The Voynich Ninja

You want steps but most people  probably won’t have to do all these, I did all the leg work. I generally did not think the process that comes after would be that difficult to fit into the set linguistics mold..

1. I assigned the characters on what I thought they could be, curvy/sharp sounds corresponding.  I transcribed before I translated. I knew all the of the odd Irish combos and the more frequent letters so I tried to match them all according to frequency and word location. Attached are examples when I thought my r was an m and when I was determining possibilities of the G sound and the “ee” sounds. I thought this might be a smut manuscript lol. I wrote them to rule sounds out and to hear them. Dozens of pages of transcriptions alone. I am a gestalt language processor so some things I do are not standard or necessary.. (When I read, I’m not reading word by word most of the time, I don’t have a verbal internal monologue. My thoughts/memories are like this too, I do what I call chunk read and I see hdquality cinema in my head of what I’m reading or thinking, I hear the echo of the whole sentence or phrase, it is not word by word)

2. I adjusted characters and char combos  as I went along and mapped them to the pronunciation examples, making sure vowels and char combos were as consistent with sounds as possible, so I can regularly write them correctly or phonetically in English. Making it much easier to identify some char patterns as filler word type suffixes.(o fada at the end  of words)

3. Based off all of this I can search phonetically in English on Teanglann and find the equivalent in spelling and sounds wise( that is usually between Munster and Connacht dialects), keeping in mind all the ways in which certain letters and groups of letters can sound like other spellings. /t/d/g g/c overlaps etc. for example

4. I choose the  English possibilities if there are more than one exact match, contextually with logic and sound closeness,  ut I usually keep both and I’ll keep  track of when something is off(these edits and notes also helped me fine tune vowels ee and oo sounds)

5. I organize the sentences in a way that makes sense in English but this step isn’t necessary. Nor is the English at all I guess.



I’m recording a lesson between me and a volunteer this week

I will look for that video because I think that process will illuminate a lot about the procedure here. In the meantime, I would like to highlight several places I think you've not adequately explained yourself.

It might helpful to think about the difference between something being correct, a matter I am not addressing here, and something being proven. It's not enough to simply tell us what the answer is---that daiin usually means dhouil, we need to be able to shine the clear light of day on each piece of how you got there. 

I have added bolding to the following quotes where, by your own description, you are making unexplained judgements. I have also added explanations 

(18-11-2025, 03:22 PM)Doireannjane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.You want steps but most people  probably won’t have to do all these, I did all the leg work. I generally did not think the process that comes after would be that difficult to fit into the set linguistics mold..

I want to be careful because you can give a stylized account of how you ended up here, but the question for reproducibility is if the final process you used works. We need all the leg work that ended up being relevant, and we need to be able do it again.

(18-11-2025, 03:22 PM)Doireannjane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.1. I assigned the characters on what I thought they could be, curvy/sharp sounds corresponding.  I transcribed before I translated. I knew all the of the odd Irish combos and the more frequent letters so I tried to match them all according to frequency and word location. Attached are examples when I thought my r was an m and when I was determining possibilities of the G sound and the “ee” sounds. I thought this might be a smut manuscript lol. I wrote them to rule sounds out and to hear them. Dozens of pages of transcriptions alone. I am a gestalt language processor so something’s I do are not standard or necessary.. (When I read, I’m not reading word by word most of the time, I don’t have a verbal internal monologue. My thoughts/memories are like this too, I do what I call chunk read and I see hdquality cinema in my head of what I’m reading or thinking, I hear the echo of the whole sentence or phrase, it is not word by word)

What's needed here is a careful frequency analysis and a set of rules for making the great many personal judgements you mentino here. By your own description, this is "cinema in [your] head", not a "standard" method for producing text. It may be the case that your style of language processing gave you privileged insights into these connections, but they are definitionally not reproducible outside your head and you will need to provide a way for the rest of us to follow.

(18-11-2025, 03:22 PM)Doireannjane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.2. I adjusted characters and char combos  as I went along and mapped them to the pronunciation examples, making sure vowels and char combos were as consistent with sounds as possible, so I can regularly write them correctly or phonetically in English. Making it much easier to identify some char patterns as filler word type suffixes.(o fada at the end  of words)

Virtually all of this is, again by your description, something you did to the text rather than a feature of the text. You need to describe each of these choices and how someone else can make them. I too could solve the Voynich manuscript by changing letters, but unless those changes make sense and are explained to other people, they would be meaningless.

(18-11-2025, 03:22 PM)Doireannjane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.3. Based off all of this I can search phonetically in English on Teanglann and find the equivalent in spelling and sounds wise( that is usually between Munster and Connacht dialects), keeping in mind all the ways in which certain letters and groups of letters can sound like other spellings. /t/d/g g/c overlaps etc. for example

I understand Irish spelling is famously ornery, but this is more personal judgement. How do you make it? How can someone else make it and reach the same conclusion?

(18-11-2025, 03:22 PM)Doireannjane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.4. I choose the  English possibilities if there are more than one exact match, contextually with logic and sound closeness,  ut I usually keep both and I’ll keep  track of when something is off(these edits and notes also helped me fine tune vowels ee and oo sounds)

Again, these are judgements you are making about the text. It is not enough to say you are making them "logically" or to offer multiple translations; you must show that logic, and you must show your theory can discriminate between words for it to be reproduceable. There may be some vagaries involved because it is a language problem, but if they are pervasive, it is a sign that other people are not going to be able to recover the same meaning.

(18-11-2025, 03:22 PM)Doireannjane Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.5. I organize the sentences in a way that makes sense in English but this step isn’t necessary. Nor is the English at all I guess.

More of the same, though also I do not think many of your translations make much sense, though I admit I am not a "gestalt processor".

To illustrate the problems here, let me translate the first line of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. following this method as best I can following this method. For space and legibility I will not be copying dictionary entries, but I can clarify which dictionary I used for anyone who is interested.

pochaiin: transcribed as tariil; unclear what, if any, edits I should make
Searched on Teanglann; no matches. Listened to several dictionary entries before deciding that tarlaigh (to happen).

cthor: transcribed as fras or possibly frath. Chose frath by flipping a coin in absence of other instructions.
Nonetheless, fras (shower; plentiful) appeared, so I went with that. Due to Irish word order, I chose the shower meaning.

chpcheos: rtreabh or rtriabh. Chose rtriabh by coin flip.
None of the audio files suggested werre remotely close, so I inserted an "i", ritraibh.
rithim (rhythm) sounded the closest, and was the only choice ending with a labial sound.

opchey: atreim or atriim; chose atriim by coinflip.
Went with atreabh (replough), which suggests to me I should have chosen atreim, but I am not sure how to know that in advance.

py: tin
Went with tine (fire)

kchy: frin
Went with frinn, which appears to be either tri (three) or le (lion) for reasons the dictionary poorly explains. Chose "lion" by coin flip.

So, in order:
tarlaigh fras rithim atreabh tine frinn
Happens shower rhythm replough fire lion.

Acknowledging that the following line might have some clues about how to make sense of this, I am at a loss how to interpret this.
Perhaps: A shower happens. Rhythm reploughs the fire. A lion...

Allowing that I may have chosen wrongly for frinn, I get: 
A shower happens. Rhythm reploughs the three fire (singular).

I'm fairly sure I've done some of this does not reproduce what you have. But I did follow the documentation I have and tried to make the best decisions I could. There are two possible reasons for the deviation: Either you have not explained yourself well enough or this method is too subjective to be consistently applied. (A third possible reason is that it is both.) I am interested to see if your volunteer does better, independently.

You’ve highlighted half of my sentences to fit your narrative. Isn’t that a form of a straw man fallacy? Note, the parts of my sentences you left out, are clarifying what I’m saying. I'm describing my initial and early on process. 
Not everyone’s initial early on process will look the same or has to fit a linguistic mold, especially not a mold that has never been effective in solving this. 

Please also note, with attempting any hard problem, unless it’s dangerous, you have to be prepared to break things. That’s what we’d tell our students in SWE bootcamp. I will also add something that I've learned from teaching: angry students are the most challenging to teach. 

So based off of most of your examples you clearly just quickly threw together, it looks like you may have missed a lot of what I’ve discussed in terms of the basics with how to search with the established phonetics. For example: it is not clear why you have "in" or "rtr" in some of these. I don't think you understand the possibilities of the y that represents "in, an, eann" sounds and spellings, as well as the short implied vowel sounds that intersect consonants (as they do in spoken language). I don't want to expend time/energy teaching someone who is looking to disprove and didn't take time to understand the conditions for themselves. 

And I’ll say again, this is not math and this isn’t a codex/cipher. This is spoken language.

I have to apply for ebt and do a million things right now so I’d like this forum to be paused with this message.


I'll post updates on Youtube with the lessons this week and I might go on Live on Tiktok later tonight. 

Anyone can feel free to private message me.

Thread locked at author's request.

Proposing a theory that the text was originally possibly situated in the Cliffs of Moher area, based off of plant life and geographical mentions (literal and figurative) within the text, as understood through phonetic Modern day Irish (see my corresponding solution) 

Could coincide with the older theory of Dominican nun scribes.

Proposing this thread be merged with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. since we cannot know what is in the text without assuming the Irish interpretation supposed there.

I propose they stay separate in the event Italian influence/Italo-Celtic evidence emerges with primary.

But wouldn't your theory about the translation be the only reason for someone to believe the text was originally situated in western Ireland?

(19-11-2025, 04:44 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.But wouldn't your theory about the translation be the only reason for someone to believe the text was originally situated in western Ireland?

Yes, in my theory/solution with Irish, I drew character connections to both Ogham, Gaelic script and Cisalpine Celtic alphabets initially, proposing a possibly link/overlap still there in Italy.

The plant and location identifications/descriptions for the Cliffs of Moher do still mainly rely on my translation and translation approach. I was just was separating so there would be a focus more on geographic location evidence exclusive to the Cliffs of Moher for this thread. But I'm fine with combining.

Should I open the other thread again?

Before I do though, I want to turn the tables for a moment, which may hopefully explain why people are asking for a more clear, concise presentation of your methods, and why the conversation is sometimes difficult.

Here is the website of Christine Preedy, who claims to have Decoded the Voynich Manuscript: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
It's a relatively new theory, still being updated, like yours. She has various pages, TikToks, videos... 

Now imagine she approaches you and asks for feedback, like many people do here on the forum.

• How long would it take you to understand what exactly she is doing? How much effort would this cost you?
  
• How likely are you to actually do that work and respond?
  
• How would you compare her theory to yours? How would you decide which one is better? I don't mean in general terms, I mean specifically her theory. What makes your theory better?
  
• We have argued endlessly with Christine, but she does not respond well to our arguments. What would you tell her to make her realize her theory cannot work?
  
• Would you still do this even if you knew beforehand that nothing you say could change her mind?
  

I'm not saying that all of those things apply equally to you, but thinking about this might give you a glimpse of the other side.