15-05-2019, 07:39 AM
(This post was last modified: 15-05-2019, 07:41 AM by Mark Knowles.)
Anton: I think I am looking at the question of what the author was trying to draw when discussing the "4" shape. Obviously when writing quickly one does not have the time to make sure each character is drawn perfectly precisely and anyway at the microscopic level this is impossible. Human error and natural limits to one's ability to control the pen in one's fingers precisely so that one's drawing of a letter is a perfect representation of what one aims to draw, means the result shape is not exact in its desired form. Also the fluidity of the drawing of the shape must affect its appearance.
When the author draws an "o" shape or an "a" shape or an "8" shape we can say that those are the same as these well-known shapes, which have implications for the point of origin of Voynichese symbols i.e. latin style letters and arabic numerals. I think one can extend this association to the "4" in the gallows characters with its further implications for the influence on the script. Furthermore it is the case that this style of symbols is very consistent with the kind of symbols that we see in diplomatic cipher symbols, but I think it is probably much less consistent with the scripts that we see in many natural languages.
When the author draws an "o" shape or an "a" shape or an "8" shape we can say that those are the same as these well-known shapes, which have implications for the point of origin of Voynichese symbols i.e. latin style letters and arabic numerals. I think one can extend this association to the "4" in the gallows characters with its further implications for the influence on the script. Furthermore it is the case that this style of symbols is very consistent with the kind of symbols that we see in diplomatic cipher symbols, but I think it is probably much less consistent with the scripts that we see in many natural languages.