15-02-2016, 10:50 AM
If it's a cipher, there would still be a meaningful language behind it.
Depending on the complexity of the cipher, the text would be more or less different from the plain text.
The problem I see is with the word 'cipher', since it has too restricted a meaning compared to what the person who wrote the MS may have been doing.
Part of the question addressed here seems to be more about 'simple substitution', a very specific cipher.
Those who are assigning sounds to the Voynich MS characters, and thus call it language, could also be considered to talk about a simple substitution...
In any case, cipher and language should not be seen as mutually exclusive.
Depending on the complexity of the cipher, the text would be more or less different from the plain text.
The problem I see is with the word 'cipher', since it has too restricted a meaning compared to what the person who wrote the MS may have been doing.
Part of the question addressed here seems to be more about 'simple substitution', a very specific cipher.
Those who are assigning sounds to the Voynich MS characters, and thus call it language, could also be considered to talk about a simple substitution...
In any case, cipher and language should not be seen as mutually exclusive.