Question about WW2 radio codes

[DONJCH]

NI HAO ROGER BACON APRIL FIRST 1260 XIE XIE HA HA

Good one Don and welcome to the forum!
Pinyan of course was only invented in the mid-20th century, although ways of writing Mandarin in the Roman alphabet have been around since the 17th century - the Jesuits being the driving force here, of course.

I would warn against trying to map our own linguistic conceptions upon the past. The truth of the matter is that past generations simply didn't have the same understanding of language that we do. Any explanation that uses modern semantic theory to explain the why of the Voynich is, IMHO, based upon false foundations.

I always think thatYou are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (Johnson-Laird, 1987) goes some way towards exploding arty-farty linguistic theories about the Voynich. If we "moderns" can't think "logically" (according to modern theory) about language, what chance did some person in the mid 15th century have?

Thank you for your welcome David and may I pay my respects to you and the others on this forum.

I will read your linked text ASAP.

I wish to read and understand rather than talk, mainly, except to ask questions sometimes.

I have no arty farty linguistiic theory. However in view of what I have read about low entropy in the VMS, vs low entropy in Mandarin, it seems that it would be a matter of due diligence to use Mandarin as a basis for an attempt at translation of the VMS as a 1:1 substitution of a natural language. Ditto Hindi, ditto Mongolian given the historical context. I mean, we know of course that Roger Bacon was in indirect contact with Mongolia via a Papal ambassador (the Pope was his former patron) and that is how he knew about the recipe for gunpowder. This is all Wikipedia stuff.

None of which is to say that Bacon was the author of the VMS but rather that elements of the language could well have made their way to Europe by 1400 or so. Also, it seems that 90% of the 20-21C effort has gone into Latin or European languages as the basis of translation attempts.

On the contrary, I am with Dianne, to a large extent, that many indications seem to point East.

Has anybody made an attempt at translation based on Mandarin? Are there native mainland Chinese Voynichero linguists for instance? I would not be surprised if there were many, but maybe not in contact with us!