Are perfect-reduplication and quasi-reduplication related?

[ReneZ]

Do you consider abbreviations something entirely different from spelling variants?

I had not thought about abbreviations, so that is a good point.

Let's think of the Voynich MS text as a 'derivation' of a source text. This could be an encryption or some other modification that would not normally be classified as a cipher.

Some properties of the Voynich MS could be considered a consequence of spelling variations in the source text. My point was that some languages in the 15th century had more spelling variations than others. Now if the source text was in an already written (older) document, this could, in addition, include abbreviations.

However, if the text was original to the MS, it seems unlikely (to me) that it was first written down with abbreviations and then 'encrypted'.

Many 'if's already, none of which we can be sure of, but it seems a good idea to keep all of it in mind.