Here are some thoughts on what I'm inclined to call the "truncation effect": whereby removing the initial and final glyphs from every "word" does not appear to affect the presence of meaning in the text.
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The explanation for this finding is very simple: in Slovenian language, only conjuctions, adverbs, and prepositions do not inflect, which means that removing the final letter or two will in most cases not change the root of the word.
As for the initials: The medieval, as contemporary Slovenian, makes a heavy use of prefixes, which are often one or two-letter words.
Also, according to medieval Slovenian writing practice, the short (one or two letter) preposition or conjunction was often attached to the next word. This means that removing one or two letters at the beginning of the word also does not change the root. Many VM words, starting with ch, k, s, y fall into this cathegory. Correcting this spelling would change the number of spaces, as well as the vowel-consonant ratio.
On top of that, many Slovenian words are constructed in a way that removing one letter can change the meaning of the word: Example: kod (where) - ko (when) - od (from); dar (gift), ar (but), da (he gives).
Thanks for these posts. I'm following these explorations with interest; especially this strategy.
As you note: "it seems also possible that the initial and final glyphs are indicators of an alphabetic sorting, of the kind that Zattera’s paper implies..."
My alternative is a (non-linguistic) text based on two or more paradigms or templates, one of them being [qokeedy] - the B Text - in which case the natural order of the glyphs is their paradigmatic order - which you are construing as alphabetic. I think there are two orders of sorting, the other paradigm being [choldaiin]. Unless it is the other way around - I am construing alphabetic sorting as 'templates'.
This is very interesting, especially combined with previous observations that glyphs or sequences like '4o' don't seem to act as letter-like as other glyphs.
Are you planning to carry out the comparison with Dante or are you hoping others will try it?