05-10-2018, 06:37 AM
Dear Zhe,
many thanks, this is highly interesting, and none of this is to be found in the entry sources that I have seen so far. It is also completely clear. The fact that the semi-rising tone exists as a different (lower) form of the normal rising tone is also new to me.
The cases I have been wondering about, in my limited knowledge, were more of the fifth type (and third) which can arise easily with 很 (very) as a prefix.
These minor tone differences are not a big surprise. Even though Thai uses the same tones as Mandarin (in principle), only the falling tone is really identical. All others are slightly different, e.g. the high tone is really high and rising (45), and the rising tone starts low (15 or perhaps 215). Thai sounds completely different from Mandarin due to the fact that the neutral tone is used very frequently, and also vowel length is a distinguishing factor.
All this is very likely off-topic for the Voynich MS, even though there are no limitations to what one might imagine. Having a far-eastern language in the MS is already quite unlikely. In my personal opinion, the likelihood that the writing represents tones is negligible. But it is interesting to contemplate.
many thanks, this is highly interesting, and none of this is to be found in the entry sources that I have seen so far. It is also completely clear. The fact that the semi-rising tone exists as a different (lower) form of the normal rising tone is also new to me.
The cases I have been wondering about, in my limited knowledge, were more of the fifth type (and third) which can arise easily with 很 (very) as a prefix.
These minor tone differences are not a big surprise. Even though Thai uses the same tones as Mandarin (in principle), only the falling tone is really identical. All others are slightly different, e.g. the high tone is really high and rising (45), and the rising tone starts low (15 or perhaps 215). Thai sounds completely different from Mandarin due to the fact that the neutral tone is used very frequently, and also vowel length is a distinguishing factor.
All this is very likely off-topic for the Voynich MS, even though there are no limitations to what one might imagine. Having a far-eastern language in the MS is already quite unlikely. In my personal opinion, the likelihood that the writing represents tones is negligible. But it is interesting to contemplate.