(26-05-2026, 09:08 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.My main point was that there are a great majority of possible changes that are (apparently) forbidden.
This existence of a very large set of relatively strict rules strongly suggests, that there is still something else going on. It is not just a matter of creating meaningless words based on small changes to previous words.
I will again argue that the Voynich did not need a huge set of strict rules. When I started trying to understand how a human scribe could produce the Voynich Manuscript, I kept one principle in mind: the method had to be simple enough for a real person to execute repeatedly over hundreds of pages. I think many people are looking at glyph combinations and assuming something grammatical or deeply linguistic must be happening. I am suggesting that much of what we see may instead be emergent behavior arising from a constrained local production system.
Here is my proposed ledger for Scribe 1. It is redacted to remove the weighting I used in the code. The glyphs on the left are still sorted by starting-letter frequency, from most common to least common. And, if I got the conversion to bbcode correct, each column's letter should be sorted by scribe preference: most commonly used left to right.
Pick a starting glyph, then choose a legal prefix follower:
c → h
Now go to the H row and choose a legal midfix:
h → o
Then choose a legal suffix from the O row:
o → l
That produces:
c → h → o → l = chol
When mutating a word, check the ledger to validate it:
s → h → o → l = shol
That is also valid. Mutation complete.
| Glyph | Prefix Followers | Midfix | Suffix |
|---|
| a | i r l m n t c | i l r m c d k o e f s p t y | r l m n s y d t i |
| c | h t k p f s o c | h k t p f | h o y |
| d | a o c y s e l k d i p t g r | a o e c s y l d r p | y a l s g o m d r |
| e | e t k s l c a o | o e a k c d s t y p f i | y o s n a e d r p g m t k |
| h | | o e a c k d t y s h p r l i | y o e s l d a r m g h |
| i | k | i r n k d t l o s m c e p | n r m s l t d y i |
| k | c o e s a y d | e h c o a s y d | y o a h g |
| l | o c s k y d t p | d o c a s k e t y f q p r | y s d o g a r m p |
| o | k t l r d p c e s a f i y m o q h | d k t l c r i e a s p o f y m q | l r s m d y t k g p n f o c e |
| q | o k e y c p | o | |
| r | o a c y n k s | a o c d i s e k r y | y o l e d g r |
| s | h o a c y e s k q f t | h a e c o s t k d | y h o e a s m n |
| t | c o e s a y d h | h c o e a s y d l | y o h a s |
| y | k t c d p s o f a e l | d k t c s p a e o | d s l r t |
| f | c o s a | h c o a y d s | y o |
| g | a | | |
| p | c o s y a d | h c o a y s d e | y |
| n | | d o | y o d m e |
| m | o a | a o d | o y m d g |
| x | | | |
| v | o | | |
The actual writing process is even simpler than the ledger itself. The scribe does not generate words from scratch most of the time. He works from a small visible pool of words already on the current page plus a few nearby source pages or sheets. Most pages in Scribe 1 are created from 20 to 40 words copied and/or mutated from this source pool. When you copy a word, there's no rule, just copy the word. When you mutate a word, change 1 letter and validate it with the ledger. Once you have started a page, copy and mutate words already on that page.
60–75% of tokens are same-page copy/mutate.
Copy/Mutate challenge
I am going to ask you to give this a try. A challenge, if you will. Your goal is simple. You already know what languages look like, even ones you don't speak. Try to make a gibberish page that looks like a real language.
Here's the rules:
Take any four pages from the Scribe 1 herbal section. Make a list of 20 words from those pages. That becomes your working pool. Create a new page by hand. Let's say, 85-100 words.
Start the page with a gallows-initial word. You can simply add a gallows to one of the pool words if the ledger allows it. If you want a really cool word, pick one that has a gallows as the 3rd or 4th character.
Then:
- directly copy one of the words from the pool and write it down
- mutate one of the pool words by a single change
- validate the mutation against the ledger and if it's legal, write it down. If not, try again.
- copy another word from the pool
- mutate another
You just added 2 new words to your pool through mutation. Now, you can copy them onto the page you're creating or mutate them and add to your pool. Do not think in terms of “inventing a language”. Think in terms of maintaining a locally consistent visual ecology. Don't keep repeating vowels or consonants just because the ledger says you can. Try to make words look like real words, make them pronounceable. And here, we dive into phonetics which I don't go into. But, there's nothing to stop us from using it. I use pronunciation to sound out Voynich words. We all hear daiin or chedy or chol in our heads as sounds. If
we do that, then I suspect the scribe did as well.
Other rules are simple and not strict. If you think your next line will be new paragraph you can make this line shorter if you want. When you start a new paragraph, do the gallows trick and add add a gallows to the beginning of a word. It looks cool. If you make a mistake, and write down the wrong letter that's not in the ledger, it's no big deal. Don't backspace, add it to the ledger as a new legal step.
After a surprisingly small number of lines, the page starts feeding itself. Newly created words become source material for later words. The vocabulary begins to grow recursively and locally. And, here's something I bet you'll find. You and I have enough knowledge of the Voynich that you will not need the ledger for every mutation. We already know what those word families look like. You can mutate daiin into dain or aiin.
We know what word length distribution looks like. Don't put a bunch of 2 letter words in a row. Add some variation to their length. Just basic, make it look as realistic as you can.
You do this for enough pages and it begins to flow like... a language.
That is the core of what I am proposing. Not a 200-page rule book. Not a giant hidden grammar. A small legality system plus local copy-and-mutate behavior operating over a visible working set.
A new theory
And as an addendum, you got me to thinking. Looking at the Voynich and it's illustrations and all the bizarre oddities we all see... maybe, just maybe, there was one strict rule. Another pint.
- Woops, dropped my hot dog on the sheet. Ah well, ketchup adds authenticity. Another pint...
- Naked women holding phallic symbols. Oh, I hope the Pope never sees this. Another pint...
- Wait, what the hell letter did I just write? Ok, I'll call that a wierdo. It's novelty. Another pint...
- Damn, now I wrote the wrong letter in that word. Oh well, add that one to the ledger. Another pint...
- Ohmmm... qokeedy qokeedy qokedy qokedy qokeedy... Shit, I hate when Gregorian chant gets stuck in my head. Another pint...
- My god, that plant looks like a pensioner who watched a couple of Bob Ross videos painted it. Another pint...
And that sir, is about the best damn theory I've ever come up with to explain the Voynich. The Copy/Mutate + Pint Theory. The necessity of alcohol usage in the creation of the Voynich.