Transliteration and interpretation issues

[MarcoP]

The Voynichese c-shape was changed to "e" instead of "c"? Plaintext e has the same "value" as a transliteration character as plaintext c, so I assume the change was for mnemonic reasons? For ease of typing? Because the shape was easier for humans to remember?

.
Unfortunately this hinders research.

In my opinion, research makes progress when:

• skilled people work on the subject;
  
• they share their results.
  

EVA is neutral for the first point and very effective for the second.

EVA obviously is not a problem for skilled researchers. They understand what it is; then they use it properly (e.g. Timm and Schinner) or go for another option (e.g. Lisa Fagin Davis).

On the other hand, the existence of a standard makes it easy to share results. In particular, the fact that EVA is pronounceable and easy to learn (because Voynich characters are mapped into similar Latin characters) makes it accessible not only to skilled people but to everyone, including myself, who could never memorize any other transliteration system (I must continually refer to a table when reading, say, something in Currier's system). EVA makes it possible to reach as wide an audience as possible. This forum is itself evidence of how nicely things can work in that respect.

If someone who is not committed enough or smart enough to understand EVA makes a wrong assumption, this really has no impact on the advancement of the field. The fact that unskilled people cannot contribute is totally unavoidable.