glyph [d] as a substitute for [p] and [f]

[geoffreycaveney]

(1) I count 8 word types in this list that end in [-fy]. One of them has the weird ending [-cfy]. If we are going to discount my matches such as [qokeefcy] for [qokeedy], we should also remove endings such as [-cfy] from the data set as well.

What is this the logic behind this? This seems more retaliation than a serious attempt to test a theory.

The logic is that we should either include such unusual forms entirely, or exclude them entirely. An extraneous [c] without an [h] looks like a scribal error, most likely, or a transcription error, or some such minor issue.

One may argue that we should simply exclude all such forms from the data set entirely, to be consistent.

Or one may argue that we should include them, and consider such near matches as [qokeefcy] / [qokeedy] as significant.

But to argue that we should include them in the data set, and then count [dy] for [fcy] as a non-match, as if it had no significance at all, that I do not consider an objective approach at all.

In sum, 12 of the 15 word types in the list that end in these sequences, have doublets with [d].

Is this not significant?

No, statistics on a handful of carefully cherry-picked examples are not significant.

7 of the 8 word types ending -heeky have doublets in -heedy. 

Is this significant?

There is a huge difference between the endings [-fy] and [-cfhy], and your ending [-heeky].

The endings [-fy] and [-cfhy] each consist of two natural Voynich characters.

The ending [-heeky] consists of four or five Voynich characters, or rather 3.5 or 4.5 characters, in which [h] is not even a character, but a final part of the Eva transcription of several different Voynich characters.

I understand if one wants to set aside the cases of [-cfhhy] and [-cfhey]. They are just a single word type each.

But in the cases of [-fy] and [-cfhy], we have 10 of 13 word types with doublets in [-dy]. 

They are not "cherry-picked", because this includes every word type in the MS ending in [-fy] or [-cfhy] with another gallows character in the word.

Geoffrey