geoffreycaveney's Judaeo-Greek theory

[ChenZheChina]

(continued)

3. [d] as a substitute for [p] and [f]

From You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., it seems that you propose d as a possible (but not purely) substitute for p and f, because of:

• d may be representing /u~v/, while
  
• p and f may be representing /b~f~p/, and
  
• Betacism may caused the writer to write /v/ for /b/, and from where it was extended to writing /v/ for /f~p/
  

The last line does not seem likely to happen to me, but I cannot say it’s impossible. However, Emma then posted these statistical facts:

• [d] is common on the first line of a paragraph, which would need to be explained.
  
• [p, f] are shorter when written away from the first line of paragraphs and [k, t] are taller when written on the first line. The scribe was capable of adjusting the glyph height.
  
• [d, l, r, s] all lack significant number of [e] following them.
  
• [p, f] take relatively good numbers of [ch, sh] following them, which [d] does not, especially away from the start of the line.
  

So, it seems that the d cannot replace p and f freely, as they have distinct stats.

Again, the question arises in the first line of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., where the same Greek word είπαν (eípan) appear twice, but the same Greek letter π (p) are written in Voynichese as d and p, respectively.

Since the stats are different for d, p and f, it would be great if we could have a general rule about when to use d. I guess the final answer must be based on very large amount of texts, so that the rule could be general enough to cover most cases. Therefore, I’m not expecting to see an answer soon, but when you have finished translating the whole manuscript, there should have already been an answer to this question.

(to be continued…)