The Voynich Ninja

Could the fact that low entropy in Voynichese be explained by the idea that the VMS is a textual representation of a music sheet?

(17-03-2023, 11:32 AM)Arichichi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Could the fact that low entropy in Voynichese be explained by the idea that the VMS is a textual representation of a music sheet?

Maybe the conditional entropy would be comparable but that does not mean that the structure would be similar. In a typical medieval music score most (I don't know how many, maybe around 90%) notes are separated from the next by 0, 1 or 2 half-tones. So we could easily reconstruct the scale from bi-gram statistics.
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There are ways to record music differently than glyph = pitch. I don't know about these. There was a discussion in the comments section on Nick Pelling's blog:
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I just got the idea looking at Solresol conlang and also looking back at an older thread of mine where I exhibited a seven consonant and five vowels notation for Voynichese.

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This could also explain the repeating patterns as part of a melody for building tension of some sort...

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The word length and entropy are not as unusual as one might think.
It is still within the normal range.

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The hypothesis that the VMS is a textual representation of a music sheet is an interesting one.
If the manuscript represents a music notation system, the low entropy might be explained by the inherent patterns and repetitions that often exist within music. 
However, there are a few challenges with this idea:    
The Voynich manuscript is highly structured, with illustrations and text arranged in a way that suggests a relationship between the text and images. This structure doesn't readily align with the layout of music sheets, which typically focus on musical notation rather than illustrations and text.     
The VMS includes a variety of illustrations, such as plants, astronomical diagrams, and human figures, that don't seem to have an obvious connection to musical notation.    
 The text in the VMS has been analyzed using various cryptographic techniques, and no clear pattern of musical notation has emerged.     
Throughout history, there have been various forms of musical notation, but the symbols and writing system used in the VMS don't correspond to any known systems. 

While the idea of the Voynich manuscript representing a music sheet is intriguing, the available evidence doesn't strongly support this hypothesis.

(17-03-2023, 02:45 PM)Aga Tentakulus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The word length and entropy are not as unusual as one might think.
It is still within the normal range.

Could you point out a similar string in Voynichese? You make a good point that things like this can lead to paragraphs with low word entropy and semi-reduplication. The string is something like "(und) vo(n) dem/der....". However, one crucial element in these strings is an alternation between the low entropy bit and a high-entropy noun. 

"von den vier elementen, von der erden, von dem lufft, von dem wasser, von dem für" 

There's almost a cadence to the entropy here: low low high, low low high. And most importantly, we immediately see a pattern, that "von de(n/m/r)" performs a formulaic function. Aren't such phrases famously absent from Voynichese?

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. on possible similarities between Voynichese and musical notation.

@Koen
I didn't think of it as text now. More visually, as if I were comparing 2 pictures.

It's very unlikely that the Voynich is a piece of music, in fact there has been music made out of the voynich
and it's crap!! (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)