frequent Voynich vords in Slavic VCI and West Slavic languages

[geoffreycaveney]

The diacritical marks in Czech were first introduced in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., published between 1406 and 1412 and traditionally attributed to Jan Hus. In this orthography, "Diacritics replaced digraphs almost completely." (Wikipedia has a brief summary of the history of Czech orthography You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..)

Not that the VM text needs any more unfounded speculation as to the reasonings behind its development, but could it represent some sort of parallel attempt at simplifying Czech orthography that did not catch on?  The dates involved are appealing.
Are there other aspects of the book (besides this possible model of the text) that would point to a Czech origin?

The strongest concrete evidence, albeit circumstantial, connecting the VM to Czech is that its presence is first documented in the historical record in Bohemia. Of course it could have come from somewhere else, but the first hypothesis for a place of origin should logically be in or near Bohemia, unless and until we have evidence to the contrary of its location somewhere else at an earlier date. 

As for the connection to the Czech orthographical reform of the same time period, I would rather say, at most, that the VM could have been inspired by the same general social atmosphere in the region that inspired the tumultuous period of Jan Hus's life and the aftermath of his execution in Bohemia in the early 15th century. The Hussite Wars were one of the greatest and most significant social upheavals in all of late medieval Europe. The new orthography was related to demands for ecclesiastical reform and greater popular access to religious and other literature written in the spoken vernacular language of the people rather than in Latin. This went hand in hand with demands for reforms reducing the power of the church hierarchy and the clergy. 

It seems historically plausible that a Sorbian speaker in Lusatia, for example, could well have been inspired by the social upheaval in Bohemia as well as by the popularization of literature written in the Czech vernacular. 

Naturally this all remains speculation unless and until we can decipher the text in a convincing manner.