16-03-2016, 09:50 PM
(This post was last modified: 17-03-2016, 07:31 AM by Torsten.
Edit Reason: typos removed
)
As a start I will try to answer the first three questions about word similarities.
a*)
A "basic word stems" doesn't exist for the VMS. The words in the VMS build a multidimensional grid of similar words. Nearly all the words have a close “edit distance” to one of the three most frequent words: 'daiin', 'ol', and 'chedy'. They occur with comparable frequency, whereas types which contain less frequent glyphs or bigrams in most cases occur less frequently. With other words, words close to the three core words occur more frequently.
Even for the three most frequent or core words 'daiin', 'ol' and 'chedy' it is possible to demonstrate a relation. An example for a path between 'daiin' and 'ol' is 'daiin' - 'dain' - 'dan' - 'dar' - 'ar' - 'al' - 'ol'. An example for a path between 'daiin' and 'chedy' is 'daiin' - 'chdaiin' - 'chedaiin' - 'chedan' - 'chedan' - 'cheda' - 'chedy'" (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. p. 7).
Therefore you can find a word 'dyaiin' in the VMS but not a word 'alphabet'. The Voynich alphabet has all the letters for writing 'alphabet'. But you will never find anything like that in the VMS because it happens to be too many "edit-distances" away from the three core words.
b*)
There are only common patterns. For instance you can replace glyphs with similar ones and you can add prefixes ('y', 'o', 'qo', 'ch', 'sh', 'l', 'ol').
I have manually ordered the words of the VMS by similarity and frequency in a grid (see the grid You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. p. 66 - 82). Here is the part of the grid with the core word 'daiin' as starting point:
'daiin' (863) | 'aiin' (469) | 'dain' (211) | 'ain' (89)
'daiir' ( 23) | 'aiir' ( 23) | 'dair' (106) | 'air' (74)
'daiim' ( 5) | 'aiim' ( 3) | 'daim' ( 11) | 'aim' ( 7)
'daiis' ( 5) | 'aiis' ( 3) | 'dais' ( 4) | 'ais' ( 1)
'daiil' ( 1) | 'aiil' ( 1) | 'dail' ( 2) | 'ail' ( 5)
I used a program to count the words and to find the words to add next to the grid. The grid tells the relations and the rules for the words of the VMS.
But this doesn't mean that it is possible to define strict rules. For each possible rule you will always find at least one exception. For instance 'q' is normally followed by 'o'. But also words like 'qaloin' exist. Instead of 'qaloin' you would expect a word 'qolain'. Therefore it is no surprise that a word 'qolain' in the next line:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
c*)
There is a maximum of prefixes you can add to a core word, but this doesn't mean that the number of changes is limited.
Beside prefixes you can replace a glyph with a similar one. For instance it is possible to replace 'a' with 'y' and 'o', whereas 'y' normally occurs at the beginning or end of a word. But sometimes a glyph also occurs together with its possible replacement. This way you get words like 'dyaiin' ('dy' + 'aiin'). You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
a*)
A "basic word stems" doesn't exist for the VMS. The words in the VMS build a multidimensional grid of similar words. Nearly all the words have a close “edit distance” to one of the three most frequent words: 'daiin', 'ol', and 'chedy'. They occur with comparable frequency, whereas types which contain less frequent glyphs or bigrams in most cases occur less frequently. With other words, words close to the three core words occur more frequently.
Even for the three most frequent or core words 'daiin', 'ol' and 'chedy' it is possible to demonstrate a relation. An example for a path between 'daiin' and 'ol' is 'daiin' - 'dain' - 'dan' - 'dar' - 'ar' - 'al' - 'ol'. An example for a path between 'daiin' and 'chedy' is 'daiin' - 'chdaiin' - 'chedaiin' - 'chedan' - 'chedan' - 'cheda' - 'chedy'" (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. p. 7).
Therefore you can find a word 'dyaiin' in the VMS but not a word 'alphabet'. The Voynich alphabet has all the letters for writing 'alphabet'. But you will never find anything like that in the VMS because it happens to be too many "edit-distances" away from the three core words.
b*)
There are only common patterns. For instance you can replace glyphs with similar ones and you can add prefixes ('y', 'o', 'qo', 'ch', 'sh', 'l', 'ol').
I have manually ordered the words of the VMS by similarity and frequency in a grid (see the grid You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. p. 66 - 82). Here is the part of the grid with the core word 'daiin' as starting point:
'daiin' (863) | 'aiin' (469) | 'dain' (211) | 'ain' (89)
'daiir' ( 23) | 'aiir' ( 23) | 'dair' (106) | 'air' (74)
'daiim' ( 5) | 'aiim' ( 3) | 'daim' ( 11) | 'aim' ( 7)
'daiis' ( 5) | 'aiis' ( 3) | 'dais' ( 4) | 'ais' ( 1)
'daiil' ( 1) | 'aiil' ( 1) | 'dail' ( 2) | 'ail' ( 5)
I used a program to count the words and to find the words to add next to the grid. The grid tells the relations and the rules for the words of the VMS.
But this doesn't mean that it is possible to define strict rules. For each possible rule you will always find at least one exception. For instance 'q' is normally followed by 'o'. But also words like 'qaloin' exist. Instead of 'qaloin' you would expect a word 'qolain'. Therefore it is no surprise that a word 'qolain' in the next line:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
c*)
There is a maximum of prefixes you can add to a core word, but this doesn't mean that the number of changes is limited.
Beside prefixes you can replace a glyph with a similar one. For instance it is possible to replace 'a' with 'y' and 'o', whereas 'y' normally occurs at the beginning or end of a word. But sometimes a glyph also occurs together with its possible replacement. This way you get words like 'dyaiin' ('dy' + 'aiin'). You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.