What if the Voynich Manuscript is Actually Old French (1000-1400)?

[pegalac]

Dear friends and enthusiasts of mysteries and history,

For centuries, the Voynich Manuscript has intrigued and fascinated researchers worldwide. This enigmatic manuscript, written in an undecipherable language or code, has defied all attempts at decryption. But a question arises: what if the Voynich Manuscript is actually written in old French, dating back to the medieval period between 1000 and 1400?

Old French Letter 
Voynich letter

[RobGea]

what if the Voynich Manuscript is actually written in old French, dating back to the medieval period between 1000 and 1400?

It could be, but you would still need to have an explanation for the :

1. Low 2nd order character entropy.
2. Pseudo-repetition of vords.
3. Binomial distribution of vord lengths.
4. LAAFU effects.
5. Preponderance of gallows glyphs on the first line of paragraphs.

and prolly some other stuff ( Is there an actual list anywhere ? )

[Koen G]

That's a ligature, not exclusive to old French.

Rob: I don't think we have a list like that. I still think it could be handy to have one, with explanations for the layman. (If theorists understood what second order entropy was, they wouldn't have their theory in the first place). This may be something to look into after Voynich day.

[Ruby Novacna]

... a question arises: what if the Voynich Manuscript is actually written in old French...?

The resemblance of a single glyph will hardly be accepted as a sufficient clue to continue research. Unless you have other ideas and some results?

[pegalac]

... a question arises: what if the Voynich Manuscript is actually written in old French...?

The resemblance of a single glyph will hardly be accepted as a sufficient clue to continue research. Unless you have other ideas and some results?

I'm still researching and taking as many pictures as I can find that look like voynich, like here in an Old French thing.

[tavie]

I'm still researching and taking as many pictures as I can find that look like voynich, like here in an Old French thing.

Like Koen said, it's a ligature.  You can find it in plenty of Latin manuscripts.  JKP did several blogs on ris/tis/cis ligatures.  Here's one (scroll down):  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

[nablator]

I'm still researching and taking as many pictures as I can find that look like voynich, like here in an Old French thing.

This one looks like the abbreviation for Item in a Latin or French manuscript: every line starts with Item in a table of contents.

"Il" (He) is sometimes written as a ligature just like k.

[Rafal]

Actually the gallow sign which we talk about it a bit similar to a pilcrow

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It's something like a mirrored pilcrow but such things also happened.

And the pilcrow connection would fit nice with observations that it appears often at paragraph beginnings

[Ruby Novacna]

This one looks like the abbreviation for Item in a Latin or French manuscript: every line starts with Item in a table of contents.

In the VM, do we sometimes find a similar glyph at the beginning of a line?

[monisusa]

Dear friends and enthusiasts of mysteries and history,

For centuries, the Voynich Manuscript has intrigued and fascinated researchers worldwide. This enigmatic manuscript, written in an undecipherable language or code, has defied all attempts at decryption. But a question arises: what if the Voynich Manuscript is actually written in old French, dating back to the medieval period between 1000 and 1400?

Old French Letter 
Voynich letter

The first picture shows a common abbreviation with different meanings according to the language. It has to be 
interpreted depending on the content. 
In German it represents various endings such as  -ch, -um, -rm, -eit.
If you look at the label on f 65r we can read: am aich d'arm a baum" which means "on oak the arms  a tree".
It is written in a south german dialect. The definite article "die" (engl. the) ist usually pronounced just "d" in dialect.
In standard german: "an der Eiche die Arme, ein Baum".
In my alphabet the second glyph represents the letter m, the second glyph of the last word here is simply b. 

The ligature of the second picture has nothing to do with it. 
Funny that the author calls the branches of a tree "arms".