geoffreycaveney's Judaeo-Greek theory

[geoffreycaveney]

Reading, interpretation, analysis, and translation of the second line of the last paragraph of the Voynich MS, folio page You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. :

text:
[ odain  sh2ky  qorain  chckhey  qokey  lkechy  okeey  otal  chedkaly ]

Note: The final word of the line [chedkaly] is a hapax legomenon in the MS. The character sequence [chedk-] occurs only four times in the MS, all in the final section: on folio pages You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , and here on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. . Remember this word; it is important.

reading:
" OpAm  miths  kOrAm  ithes  kOtis  mtheis  Oteis  OkhAm  hebdAms "

Note: This line compels me to include the Voynich character, final [-(i)in], as a representation of Greek mu as well as of Greek nu. As in the word εθελομ[εν] in the first line of the paragraph, this mu is not actually word-final in Greek, but it is the final character written in the Voynich MS representations of the words. They all represent the same 1st person plural verb suffix in these lines, as does the final letter of [otal] in the penultimate word of this line. I note that Hebrew has a special final form for the letter mem as well as for the letter nun, so the use of a distinct character for these letters in final position is consistent in this respect, although in the Voynich MS the use of this form is not mandatory in final position as it is in Hebrew.

interpretation:
" e(i)pom[en]  myth[ou]s  ka'-[ei]rom[en]  ithes  ka'-tis  m[y]theis  auteis  ekhom[en]  hebdom[e]s "

" ε[ι]πομ[εν]  μυθ[ου]ς  κα'-[ει]ρομ[εν]  ηθ[ο]ς  κα'-τοις  μ[υ]θοις  αυτοις  εχομ[εν]  εβδομ[ε]ς "

Analysis: The most striking phenomenon in the phonology and the morphology here is the preservation of the classical Greek dative case in the dative plural phrase -τοις  μ[υ]θοις  αυτοις, with the locative meaning "in these mythos", but the representation of the vowel in the classical Greek masculine dative plural suffix -οις exclusively with Voynich front vowel characters in [-ey], [-echy], [-eey], reflecting the iotacism sound change such that classical Greek "οι" is pronounced the same as iota, as /i/! This made the forms difficult to recognize, as their phonetic spellings make them appear to look more like feminine forms without the "ο"!
Ancient Greek grammars note that an aorist form such as ε[ι]πομ[εν] often occurs together with a present tense form such as [ει]ρομ[εν] in narrative.
If you know some Greek, you may recognize the well-known words "mythos" and "ethos" in this line already. If you know a lot of Greek and Latin, you may also recognize the word "hebdom[e]s", better known as "hebdomas". This is the hapax legomenon [chedkaly] that I mentioned above. I interpret the final vowel as "e" here because it must be in the accusative case as the object of εχομ[εν], "we have", and the only way I can interpret a form such as "hebdomVs", rather than a form such as "hebdomadas" or the like, is as the modern Greek feminine accusative plural form εβδομ[ε]ς.

literal translation:
" we-told mythos and-we-tell ethos and in those mythos we-have the sevenths "

freer translation:
" we tell our mythos and we tell our ethos, and in these mythos we have the sabbaths "


Definitions:

Ancient Greek εβδομας : 
"A group of seven, especially a week of seven days or a group of seven years."

Latin hebdomas (a borrowing from Ancient Greek) : 
"1. the number seven
 2. seven days; a week
 3. the seventh day"


The interpretation of this line confirms that not only was the Voynich MS script based on Judaeo-Greek, but also the Voynich MS text contains Jewish cultural content as well.

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Geoffrey Caveney