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Hello Cvetka!
For more than ten years I'm a big fan of Slavic languages for the botanical part, unfortunately your articles have a lot of English text in image format, untranslatable by the automatic translator, not easy to understand.
Good luck with your ideas!
P.S. You can register your blog on Blogosphere reader of the forum too.
(24-02-2022, 05:05 PM)Ruby Novacna Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Hello Cvetka!
For more than ten years I'm a big fan of Slavic languages for the botanical part, unfortunately your articles have a lot of English text in image format, untranslatable by the automatic translator, not easy to understand.
Good luck with your ideas!
P.S. You can register your blog on Blogosphere reader of the forum too.
The problem with Slovenian language is that it cannot be meaningfully translated with Google. The language is highly inflective, the pronunciation is archaic (over 70 different dialects for two million Slovenian speakers!), and the alphabet does not capture all the sounds. The words can be spelled the same and have different meanings, or they can be spelled differently and have the same meaning.
Apparently I didn't manage to convey my idea: it's not the language that's not translatable, it's the image format instead of html.
Slovenian Voynich Theory
Since my recent comment regarding the DAIIN (8am) word triggered such a fierce reaction, I decided to write my explanation on this post. I am explaining it from the perspective of Slovenian theory, because only the Slovenian medieval language contains peculiarities that have been puzzling Voynich Manuscript researchers.
Before I go to the specific explanation of the word DAIIN, I need to say a few words about the Slovenian Voynich theory.
Voynich Origin and Slovenian Language
Several VM researchers are locating the origin of the VM in Southern Germany, Tyrol, or Northern Italy. In the medieval times, most of these regions would have Slovenian-speaking general population and German or Italian speaking nobility.
In the 15th century, there was an increased tendency to adopt Latin letters to the vernacular languages in the expectation that the Catholic Church will allow the vernacular languages used in liturgy however, with the dissolution of the Council of Basel, the use of vernacular languages in liturgy did not materialize until the emergence of Protestantism, which in Slovenian-speaking lands was very strong.
In the 15th century, the Slovenian language enjoyed a high status at the Court of Emperor Frederick III. It has been documented that Thomas Prelogar (Thomas of Cilii) taught his son Maximillian to speak Slovenian. The claim that Prelogar had written Slovenian grammar book and dictionary in 1470 cannot be substantiated, since his book, like many others, cannot be found.
Slovenian language was included (besides German, Latin and Italian) in the dictionary composed by Hieronymus Megiser, German polymath, linguist and historian, in his 'Dictionarium quatuor linguarum', published in 1592.
Slovenian grammar book, Articae Horulae Succisivae, was published in 1583 in Latin by Slovenian protestant writer Adam Bohorič.
The Italian Slovenian dictionary (Italiano e Schiauo Vocabolario), published in 1607 in Udine, was composed for the Slovenians living in the former Patriarchate of Aquileia which extended from Friuli and Veneto region to Adriatic coast.
Main Features of Slovenian Language
Slovenian language is highly inflective. The nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are inflected for three numbers, three persons, three genders, and six cases, and verbs are conjugated for three persons, three numbers, three genders, four tenses, three moods and two voices.
Besides vowel harmony, which can cause the change of the vowel in the root, it is also often necessary to insert a vowel when the added suffix causes hard to pronounced consonant clusters. The vowels must also be inserted for the missing semivowel for which Latin alphabet had no specific letter.
While the letters Q, W and Y had been changed already in the 16th century (although some writers still occasionally used them), the letters Č, Š, and Ž were not introduced until the 19th century.
Slovenian language has seven main dialects and over 30 subdialects. This is a result of its geographical location, exposure to the influences of the neighbouring languages, and relatively late compulsory schools in rural areas.
The main dialectal differences are in the pronunciation of vowels, for which only 5 letters exist, although 9 different vowels can be pronounced. Although the first Slovenian linguists in the 16th century insisted that the semivowels be clearly pronounced and spelled with a vowel, in dialectal speech they are still often left out. This was also problematic in the Middle Ages.
Slovenian language has flexible world order.
The grammatical suffixes usually define the number, gender, and tense, so that the personal pronouns are usually unnecessary.
Although there were some short codices written in Slovenian language, the author(s) of the VM might not be familiar with them and wrote the text in phonetic orthography. This means, that only relatively few words can be found in the dictionary written exactly as they are in the VM. It also means that Google or AT are useless in translating Slovenian medieval language.
The simple Slovenian Voynich Alphabet can be helpful in translating VM into contemporary Slovenian, however this does not enable comparison of the Voynich Manuscript text to Slovenian medieval text, but it can replace the various lettSlovenian Voynich Alphabeter and letter combinations for different Slovenian sounds used by different writers. The Cooperative Voynich Transliteration Alphabet, developed from the comparison of letter-forms and sounds in different European manuscripts, can be used for different medieval Slovenian texts, as well as for text in other European languages.
Slovenian theory is based on the assumption that the Voynich Manuscript is written in the 15th century Slovenian language by a Carthusian monk Nicholas Kempf who was prior of two Slovenian Charterhouses - Pleterje and Jurklošter. Although he was a poet, educator, theologian, philosopher and Christian mystic who wrote about 30 works, only five have been preserved, among them the Mystical Theology. I suppose his books were regarded heretical, since none was mentioned in Slovenian sources until 1970s.
Nicholas Kempf was a native of Alsace and although he was Carthusian, he kept in touch with the humanists in his native Strasbourg, as well as with the humanist at Vienna University.
I am working on Slovenian Voynich theory for seven years now. Most of my research was dedicated to the multidisciplinary approach to historical, political, religious, linguistic and other aspects of the time in which the Voynich Manuscript was created.
At the same time, I was focusing on grammar and how to explain the complicated Slovenian grammar to the non-Slovenian speakers, because there are no comparative documents. Although I was able to read and translate many Voynich words, I needed to find the proof of their existence in Slovenian written documents. This was a big challenge for me, because most ancient books and documents were only digitalized in recent years, and because Slovenian researchers are mainly focused on the 16th century Slovenian writing, due to the lack of earlier comparative documents.
My method consists of:
- preparing transliteration/transcription alphabet,
- compiling master file that contains copies of each individual VM word, transcription in Latin, transcription in medieval Slovenian (after adjustments), evolution or replacement of the word to correspond to contemporary Slovenian, column for suffixes and prefixes, English translation, explanation from Slovenian Etymological Dictionary and copies of word used in Slovenian medieval writing (including different spelling variations)
- compiling grammar rules from various Slovenian grammar books and scholarly articles to explain the grammatical adjustments of the Voynich text, as well as word structure,
- comparing Slovenian Voynich theory with other theories
There is too much material to post in this form, however I will try to use this post for specific grammatical issues most often discussed on the Voynich form. Since I cannot post my comments without referring to Slovenian language and its grammatical structure, I will not comment of other forums.
I hope that my contribution on this post will provide the researchers with the information about the medieval language that is still spoken in Slovenia and by Slovenian minority in Italy, Austria and Hungary.
Dear Cvetka,
I am also sure of the Slavic language of the script, but is is not exactly Slovenian and Your findings are more intuition, rather than real translation. Sorry.
BR: Bess
(22-07-2024, 04:43 AM)BessAgritianin Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Dear Cvetka,
I am also sure of the Slavic language of the script, but is is not exactly Slovenian and Your findings are more intuition, rather than real translation. Sorry.
BR: Bess
Thanks for reading my post. I could say the same thing for your theory. We both have a chance to prove it, so that experts can determine whose work is written on intuition, and whose work is supported by facts.