23-02-2017, 08:14 AM
The recording of spoken language could go both ways. Normally in a "written spoken language" medieval text, we'd expect entropy to be a bit higher than in a standardized one, because spoken language is less consistent. Modern English spelling might be an exception to that, because it's full of entropy 
But in order to decrease the entropy significantly, we'd need a simplifying factor. That's why I have often suggested the possibility of a pidgin that was written down for some occasion. The problem here is that pidgins are normally spoken phenomena, and there won't be any records available to us for comparison.
Hence, the best approach might be something like what Bax did. Try to tease out bits of vocabulary one by one and build your understanding from there. But to do that correctly, one needs to understand the imagery first
But in order to decrease the entropy significantly, we'd need a simplifying factor. That's why I have often suggested the possibility of a pidgin that was written down for some occasion. The problem here is that pidgins are normally spoken phenomena, and there won't be any records available to us for comparison.
Hence, the best approach might be something like what Bax did. Try to tease out bits of vocabulary one by one and build your understanding from there. But to do that correctly, one needs to understand the imagery first