Unexpected languages

[ChenZheChina]

To extend on this, let's look at (modern) Mandarin Chinese.
This is based on syllables, and most words consist of two syllables. Some consist of one.

Hi René,

I’m glad to see that you have so much knowledge about Modern Standard Chinese. It is true that most words are two-syllable words, followed by one-syllable words being second most. I searched on Google and found You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to support the point.

   

The most frequent syllable is pronounced 'de'. It means 'of', or creates a genetive case. It always follows another syllable, so could be said to appear at the end of a word. This is quite reminiscent of Voynichese dy  which also appears at the end of words. Note that another very frequent syllable is equally pronounced 'de', and equally appears after other syllables, e.g. to create adverbs.

It’s even tricky for some native speakers of Mandarin Chinese to distinguish three “de” when writing. The three “de” in Mandarin Chinese are:

1. 的, which is used to create genitive case or adjectives.
   
2. 地, which is used to create adverbs. See Particle indicating the word preceding it is used as an adverb of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
   
3. 得, which is used to make a verb or a adjective complete. See Used after a verb or an adjective and before a complement of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
   

These three are all pronounced as “de”, but they are not inter-changeable. When speaking, there might be slightly different tonal changes so that the listener could understand. However, for untrained ears, it is totally possible that they sound same, and thus are written same. Even for uneducated native speakers, it might be a problem to decide which character to use when writing.

In romanization systems of Mandarin Chinese, “de” is written either standalone, or following the word before it as a suffix. It is never written as a prefix of the next word. Therefore, I think your comparison between “de” and Voynichese dy is reasonable.

However, I have to mention that, “de”’s having three different characters means that historically there were three different pronunciations, one for each. I do not know since when the sounds had merged into single “de”, so I cannot give opinion about whether they are pronounced same in the era of VMS.

The second most frequent one is 'yi' which can be pronounced (english) 'ee' or 'yee'. This means 'one', or also the indefinitely article 'a'. This always appears at the start. This is of course reminiscent of Voynichese o-  or qo-  (ee or yee).

It is true that 一 (yī, sounds like English “ee”) means “one” or “a / an” in English, and it is true that it usually appears at the start*. However, I think it is a bit strange if Voynichese o-  or qo- is “one”, because there is no indefinite article or definite article in Chinese. Native speakers treat “一” simply as same as other numbers, and I see no reason they would create a special prefix for it.

* Except in 第一, which means “first”. Chinese creates ordinal numbers by adding ordinal prefix 第 to cardinal numbers.

By the way, when translating from English, indefinite articles are often omitted.

The next one is 'shi' with a falling tone, which is the verb 'to be'. Sounds like English 'sure' (kind of). shi with a rising tone is also frequent, and both can mean a variety of things. These could be Voynichese chol  or chor  .
It is surely a coincidence that l  and r  are the medieval symbols for 4 and 2, which are nowadays used in pinyin to indicate falling and rising tones.

I think you mean 是 (shì), which means “to be”. It is really a common word in Modern Standard Chinese, but since when it had this meaning?

I went to check Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which was believed to be written in the 14th century. In this book, 是 means “right, this” but not “to be”. Then I went to check Journey to the West, which was believed to be written in the 16th century. In this book, 是 means “to be” and is used very frequently.

Unfortunately, I do not know where to find a better example of exactly 15th century. However, I think we should take this into consideration when saying “shi” means “to be”.

Shi with a rising tone, or shí in Pinyin, is also frequent. The most common character of shí is probably 十, which means “ten” and “full, complete”**. Meaning of this character did not change like “是” did.

** Chinese traditionally use 成 (chéng, per ten, out of ten) instead of Western percent, so “ten” could also mean “full, complete”.

I think it is a good idea to extract prefixes and suffixes and compare them with known languages. Talking about short syllables, I heard that Thai language is much shorter than Chinese languages. I wonder if there is any approach in comparing Thai to Voynich languages?