sh_ and ch_ compose the same words

[Torsten]

Probably unsurprisingly, I too have an interest in the question of ch vs sh: but at the same time I have a deep mistrust of low-level interpretations that first require Voynichese 'words' to be literally words (i.e. that they must necessarily follow an explicitly language-like grammar) - this seems to me to be something we should be testing rather than assuming.

Indeed, "they're not words!" (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). 'word' is just a term to describe tokens separated by spaces (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., p. 2).

What isn't so well known (I think) is that chd and shd are vastly more common in B pages:

• chd B = chd A x 20.74
  
• shd B = shd A x 23.14
  

Thanks for pointing out another example. To be precise 'chd' and 'shd' are more common in Herbal B (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). 

The most frequently used 'word' type containing a sequence 'chd' is <chdy>. It will probably not surprise you that the two most frequently used word types using a 'ch'-glyph in Herbal B are <chedy> and <chdy> and that the two most frequently used 'word' types in Herbal B which contain a 'sh'-glyph are <shedy> and <shdy>. For <chedy>/<chdy> as well as for <shedy>/<shdy> a positive correlation coefficient is computed. Therefore <chedy>/<chdy>/<shedy>/<shdy> also form a network of related 'words'. 

Pearson's Correlation(chedy[501],shedy[426]): +0.84 (n=225,p=5E-60)
Pearson's Correlation(chdy[150], shdy[46])  : +0.44 (n=225,p=7E-12)
Pearson's Correlation(chedy[501],chdy[344]) : +0.47 (n=225,p=7E-14)
Pearson's Correlation(shedy[426],shdy[46])  : +0.41 (n=225,p=2E-10)

                chdy  shdy  chedy  shedy word count
               ----- ----- ------ ------ ----------
Herbal     (A)     7     2      1      0      8,087
Pharma     (A)     1            1      1      2,529
Astro              1     2      4      0      2,136
Cosmo             17     4     24     17      2,691
Herbal     (B)    53    16     62     35      3,233
Stars      (B)    40    12    190    113     10,673
Biological (B)    23     7    210    247      6,911

This example further confirms the general principle: The chance for a 'sh'-word to occur on a page increases as more often related 'ch'- and 'sh'-words appear on that page.

PS: it's also not widely mentioned that shch and chsh are equally abhorred in both A and B (shch A = 6, chsh A = 4, shch B = 6, chsh B = 5), a strongly consistent behaviour

See my previous post You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. about this topic.