• The Khoisan languages of southern Africa are renowned for having the highest number of phonemes, particularly due to their extensive use of click consonants. Specifically, languages like !Xóõ (Taa) are often cited for this distinction. !Xóõ has been reported to have upwards of 100 to 164 phonemes, including an extensive array of clicks.
  

• The Khmer alphabet (Cambodian) is frequently cited as having the largest alphabet in the world. It consists of 74 letters: 33 consonants, 23 dependent vowels, and 12 independent vowels. However, it's worth noting this is for the alphabet itself; the script doesn't use capital letters, so the total doesn't change for uppercase/lowercase distinctions, as that concept doesn't apply. The Khmer script is an abugida, where each consonant-vowel sequence is written as a unit, so 0 of these writing signs are purely syllable or word images in the sense used by logographic systems. Each sign can represent a syllable, but they are built from combinations of consonant and vowel indicators rather than being single complex characters that represent entire syllables or words.
  

• The Voynich Manuscript is written in an unknown script with about 170 unique characters. Although not a traditional language or alphabet per se and still undeciphered, it represents the manuscript with one of the largest sets of unique script-image characters found in medieval European documents.
  

• Gothic, the language of the Goths, utilized by Ulfilas in his translation of the Bible, had an alphabet that is noted for its size among ancient European languages. Ulfilas created an alphabet to transcribe the Gothic language, which consisted of 27 letters derived from Latin, Greek, and Runic sources.
  

• The Icelandic language has one of the larger alphabets in contemporary European languages, with 32 letters. Unlike most languages, it has preserved much of its Old Norse ancestor's phonetic complexity, including letters not found in most other Latin-script alphabets.
  

• If we're focusing on Icelandic as the language with the most letter signs mentioned, the count of distinct writing images/letters is 32, as Icelandic does not differentiate between uppercase and lowercase letters in the total count of its alphabet. Each character, regardless of case, represents a unique phoneme or sound.
  

1. Slavic Languages (Cyrillic Alphabet): The early Cyrillic alphabet used in medieval Slavic manuscripts, derived around the 9th century, originally had about 43 letters. This number could vary slightly over time and between regions as the alphabet adapted to the phonetic needs of different Slavic languages.
   
2. German (Old High German and Middle High German): Initially used the Latin alphabet with a few additional letters to represent specific German sounds. The medieval alphabet for Germanic languages might include up to 29 letters, accounting for characters like Æ/æ, Þ/þ (thorn), and Ʒ/ʒ (ezh), although not all were used consistently across manuscripts.
   
3. English (Middle English): Middle English used the Latin alphabet, supplemented with a few additional letters or letter combinations to represent English sounds not found in Latin, such as þ (thorn) and ƿ (wynn). The total could be around 30 letters, considering the inclusion of such characters.
   
4. Latin/Italian: The medieval Latin alphabet, also used for vernacular Italian in manuscripts, remained fairly consistent with the classical Latin alphabet of 23 letters. Over time, particularly towards the Renaissance, the use of J, U, and W became more distinct, potentially bringing the count to 26. Italian, evolving from Latin, largely followed this script but with evolving orthographic conventions.
   
5. Greek: The medieval Greek alphabet used in Byzantine manuscripts consisted of 24 letters, consistent with the classical Greek alphabet. There were also diacritical marks introduced for pronunciation guidance, but the primary letter count remained unchanged.
   

1. Hebrew: The medieval Hebrew alphabet contained 22 letters, as it has throughout much of its history. This does not include diacritical marks (niqqud) introduced in the medieval period for vowel representation, which are not considered separate letters.
   
2. Arabic: The Arabic script in the medieval period maintained its 28 letters. However, the script is an abjad, initially recording consonants with optional marks for vowels (harakat) added in manuscripts for clarity, especially in the Quran or in educational contexts.
   

(01-07-2024, 12:04 PM)Ahmet Ardıç Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I ask the following questions to researchers:
1- While the number of letters/writing images in European Medieval Languages Manuscripts is limited in number, why is the number of letters and/or writing images in the Voynich manuscript higher than in manuscripts known to be European? (Or, in your opinion, if the number of writing signs in VM texts overlaps with the familiar European medieval scripts, how many letters were there in which language, and how many letters do you think there are in VM?)
2- How many different languages are actually in the Voynich texts?
3- How many different alphabets are used in VM texts?
4- How many different writing images or letters are there in VM texts that look different from each other? When giving a number, please indicate the upper and lower case letters separately, or state that the number you give represents the sum of both upper and lower case letters.
5- When you take into account all the transcriptions made for EVA variations and VM, which of these transcriptions and EVA variants probably contains the most accurate Latin alphabet equivalents of VM signs? (I'm curious about your personal opinion.)
6- Is there anyone who can say that the number of matches (alphabets) in the alphabet transcription table that you accept as "correct" does not coincide with the number of differences or text images in the VM?