19-04-2016, 05:55 AM
Saying that some of the signs strongly appear to be derived from symbols used in abbreviations (or are in fact copies of such symbols), is not saying that they also have this meaning. I also don't believe that JKP or Helmut were saying this.
Even when the 9 appears primarily in the locations where it would be used as an abbreviation, this does not imply that it should be read as con- at the start or -us at the end.
I would even argue that it is quite unlikely. The 9 is a frequent symbol. It appears far more frequently than plain text 'us' would be expected to appear. In fact, it appears roughly at the end of every 3rd word type.
Alternatively, if one does expand 9 as 'us', the resulting text will turn out more like incantations, or 'speaking in tongues' than a meaningful plain text. Many proposed translations in fact do appear like that.
The same argument could be expressed in terms of entropy. The second order entropy would be further reduced when translating Voynichese 9 to plain text 'us', which is the opposite of what one would like to achieve.
Word-final -89 (Eva -dy) is still very high frequency, and its plain text equivalent would also be something high-frequency. For that reason it could represent a single character or single sound, rather than a pair.
Even when the 9 appears primarily in the locations where it would be used as an abbreviation, this does not imply that it should be read as con- at the start or -us at the end.
I would even argue that it is quite unlikely. The 9 is a frequent symbol. It appears far more frequently than plain text 'us' would be expected to appear. In fact, it appears roughly at the end of every 3rd word type.
Alternatively, if one does expand 9 as 'us', the resulting text will turn out more like incantations, or 'speaking in tongues' than a meaningful plain text. Many proposed translations in fact do appear like that.
The same argument could be expressed in terms of entropy. The second order entropy would be further reduced when translating Voynichese 9 to plain text 'us', which is the opposite of what one would like to achieve.
Word-final -89 (Eva -dy) is still very high frequency, and its plain text equivalent would also be something high-frequency. For that reason it could represent a single character or single sound, rather than a pair.