Old Polish (geoffreycaveney's theory)

[geoffreycaveney]

Geoffrey, it's not your ease of switching from one language to another that scares me, since I do it too, nor your transformations of the text without a valid basis, but rather your haste in interpreting your findings. Can you tell us which dictionary you used for this translation?

Summary remarks made in passing are not a valid substitute for an actual detailed critique of my analysis. It is ironic that you claim that my "transformations of the text" are "without a valid basis", without providing a valid basis of your own for this claim. I will be happy to dig into a discussion of these details, but only if my critics are also willing to participate in the discussion without simply making sweeping criticisms and then refusing to respond when I answer those criticisms with detailed explanations. I will be happy to debate every single word of my interpretation. But others who wish to engage in such a debate must be willing to study the details of the Old Polish spelling practices that I included in my first post in this thread. 

Regarding my "switching from one language to another", within the context of my "West Slavic VCI" theory of reading and interpreting the script and the text, in the context of the medieval forms of the languages, switching from Czech to Sorbian to Polish to Silesian is actually a rather small adjustment. It is worth keeping in mind that a common Slavic language was spoken as late as the mid-1st millennium A.D., and it is possible that mutual intelligibility between all Slavic dialects still existed until as late as the 10th century A.D. When one considers further that we are dealing with rather closely related West Slavic languages, the connections are even more natural -- it is not like I am switching from Belarusian to Macedonian, for example. 

"Haste" is a relative term. I would argue on the contrary that the relative efficiency with which I have been able to interpret these lines according to my Slavic VCI theory is a point in its favor, rather than evidence of a flaw in my methods. If it took months to interpret every line or paragraph, that could be seen as a problematic issue with the clarity of the system of interpretation, with the ambiguity and difficulty of reading and interpreting the script possibly reaching an excessive level. 

The Voynich Ninja is an online discussion forum, not a peer-reviewed academic journal. I have published linguistics and mathematics papers in peer-reviewed academic journals, and I understand the process. I do not act in haste with respect to such a process. Sharing my thoughts and analysis in an online discussion forum such as this one is a natural preliminary step in the development and testing of a theory. I would like to point out for the record that I have not yet published a single thing about the analysis and interpretation of the Voynich manuscript text in a formal manner. To date I have always stopped short of such a step, because my hypotheses have not reached the stage where I felt that such publication was justified. It remains to be seen whether my current theory, analysis, and interpretation will reach that stage. 

You ask about which dictionary I used for this translation. I used several sources, and I will discuss them and provide citations so that you and other interested readers and critics may consult all sources for yourselves. But first of all, I do not engage in the reading and interpretation of a Slavic text needing a dictionary to understand everything. I studied Slavic linguistics at the university level, including extensive study of Russian as well as formal study of Old Church Slavonic and Ukrainian. Also, the type of bawdy language found in my interpretation of this particular paragraph is better learned from visiting and living in Slavic-speaking places and making acquaintances there, as I have. The dictionaries are useful merely to confirm one's understanding and interpretation of particular words and forms, not as the entire basis of the interpretation nor as a substitute for one's own judgment. 

Here is a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Be warned: the pdf file for each individual volume is almost an entire gigabyte of data in size! So the entire work constitutes about 10 gigabytes worth of data. However, the usefulness of this dictionary is admittedly limited for the type of language I am interpreting here, as most extant Old Polish texts are religious in nature. 

The English-language Wiktionary entries for Polish words are acceptable for basic checking of standard Polish words and forms, but far better and more comprehensive are the Polish-language Wiktionary entries for Polish, Old Polish, and Silesian and other dialectal words and forms. The You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is the 8th largest among all languages in total number of entries, with over 826 000 entries, including You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. (The only larger Wiktionaries are English, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Malagasy.) A large number of Polish words and forms found there can be checked and confirmed with additional details in the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. A link to over 1300 Cieszyn Silesian dialectal words and forms can be found You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. A link to over 1500 Upper Silesian dialectal words and forms can be found You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. 

I hope these links and sources will at least give you and other interested readers a good start in researching and investigating my interpretations on your own, if you so desire. 

Geoffrey