Calgary engineer believes he's cracked the mysterious Voynich Manuscript

[Ahmet Ardıç]

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As I tried to explain before, I have some difficulties in translating from Old Turkish to modern English. First of all, English is not my native language. And, we could not identify that old dialect yet. Therefore, I have to either translate the meaning into English, or talk about them by translating 1/1 words. 

When I only translate the meaning a sentence, someone who does not speak Turkish may not be able to reconcile them with what the VMS author wrote. When I translate 1/1 (word by word), the sentences may not look like a complete sentence. In other words, they look like unreasonably lined words.

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In situations like this, it is a good idea to do it both ways...

Create three columns. One is the original VMS passage, the next is the literal translation, the third is the common way of saying it.

Many Bible and Qur'an concordances are designed this way. The literal translation allows a person to see exactly which words were transliterated while the third column provides a more understandable meaning.

This is also the most honest way of doing it because there are no "invisible" steps between the original text and the common interpretation. It makes the methodology more clear, which is always appreciated by those following a scientific method.


Many Voynich researchers know more than one language, so we understand how grammar can be different in another language and how some things are understood by culture. Anyone who has learned a far eastern language (e.g., Japanese or Chinese) understands that text can be very nuanced and local people know how to read meaning into sentences that seem incomplete to someone from outside the culture.

Thank you for your suggestion. Yes, you are right, it may be more useful to explain that translations in under three separate sections, as you have shown.

I work on several manuscripts and ancient texts at the same time, and I don't use all my free time to read VMS. Because I cannot focus on the same subject for a long time. 

I am currently on vacation in the Mediterranean Turkey (in Datça), so I have some free time to share some findings from our study on this (voynich ninja) platform during my vacation. 

I don't know the details of Turkish as like as most linguist. In addition to this, If I try to explain some topic with in 10 sentences that probably more linguist will explain same subject more clearly in 3 sentences. Moreover, linguists can provide more and more detailed examples in the future. So these are actually not my work.

Normally, it is necessary to conduct such research with a large team that includes more people and experts from different fields. For example, botanists must be involved, ... etc. If this happens, the entire VMS can be translated in about 2 or 3 years. But the problem is essentially that people & linguists in Turkey and in other Turkish-speaking countries generally are not aware about existence of VMS.

After all, We are at the beginning of these translation works and the process are moving slowly may be but all developments in all area in VMS are progressing positively. We, as a family team, trying to do our best and none of us are linguists. However, what makes a person knowledgeable is not diplomas he/she has but the knowledge he/she accumulated for sure. 

I noted your suggestions. Thank you.

Ahmet