(09-08-2025, 02:52 PM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (09-08-2025, 02:00 PM)cvetkakocj@rogers.com Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.As Currier observed, many Voynich glyphs look like Latin letter used in medieval European scripts, letters such as a, c, d, e, h, i, l, m, n, o, r, u, v, z, however the Germanic letterforms k, t are missing, therefore, it is reasonable to assume that they stand for k and t. T[...]
I don't think that the Voynichese alphabet was meant to resemble European letters shapes at all. To me it is obvious that the Author created the alphabet from scratch by systematically combining pairs of simple strokes.
The primary concern of the Author apparently was to make the glyphs easy to write with a quill pen on vellum, which is best done with the pen moving in directions between Southwest and East for right-handed writers. Since he was not bound to the Roman letter values, he probably tried to assign similar glyphs to similar sounds, much like the creators of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. or the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. did.
All the best, --jorge
Hi, Jorge,
I believe the alphabet you are using is too chopped-up. I was using basic EVA and adopted it for the Latin letters. However, my transcription does not reflect Latin language, but rather Latin letters which in different languages were read as the same, or as different sounds. In many vernacular languages that were written for the first time in the middle language, the letterforms were not standardized yet, particularly challenging were the minims, letters y and w. However, the recognizable words in different languages.
I understand that writing with a quill pen on a rough surface was not an easy task and often resulted in ambiguous letterforms, however the general shape can be recognized. Like the letter
a for example.[
attachment=11188] Look at the similar letter forms of a in the VM by five different scribes, and in 5 different 15th century manuscripts. Not all letters are so easily comparable, but if one follows the changes and use of the shapes of the Latin letters, some features of the letters might be recognized, like l as a straight line, and a three-angular cursive l. Besides, the cursive handwriting is always personal and often difficult to read. The most confusing feature of VM cursive writing is the connective line between two letters, that is often at the top, not at the bottom as we are used to. Considering this, it is easy to differentiate EVA m as a combination of letters i and l, or to interpret the slight space between minims as in or
iv, instead of
m or
w.[
attachment=11189]
I made some adjustments to EVA transliteration alphabet to turn it into transcription alphabet to convert Voynich glyphs to Latin letters, which does not mean that the VM language is Latin, because different Latin letters were often used for different sounds in different languages. When the vernacular languages accepted Latin alphabet, they often had to make adjustments for their unique sounds by:
- using one Latin letter for one or more sounds;
- using two or more Latin letters for a unique sound,
- dropping the letter (usually unstressed short vowel)
- using diacritic markers,
- slightly redesigning Latin letter form,
- inventing new letterform.
In the Voynich Manuscript, all these principles are at work.