I'd like to add to this topic by making a suggestion:
In the Middle Ages Europe was full of dialects.
Some of these, particularly in mountainous regions such as the Alps, could be limited to a valley or even a village.
Some dialects were linked to professions: most notoriously, mining dialects emerged as pidgins so that miners who came from various areas could communicate with one another.
Considering the limited cryptographic tools available at the time the Voynich was manufactured, writing based on a little-known pidgin or dialect could add another layer of complexity to a text: Even if you had the right deciphering system, you might not find a plaintext that made any sense unless you understood the plaintext dialect.
I find the term "Latin European" misleading for our purposes. Sure, Latin was the teaching language in universities, but not in abacus schools, nor was it the standard language for many professions, nor is it systematically used in all manuscripts. I think the term reflects a rather reductionist view of the medieval European linguistic landscape. There were literally hundreds of dialects and pidgins spoken in Europe at the time of the Voynich's creation, and in the centuries prior to it. There were valleys where Latin was seen as the language of the oppressor, and people proudly clung to their unique linguistic heritage then, as they still do today.
Perhaps I should have posted this elsewhere, but I think it might be good to try and come up with a list of the various dialects and pidgins which were in use in Europe at the time the Voynich was made. I'm sure this would be a rather long list, and I'm also sure that there's no way it could be exhaustive... but I think it may be useful to try and paint a picture of this linguistic diversity.
How will we ever know we've got the right decryption system if we're not able to recognize the plaintext language?
In the Middle Ages Europe was full of dialects.
Some of these, particularly in mountainous regions such as the Alps, could be limited to a valley or even a village.
Some dialects were linked to professions: most notoriously, mining dialects emerged as pidgins so that miners who came from various areas could communicate with one another.
Considering the limited cryptographic tools available at the time the Voynich was manufactured, writing based on a little-known pidgin or dialect could add another layer of complexity to a text: Even if you had the right deciphering system, you might not find a plaintext that made any sense unless you understood the plaintext dialect.
I find the term "Latin European" misleading for our purposes. Sure, Latin was the teaching language in universities, but not in abacus schools, nor was it the standard language for many professions, nor is it systematically used in all manuscripts. I think the term reflects a rather reductionist view of the medieval European linguistic landscape. There were literally hundreds of dialects and pidgins spoken in Europe at the time of the Voynich's creation, and in the centuries prior to it. There were valleys where Latin was seen as the language of the oppressor, and people proudly clung to their unique linguistic heritage then, as they still do today.
Perhaps I should have posted this elsewhere, but I think it might be good to try and come up with a list of the various dialects and pidgins which were in use in Europe at the time the Voynich was made. I'm sure this would be a rather long list, and I'm also sure that there's no way it could be exhaustive... but I think it may be useful to try and paint a picture of this linguistic diversity.
How will we ever know we've got the right decryption system if we're not able to recognize the plaintext language?