This is of great interest.
There is really no doubt that the text of the Voynich MS was generated according to some more or less well-defined system. The character set used is the same from beginning to end, and the statistics are similar from beginning to end. The variation between Currier-A and Currier-B is significant, but at a lower level.
It may or may not be a cipher, but the analysis of the text benefits from methods used to crack ciphers.
One of the fundamental principles is that anything that 'stands out' is a potential weakness of the cipher. It is a possible way to better understand the system. To break into it. The fact that the characters Eva-f and Eva-p tend to occur on the first lines of paragraphs is one of these things that stand out. However, this is still not properly understood.
It it were true that:
"Eva f and p on first lines of paragraphs, when used after another gallows character in the same word, are equivalent with Eva-d on other lines"
then we would really have a small crack into the system.
For me, this was very much worth a closer look. This is not yet completed, but I can show a few numbers already. The following is based on the ZL transcription file, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. .
As already mentioned elsewhere, word spaces in the MS are often uncertain, and in the ZL transcription, uncertain spaces are indicated. One has the choice to treat uncertain spaces either as if they are real spaces, or as if they aren't. These two choices lead to different statistics. For example:
There are 35,901 words in the MS if one discards uncertain spaces ...
and there are 38,631 words if one takes them as real spaces.
Among these, there are 2107 words that include at least one Eva-f or Eva-p, if one discards uncertain spaces, and there are 2127 if one takes them as real spaces. Either way, just over 5,5%.
The number of words that has at least one of Eva: f,p and in addition at least one of Eva: k,t f,p is very much smaller. 191 if one discards uncertain spaces and 151 in case one takes them as word spaces.
The thesis to be tested therefore concerns a rather small set of words in the MS.
Among the words that have at least one "f/p" and at least one more "f/p/k/t", the case that f/p is the second or later instance is again a subset.
Looking at all of them, I am afraid that I cannot confirm the hypothesis that this second 'f/p' is equivalent with Eva-d.
I can post details later.
There is really no doubt that the text of the Voynich MS was generated according to some more or less well-defined system. The character set used is the same from beginning to end, and the statistics are similar from beginning to end. The variation between Currier-A and Currier-B is significant, but at a lower level.
It may or may not be a cipher, but the analysis of the text benefits from methods used to crack ciphers.
One of the fundamental principles is that anything that 'stands out' is a potential weakness of the cipher. It is a possible way to better understand the system. To break into it. The fact that the characters Eva-f and Eva-p tend to occur on the first lines of paragraphs is one of these things that stand out. However, this is still not properly understood.
It it were true that:
"Eva f and p on first lines of paragraphs, when used after another gallows character in the same word, are equivalent with Eva-d on other lines"
then we would really have a small crack into the system.
For me, this was very much worth a closer look. This is not yet completed, but I can show a few numbers already. The following is based on the ZL transcription file, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. .
As already mentioned elsewhere, word spaces in the MS are often uncertain, and in the ZL transcription, uncertain spaces are indicated. One has the choice to treat uncertain spaces either as if they are real spaces, or as if they aren't. These two choices lead to different statistics. For example:
There are 35,901 words in the MS if one discards uncertain spaces ...
and there are 38,631 words if one takes them as real spaces.
Among these, there are 2107 words that include at least one Eva-f or Eva-p, if one discards uncertain spaces, and there are 2127 if one takes them as real spaces. Either way, just over 5,5%.
The number of words that has at least one of Eva: f,p and in addition at least one of Eva: k,t f,p is very much smaller. 191 if one discards uncertain spaces and 151 in case one takes them as word spaces.
The thesis to be tested therefore concerns a rather small set of words in the MS.
Among the words that have at least one "f/p" and at least one more "f/p/k/t", the case that f/p is the second or later instance is again a subset.
Looking at all of them, I am afraid that I cannot confirm the hypothesis that this second 'f/p' is equivalent with Eva-d.
I can post details later.
![[+]](https://www.voynich.ninja/images/collapse_collapsed.png)