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+--- Thread: Why does a gallows character start almost every page? (/thread-4113.html)
Why does a gallows character start almost every page? - Amarfa - 21-11-2023
Ok, so I'm just going to post a few things here to see if the pattern I'm seeing is really there or not. It looks to me as though a gallows character starts almost every page of the Voynich manuscript, and I'm going to cut and paste it along with its accompanying word, if any, to identify similarities and differences. I might not be able to finish the chart in one sitting, but if I put it up here, maybe somebody or some other folks can pick up where I leave off?
f1r: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
f1v: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
f2r: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
f2v: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
f3r: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
f3v: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
RE: Why does a gallows character start almost every page? - Mark Knowles - 22-11-2023
The gallows character in this context may be a null of some kind.
RE: Why does a gallows character start almost every page? - Hermes777 - 23-11-2023
(22-11-2023, 04:52 PM)Mark Knowles Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The gallows character in this context may be a null of some kind.
Or, in context, they might announce something significant about the page, a theme or subject-matter, since every page seems to be a self-contained unit with no text extending across page breaks.
RE: Why does a gallows character start almost every page? - cvetkakocj@rogers.com - 23-11-2023
I have designated EVA p as Slovenian sv sound (German sw, Latin su) and EVA f to Slovenian cv (German zw, Latin q) sound. When inserted into bench glyph, it becomes svč, cvč, kvč. I believe the author invented a new form for the ligature to avoid confusion since Slovenians lived in the region where three writing conventions (German, Italian and Hungarian) were used. The sounds were usually followed by a semivowel which was not written, because there was no Latin letter for it. Because the letter č (EVA ch) was also most often followed by a dropped semivowel, the ligatures svč, cvč would be pronounced as sveče, cveče. Slovenian alphabet that included the letters č,š, ž were not invented until the 19th century. Until then, German, Italian or Hungarian writing conventions were used.
These letter combinations cannot be found in the Voynich Manuscript, nor the long S. The Protestant writers in the 16th century, who were the first to write books in Latin letters (before glagolitza was used), opted for German writing convention with some modification. The unique tall glyphs would have gone out of use when the printing presses began to be used at the end of the 15th century.
Because of the similarity of the sounds, the author was not able to make a distinction and used them interchangeably.
Many Slavic (and Slovenian) words start with SV, particularly the ones related to flowers, such as cvet, cvetje (blossom, flowers), zvon (bell), zvedeti (learn, find out), zvezda (a star), svet (holy, wold, light), sveča (candle), svetiti, posvetiti (bless), osvetiti (light, enlighten), svariti (warn, criticize), stvariti (create), svet (world).
The writing in the VM displays several Slavic characteristics for that time. Because of the flexible word order, the most important word was usually placed at the beginning of the sentence. Judging by the illustration, the above Slovenian words would be important enough to be placed at the beginning of the sentence, and even at the beginning of the page or a paragraph. They would also be important enough to be embellished.
The SV/ZW ligatures behave in Slovenian language behave in a similar way as t and k and can be prefixed with EVA-qo (Slovenian po-) or o.
If anybody is interested, I would be glad to provide more information on those two VM glyphs.
RE: Why does a gallows character start almost every page? - pfeaster - 23-11-2023
Or:
- Gallows specify which cipher key is to be used to decrypt the following text.
- Gallows serve a purpose similar to capital letters in marking whatever immediately follows as important (paragraph starts, proper names, etc.).
- Gallows function like pilcrows and/or serve some other punctuation-like function.
- Gallows are inserted (optionally) to help the reader break text into chunks for parsing.
- Gallows serve some distinctive grammatical function in a constructed language.
- Each unit of Voynichese text within a paragraph "builds on" the preceding unit, and gallows are somehow connected with setting up a "starting point."
- Gallows [p] and [f] mimic majuscule characters in form and typical distribution as of the 15th century (most common at paragraph starts and in first lines of documents).
RE: Why does a gallows character start almost every page? - Aga Tentakulus - 24-11-2023
Example of the long "S" sign for Latin "SCH".
To be seen somewhat differently today.
Hard to find, very rarely in use. Just a handful of words in Latin begin with an "Sch".
I suspect that there is also a sign for this in the VM.
RE: Why does a gallows character start almost every page? - cvetkakocj@rogers.com - 25-11-2023
(24-11-2023, 03:43 AM)Aga Tentakulus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Example of the long "S" sign for Latin "SCH".
To be seen somewhat differently today.
Hard to find, very rarely in use. Just a handful of words in Latin begin with an "Sch".
I suspect that there is also a sign for this in the VM.
Hi, Aga, can you tell me what the words in Latin mean? Are they really Latin? They sound like Slovenian to me. I had examined many Latin manuscripts and I had not encounter a single long s. They are common in Tubingen House Buch and I Swabian manuscripts.
The long s was used in all three writing conventions for Slovenian words, however most of the time, there was no distinction. When Slovenian language was somewhat standardized, long s was used for z and the combination of long s and z for ž. But even then, the spelling was not consistent.
As you can see, there was no long s in the 10th century Freising Manuscript, but the Czeck author used it in the Stična Codex wich was contemporary to Voynich Manuscript. There is no long S in the Voynich Manuscript - sv/zv ligatures and the letters s or z are used. There is also no z with a tail, but normal Latin z, which is similar to h or c and.
RE: Why does a gallows character start almost every page? - Aga Tentakulus - 25-11-2023
@cvetkakocj
I wrote this down because of the long "S".
The way I remember it is from a dictionary of an interpreter of Rudolf II. Around 1600. He translated the Turkish in Arabic script into Turkish in Latin script.
This was then introduced by Atatürk in 1923 and replaced the Arabic spelling.