Mark, I'm not even sure what you mean by arbitrary.
Voynichese is almost the opposite of arbitrary. Besides the regularity of the curve/line shapes, and the regularity of the positions of the glyphs (and their neighboring glyphs), there is also this...
The symbol y is a very common abbreviation symbol in languages that use Latin characters and is usually at the end of words, sometimes at the beginning of words, and rarely in the middle of words. It also sometimes stands alone (depending on the language).
In the VMS, the y symbol is usually at the end of tokens, sometimes at the beginning of tokens, and rarely in the middle of tokens. It also sometmes stands alone.
Okay, maybe one glyph can be similar to Latin shape and position by accident... but the same thing happens with the m and g glyphs...
The symbols m and g are common abbreviation symbols (ris and cis) in Latin languages and they are usually at the ends of words or the ends of paragraphs (it does double duty as an end-paragraph marker in some languages). They are rarely in other positions.
In the VMS the glyphs m and g are usually at the ends of words or at the ends of lines. They are rarely in other positions.
It would be VERY hard to explain this many similarities on the basis of coincidence and these patterns are definitely not arbitrary or accidental, they are consistent throughout the manuscript.
Voynichese is almost the opposite of arbitrary. Besides the regularity of the curve/line shapes, and the regularity of the positions of the glyphs (and their neighboring glyphs), there is also this...
The symbol y is a very common abbreviation symbol in languages that use Latin characters and is usually at the end of words, sometimes at the beginning of words, and rarely in the middle of words. It also sometimes stands alone (depending on the language).
In the VMS, the y symbol is usually at the end of tokens, sometimes at the beginning of tokens, and rarely in the middle of tokens. It also sometmes stands alone.
Okay, maybe one glyph can be similar to Latin shape and position by accident... but the same thing happens with the m and g glyphs...
The symbols m and g are common abbreviation symbols (ris and cis) in Latin languages and they are usually at the ends of words or the ends of paragraphs (it does double duty as an end-paragraph marker in some languages). They are rarely in other positions.
In the VMS the glyphs m and g are usually at the ends of words or at the ends of lines. They are rarely in other positions.
It would be VERY hard to explain this many similarities on the basis of coincidence and these patterns are definitely not arbitrary or accidental, they are consistent throughout the manuscript.
![[+]](https://www.voynich.ninja/images/collapse_collapsed.png)