Yes, the scarcity of reference material is a challenge, but luckily this is the type of challenge I like.
There are traces of such languages and we can try to track them down. Some of the dialects survive to this day, although obviously languages evolve. For others, we can find fragments of them if we look hard enough. They may give us inspiration regarding some properties of Voynichese...
Here is an example about the miners pidgin spoken from the 13thC in the Trentino area (from "The First German Mining Laws and the Archaeological Evidence", by Gerd Weisgerber, see PDF online):
“German miners with the leading skill and ability on the continent went to Trent and brought with them their sense of justice with the principles of law and their technical knowledge…
They are German words with the addition of Latin grammatical endings… a fact which sometimes makes them very difficult to understand… (emphasis mine)
Werchi = gewerke (shareholder)
Silbrarii = silbererzbergmann (silverminer)
Wassar = wascher (ore washer)
Smellzer = schmelzer (smelter)
Kenner = kenner (expert)
Gestaldio = verwalter (administrator, steward)
Xencator = senker, schachtabeufer (man sinking a shaft)
Dorslagus = durschlag (cross cut)
Xurfus = schurf (cut, trench)
Carregi or Carowego = karrenweg, forderstrecke (main drift for cart)
Sega = sage (saw)
Arcentaria = erzbergwerk (metal mine)
Xafetum = Schacht (shaft)
Rota = rad, pochwerk (grinding mill with water wheel)"
(Sorry about the font size weirdness in this post, I've been copying and pasting and it seems the message editor won't homogenize it no matter how I try).
There are traces of such languages and we can try to track them down. Some of the dialects survive to this day, although obviously languages evolve. For others, we can find fragments of them if we look hard enough. They may give us inspiration regarding some properties of Voynichese...
Here is an example about the miners pidgin spoken from the 13thC in the Trentino area (from "The First German Mining Laws and the Archaeological Evidence", by Gerd Weisgerber, see PDF online):
“German miners with the leading skill and ability on the continent went to Trent and brought with them their sense of justice with the principles of law and their technical knowledge…
They are German words with the addition of Latin grammatical endings… a fact which sometimes makes them very difficult to understand… (emphasis mine)
Werchi = gewerke (shareholder)
Silbrarii = silbererzbergmann (silverminer)
Wassar = wascher (ore washer)
Smellzer = schmelzer (smelter)
Kenner = kenner (expert)
Gestaldio = verwalter (administrator, steward)
Xencator = senker, schachtabeufer (man sinking a shaft)
Dorslagus = durschlag (cross cut)
Xurfus = schurf (cut, trench)
Carregi or Carowego = karrenweg, forderstrecke (main drift for cart)
Sega = sage (saw)
Arcentaria = erzbergwerk (metal mine)
Xafetum = Schacht (shaft)
Rota = rad, pochwerk (grinding mill with water wheel)"
(Sorry about the font size weirdness in this post, I've been copying and pasting and it seems the message editor won't homogenize it no matter how I try).